helenjenkins

<p>As someone who lost their baby before photos were viable (at 13 weeks) then I think this service is to be applauded. Yes, in an ideal world, hospitals who make that much money should provide it free of charge, but if that's not going to happen, so why should people who do it out of the goodness of their hearts be criticised? Well done Michael and from all Mothers everywhere who've had the same situation, thank you.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the suggestions - there's some interesting sounding things there. Sounds like my husband's going to be getting a big wish list of books for my birthday as well!</p>

 

<p>Hi</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions. Peter - you're absolutely right, it's like saying I want books about history! I'm not so interested in the lighting / more technical side, (although I ought to know more about it). </p>

<p>I'm particularly interested in landscape photography and animals and birds (nature in general, really) as well. I also would love to be better at portraits, so anything that can help with that I'd be interested in knowing about.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

<p>We've just been told that as a thank you for last year (which was rather hard work!) my company is giving everyone £100 ($150-ish) in Amazon vouchers. I would like to spend some of it on photography books, but there's such a wide choice out there, some recommendations of other peoples' favourites would be very welcome.</p>

<p>If you could tell me why you like what you recommend as well, that would be really helpful. Thanks.</p>

<p>My Mum with her annual struggle with the paper hat. Excellent Christmas as due to weather, bad roads and a very ill Gran with Dementia, we didn't know if they would get here until 1pm on Christmas Eve. All finally came together and we've managed to give them a good break from looking after Gran. </p>

<p>Happy Christmas everyone, hope you all had a wonderful time.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks Guys, much appreciate the suggestions. </p>

<p>I don't know if anyone has experience of this, but I'm looking for a company that does photobooks with text. When my Mum and Dad moved recently, she found an essay my Dad had had to write for my Brother's English class. He hadn't seen it for 26 years and is really proud of it (justifiably - it's a great read!)</p>

<p>For his Christmas present, I want to turn it into a book with some pictures of when we were babies and growing up, but I don't know of a company that has pages with formattable text. It's not very long so I want to be able to spread it out through the book. The book will also need to be a quite small format as the pictures are getting rather old now and they won't reproduce in a large format.</p>

<p>If anyone can recommend somewhere that does this, I'd be really grateful. Thanks.</p>

<p>This is not a whinge about the level of ratings I've been getting, it's a whinge about the complete lack of ratings... I don't post every day, or even every week, because I generally don't have time to to take photos every week, but whatever photos i have posted have usually had at least one rating, usually a lot more. Out of the last 8 photos I have posted, only 3 have had any rating at all. Has anyone else noticed this? Am I doing something wrong? I don't think the last lot of photos I have posted have been any worse than usual - I would go so far as to say that a couple of them I'm very proud of. </p>

<p>Any ideas what I can do to change this?</p>

<p>Oops can do cats, can't do computers... - here's Ellie doing what she does best.</p><div></div>

<p><img src="../photo/7674176" alt="" /><br>

This is my Ellie. Means the world to me and my husband. She was a stray who turned up in my parents' greenhouse. My parents can't keep her (Irish setter and Gran with Alzheimer's being about as much as they can cope with!) so we took her. This was about 2 months after we found out we can't have kids, so she gets a whole lot of attention! Doesn't seem to mind, though... Just read the other thread Josh - I know how much pets mean so I wish you every success with Griffen's surgery.</p>

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<p>Hi Guys</p>

<p>Thanks again for the invaluable advice. It's definitely come down to the SX10 or the Olympus, but am wavering greatly between the 2. At least it's a couple of weeks before I'll actually be able to buy it, so plenty of time for dithering yet...</p>

<p>Can't get Dan his pipe and slippers just yet - he's still got to work! I am making his favourite chilli for tonight when he gets back, though...</p>

<p>Great shot John, by the way!</p>

<p>Cheers Helen</p>

<p>And again... Thanks to everyone for their input - it's much appreciated. A lot of thinking is forecast over the next few days!</p>

<p>Thanks Guys. Much appreciated. Will be researching over the weekend, I can tell!</p>

<p>I'm a very lucky person - my lovely husband has just done some freelance work and told me last night that he wants to upgrade my camera for me with the fees he'll receive. I now have a bit of a dilemma and I was hoping for your thoughts which may help me make the final decision.</p>

<p>I have about £500 ($800 - but please bear in mind electronics are more expensive in England) to spend. My initial inclination was to upgrade the Canon I have now to an SX1 IS (or something along those lines). Or would I be better getting an entry level DSLR? My personal feeling about that is that I wouldn't then have the money to get any more lenses for a fair while (as lovely as Dan is he doesn't get gigs like this that often!) so I would just have the kit lens - and this is what puts me off.</p>

<p>Any thoughts welcome - I genuinely don't know the right way to go and I would appreciate advice from people who have more experience in these matters.</p>

<p>Thanks Helen</p>

<p>Hi N1<br>

You're absolutely right about the use being the issue, but most musicians are wary of someone they don't know - as long as they have been told / asked beforehand they are generally very accommodating. I think as far as they are concerned, most people would be wary of taking pictures in a concert hall and to them it actually isn't any different.</p>

<p>It doesn't surprise me that musicians in the US are different to musicians over here - music is one of the last unionised professions and they can get very militant about things that most people would scratch their head over - even me and I'm married to one!</p>

<p>Lastly, if I gave you the impression that I think you did anything truly wrong, I apologise. I certainly didn't mean that, I suppose I've been indoctrinated over the years and am now more wary than may be necessary. I agree if it hadn't been made clear then you should have expected better treatment - I think you found a jobsworth!</p>

<p>Helen</p>

<p>I think I can speak from the performers' point of view. The OP stated that it was the Orchestra Management which had originally asked him to stop. This will have come from the musicians, I can almost guarantee it. My husband is a professional musician and they have very strict Union rules about what they should be paid for, copyright, re-use, distribution etc. One of the most stringent rules is that no pictures can be taken of them without permission or a fee. Most orchestras will gladly let anyone photograph them if it is purely for personal use, but you have to ask. Too often, they have been told that a video is for personal use only and won't be distributed, only to find it on a website somewhere. Most orchestras in the UK will stop a rehearsal (and presumably a performance although I've never heard of that happening) if they notice some filming going on that they haven't been told about.</p>

<p>The musicians have every right not to be photographed if they don't want to - it's not their fault they're working in a public place. As far as they're concerned, it's their place of work and unless the contract they had specifically states that photographs will be taken with the appropriate payment to them then they will object.</p>

<p>I would suggest to the OP that if he wants to do this again, he should contact the orchestra office in advance and see what they say.</p>

<p>All this is, of course, only relevant to the UK, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's the same in the US. And yes, British orchestras are as stroppy as they sound for the most part...</p>

<p>This is only a half-formed thought, so please bear with me - but couldn't there be some kind of beginners' critique only forum? I love photography and one of the reasons I joined this site was to learn and I am, but I find the standard really quite intimidating. I therefore feel quite shy about approaching people - I don't know who would be interested and I'm too wary of wasting people's time. I would love a place where I could post a photo I wanted advice about and would stand a reasonable chance of getting some meaningful comments - I don't mean praise, I mean good solid advice on how it could be better. I get the distinct impression (although I could be wrong) that there a lot of experienced members out there who genuinely want to pass on their knowledge, but get put off by the response they get when they try and as a consequence (and from some of the posts I've seen recently about this sort of behaviour I really don't blame them) they don't want to bother any more.</p>

<p>I'm not sure how it could work (told you it was half-formed!) but I think it would definitely have to be a place where nobody could actually gain any kudos by participating - purely for education. No rating, no counting towards any particular trophy. I think it would probably take too much moderating, but I would love somewhere like that.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. Being a stubborn old thing, I have every intention of carrying on with what I'm doing - I'm with Gordon and Fred in that this is a hobby for me, will never be anything else and the main object for me is to enjoy myself. If I can get better with it at the same time, I'm certainly not going to complain.</p>

<p>I have to disagree with you, Alberta, it actually isn't anything to do with the ratings system (from my own personal point of view) - it's nothing to do with the ratings per se; it's a trend I've noticed over the course of a year in my own personal portfolio. No idea when I posted most of the photos and I'm certainly not too bothered about what ratings I actually get, this was definitely a Saturday Morning "I'm bored and have too much time to think" sort of a question!</p>

<p>I was just having a look through some of my old photos I've uploaded over the last year and I've noticed something about the ratings I've got which has made me stop and think and I wondered if anyone had noticed the same thing. Quite often, photos that I am personally very fond of and think are some of the best I've taken - I think a bit quirky or unusual (for me) - don't get particularly good ratings. Ones which I like, but don't think are particularly good, on the other hand, have got me some of my highest ratings.</p>

<p>This is absolutely not a rant about the ratings system. I am in no way complaining about the ratings I've received - I think my average score is about right and I don't get hung up on individual scores I get. It is merely something I've noticed and wondered if anyone else has too and if it should tell me something - am I being too subjective? Does the fact I like photos that not so many other people do mean I haven't a clue what I'm doing? It's certainly making me go back and look at photos I may not have seen for a while and trying to work out why some get higher ratings than others, which is all to the good. Not come to any conclusions yet, though!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Like Tim, I don't feel in the slightest bit qualified to leave technical critiques as I don't know enough about it. However, the way that I have developed my way of working on photo net is not to do anything anonymously. I decided that if it was going to help me, trawling through photos and leaving anonymous ratings wasn't going to teach me anything. So I go through the critique forum and if a photo provokes a reaction, I'll have a closer look. If I leave a rating, I do it directly and if I have something to say i'll leave a critique. Granted it's usually of the banal type as I'm not confident enough to go into detail, but I'll do it. 99% of the time it doesn't get any response, but that doesn't bother me. It has led to enough response that I'm starting to understand photos more and has led to me finding others I have common interests with. I do believe that this way (although I may well be wrong!) has led to my photos improving - I spend more time with the photos that interest me, so I'm spending more time getting ideas of things I can try. Just my experience - wouldn't work for everyone...</p>

<p>Have another Presidential election?</p>

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Shetland. Could spend weeks sitting on Hermaness Cliffs photographing Puffins. Killer whales would be a bonus. Not good for a tan, though!