The colours and saturation are all wonderful Donald. The sense of movement in the first is great!! Is that a small flaw on her eye a white dot as its a little distracting..

Regarde beau moi mon bravo d'ami

Hmm I like the overall effect and yeah Grain/Noise can produce some nice artzy images.. Composition wise it looks good esp the hair.. I would if it were me show a bit more of the right shoulder perhaps to the point of the downstrap of the dress.. Danny

Hi yeah sorry to hear about that but you can get great results from many of the prosumer digitals made by Fuji Nikon or Canon with around 4 mega pix resolution.. I would get the best you can afford as it will prove to be a sound investment for example you will save any future film and development costs so take that into consideration along with the ability to print out to at least A4 on most modern Printers that could cost 20 at a lab.. Second hand digitals are also worth looking into as us Photography nuts upgrade!! Danny

Oh colour for sure George who?

I agree Donald most of the new ones also have the benefit of video tutorials and Photoshop techniques they seem to be improving all the time.. Mind you I love the old ones too like Amateur Photographer which I have subscribed to for 20 years Danny

Absolutely right Francesc its a beauty!!

Oh sounds good yeah we have some fantastic mags here in the UK as Donald says so great to see them appear in the States

More important things in Life Brenda! Thank God you are safe if a little shaken by it all.. Hugz

I have to agree with Raven on this with regard to ISO 100 and yes there is a lot of merit it the use of noise (grain) to add atmosphere etc to an image but needless to say not much use if you want Sharp results.. Other points to consider is not to save and resave Jpegs or else that will further degrade your images.. Certainly getting a better camera will improve matters but again dont expect wonderful results if you push the ISO too far even with those beauties..

Oh I agree it certainly can be effective and is great fun as well.. As to the question of proof it is down to the honesty of the submitter I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? These days with such powerful programmes such as Photoshop it is getting impossible to be able to tell.. Recent improvements in Version 8 also seem able to correct even poorly taken Photographs correcting many mistakes So perhaps it is not even possible to know if even great looking shots started out that way.... For me its the extra things like Composition etc that sets them apart from the mundane.. Forgive my Bias regarding Camera Clubs I am sure they are great placs to be these days.. My own experiences were not very positive a few years ago.. I would think they would need to draw up some clear rules for entry to competitions..

Haha well thank God for Digital such experiences made me glad to see the day dawn where I do not injure or poison myself lol!! Despite the wonderous feeling of seeing my first image come out been hooked ever since!! Mind you I THINK THAT DARKROOM WORK IS AN ARCANE ART The talented people here are real wizards!!

This is an old Chestnut and I tend to first and foremost to keep away from Camera Clubs as it has been my experience to find them full of wise people who would not recognise a decent picture if it fell of a Gallery wall on thier head!!!... They protest "Oh but you used Photoshop to do this" ... and yet are perfectly happy to manipulate things in the Darkroom. And dont like the fact we dont need to mess around with chemicals anymore.. And that we can actually take a decent image with a Digital Camera!! As far as it goes I am a Purist at heart and think if it is possible in camera fair enough.. Also the use of filters etc is fine if it removes imperfections or enhances an image in a natural way... If you want to do more artlike images post in Mixed Medium.. Photography IMHO is an Art and dont see a clear distinction? Are you saying if its a Photograph it is not artistic?

Chelle I could not have put it better.. I saw Davids last image and agree with you.. Also I am sure many of us have been through what you describe at times when we lose something we love and cry out there cant be a god!! We cannot gain anything from cutting off our nose to spite our faces!! Life is short and surely one of the pleasures of our hobby or for some more seriously profession, is that it can spread a little happiness around be it a Summer flower or place we spent a wonderful time in.. We share these simple pleasures with each other and fraternal friendships are forged.. I hope we will see him back again... My advice is to get yourself another Cat to give your love to... I am reminded also how Angelheart having lost a Husband and Son can manage to post her images..Makes me realize how lucky I am, and what a special place we have here and much of this is down to you... Thankyou Hugz xxx

What a shame he was a very talented man he will be missed. :-(