Very beautiful; I love the colours in the second one. Nice composition too. Unless you're using one of those hyper-expensive pro bodies/lenses, you're very courageous to take a camera out so close to all that sand and dust.

You're right, that's one loooooong finger ! I always wondered why them girls keep staring ... It's no photoshop I'm afraid. Maybe it's all that piano and cello i've been playing over the last 20 years... "No hair can grow on what one constantly uses..." (my motto) Also great when you want to use that "bounce flash" ;-)

OK... I'll try to find something decent

I never leave home without a polarizer. The UV filter only serves as a protection for the lens of my cam. For the rest, I try to work as much as possible with postprocessing unfiltered photos in photoshop (when it comes to correcting, "warming up" or "cooling down" colors). I've experimented recently with a technique called "digital blending" to overcome limitations in dynamic range of my digicam (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml). And the first results are very promising. That's my substitute for a split ND filter. I don't like the "special effect" filters either, but that's merely a matter of personal taste.

... that's not a sword... you're just happpy to see us ! :-)

Don't worry about it, Michelle. Personally, I'd prefer to have the challenge in the forum. I used to hang out on the Rhino forum a lot before "discovering" this great group of people. And I must say, the Rhino challenges are the very best on the whole of r'osity, mainly because every challenge is a 100% learning experience. Maybe we could do something similar. Anyway, I want you to know that I really appreciate your efforts (Star, that goes for you too) in keeping this community together. So please, don't let the bullshit get to you...

Rork, Absolutely stunning image. Thanks ! What's all this about "bad weather" ? Don't you all feel that winter is slowly coming to an end ?

I just stick with a large number of CF-cards. Not larger than 256 Mb and switching cards regularly. That way, if something goes wrong, the damage is limited. In some cities (eg Gent, Belgium where I live), you can find stores where they'll be happy to burn your photos on a CD-ROM. If you have the luxury of taking a notebook PC with a CD-burner, then I'd certainly go for that. Internet transfers,... hmmmm ... unless you get a really fast transfer speed, you're going to have to wait a long time (and pay a lot) for several hundreds of Mb to upload. Digital wallets are expensive : last time I saw one it costed about 700 USD (in the US that should amount to 400 - 500 USD; yes, VAT is killing us) for a mere 4 Gb. (you could buy a lot of CF memory for that amount of money) Option #4 would be a real dream ... but dreams, alas....

I'm with you, Jordy... Never thought... Maybe I'll have to find a couple of "photos" to post instead of "opinions"... How's that for a change ?

uh, oh maybe what i'm going to say may offend some "photographers", but frankly my dears.... Photography is a craft, not an "art" in itself. It's a technique used for artistic expression, just as "painting", "sculpting", etc... are crafts. I couldn't give a damn if someone calls my work "photographs" or "mixed media" or even "digital imagery": with my digicam + photoshop I feel that i'm able to express myself artistically. Of course, I want to improve the technical quality of my work and that's the reason why I spend quite some time on the internet and buy quite a lot of books on the subject of photography and digital darkroom. But it's not the "essence" of what i call "art". Maybe it would be a great thing if some of those "pretentious whiners" should exchange their expensive camera-equipment for a cheap plastic snapshooter, rid themselves from complicated technical concepts for a while and really start "photographing" for a change... Maybe their work would acquire some genuine creativity instead of the often sterile technical perfection they are constantly trying to achieve. there, i just had to get that off my chest... Hope my 2eurocents worth answered your question.

Absolute best book for PS7 : Photoshop Bible "professional edition" : doesn't waste your time with endless explanations about the "interface" AND it's printed in full color on glossy paper !!! (how can you explain about color and resolution in books that are printed in B/W on cheap paper ?) It's a bit more expensive than the classic PS7 Bible, but worth every cent.

Just say (write) what you think. I've done it lots of times on PhotoSig and nearly every critique I wrote (some of those were NOT flattering, while still remaining constructive) got positive marks ("helpful"). Sometimes I even get mail from the photographer in question telling me that the photo he/she posted was a test to see "if he/she could get away with" some extensive photoshop postprocess work. Personally, I prefer an honest opinion (even when it's not flattering) to the usual "great; excellent... now review my photo's". I'm not in it for the "points" (couldn't care less), but for the "fun" of it. Just my 2 c worth.

Hmmmm... Mostly "places" (landscapes & architecture) and the odd portrait (nothing fancy though; no studio work). Guess I'm very fortunate to being able to travel a lot through Europe and I firmly believe that "holiday" or "tourism" photo's can be something more than mere "snapshots". I'm still training my eye for that "perfect" framing, razor sharp focus and "just right" exposure and enjoying every bit of the learning curve.