I sometimes go back to old bad photos and work the raw file again to see how much better I can do it these days only to find I prefer how I did it the first time round with far less knowledge of what could be done in photoshop

It's also what people were doing for years in the darkroom with chemicals, lights etc. only a lot less messy and for most a lot easier! :) It's also well within the rules of every Natural History competition I've ever entered. In fact a lot of what photoshop does people were doing by one means or an...

Did you fancy opening the December competition any time soon

I would imageine that the longer the lens the more significant the advantage. I've not used a 100mm range macro lens but get the impression it's easier to get handheld shots sharp than with a longer lens, so for those lenses it is subject movement that becomes the bigger issue. For the longer lenses...

If anyone's interested, the following site was mentioned to me a few weeks back as a very good place to upload photos and recieve constructive critiqe by fellow members on your images. http://www.photosig.com/ I have skimmed over the site and it does indeed look like people do generally give good ho...

I also saw one myself on Saturday but having been a mild night, and 13c and sunny in the day where I was, perhaps not so surprising. I was hoping for a Red Admiral but alas no joy. I recall the very mild winter of 2005/6 I think, that I was seeing bumblebees quite regularly in December/January inclu...

Hi Pete. I've also found, having turned on the gallery comments e-mail alerts, that the links in the e-mails don't work. I always get 'image not found' when clicking on them.

It's probably been mentioned before, and it probably doesn't matter to anyone else, but having just found how to turn on the Exif info display in the galleries (and the e-mail to alert of gallery posts!) I notice that the time shown that the shots are taken is 6 hours out. I spotted that some images...

Thanks to the judges for picking my shot as the winner :) A great set of images in all categories, as has been the case all year with the monthly competitions. It's great to see how everyone has improved over the years as everyone pushes each other forwards in these competitions. Thanks to Pete, Gar...

My local nature group reports a Large White spotted on Portsdown, Hants 23rd Nov so that's just stretched those out by another week

Only just stumbled across this. bit late news now but making an image up from the best bits of several images, as it seems from here, is cheating rather. Ok it wasn't for any kind of competition perhaps, but there's not really much I can think of that would be regarded as worse than this in the eyes...

9 Red Admirals today during a walk of 7 miles or so around Thorney Island and Emsworth, Hampshire coast. They're still holding on

FISHiEE, one of the issues I would be concerned about would be the noise with a 7D - you say that you have to work harder on the computer to get rid of it. Do you use NeatImage or something similar to do this, or do you have a technique within Photoshop I wonder? If there is any noise in some of th...

I agree with all that Gruditch says. The 7D is far more suitable for wildlife - the 5D may have better low light capabilities, and it may have more pixels, but you effectively loose reach on your lenses . That 500F4 would be 500mm on the 5D but a whopping 800mm on the 7D and that's a pretty big diff...

OK so long as they are now aware of the rules for the future

Congratulations to Nigel and Antonym who joined me on the podium this month. They were my top two. Nigel's technically the best perhaps, although Antonym's had a little more action and was perhaps a little more tricky to achieve. I tend to vote on the image I am presented with rather than perhaps wh...

I'm sure the camera gives the ability to overdo it just as it does in photoshop

I was just pointing out that an SLR can still do what a compact can if you want it to. You don't HAVE to use RAW and get soft, dull flat images

With a DSLR, you don't get a sharp image straight from the camera, the whole idea is that you sharpen to your desired effect in post processing. Unless you don't shoot in RAW of course, in which case sharpness, contrast etc. are set to the desired effect in camera... although perhaps not as good as...

Oh there's plenty of Silver Studded Blues over this way. One of the big draws for me moving to Hampshire! They are now just 20 minutes from my door and I can go before/after work as well as at weekends. I saw about 3 in Kent and they were about an hours drive from home there! Brown Hairstreaks and P...

Glad you found Temple Ewell ok and got your Adonis Blue

It's really a great site and there's usually clouds of blues when I go. I didn't realise how spoilt I was in Kent for Adonis Blues. Now I'm in Hampshire they're pretty much non-existent here!