austen

Apart from a portrait lens, I only have the kit ones that came with my camera ( which are apparently not very good) I want to get a great Canon lens but it is about $1200 and can't really afford that much. Someone recommended the above lens ( Tamron BOO8) . They were happy with it and said it was about $400. Just wondering if anyone on here has any experience with this lens?

No - this is a large park, which is not off leash and is located in a suburban area in Sydney. There are two parts to this that annoy me. First is, they shouldn't be letting their dog off leash ( you have no idea whether a strange dog is friendly or unfriendly) and secondly , I know rabbits, possums are regarded as a massive nuisance, but I still don't know that you should be giving your dog free rein to kill them in a local park.

Just had a "discussion" with my sister over lunch re her dogs. We always walk our dogs on leash around our neighbourhood but they have been attacked a few times by other off leash dogs and I am sick and tired of being scared to walk certain areas because I am a bit scared that they are going to be attacked by off leash dogs. My sister was making the comment that they let their dog off at the local park quite often where it will go hunting and on occasions kill rabbits or possums etc.

I took issue to this comment and stated that it really annoyed me that people walk dogs off leash and that secondly, I didn't really think it was the right thing to do that her dog should just go off and kill wildlife, even if it is just rabbits. Can anyone tell me if it is actually against the law to allow your dog to kill rabbits and possums at the local park? Was just interested to find out what is the situation in regards to this in case it ever comes up in conversation again.

I've got the 24-70 2.8. It's a magnificent lens. Big and heavy. Much bigger and heavier than your kit lens.

Personally, I find a longer zoom suits my photography style more though. A longer zoom is better for portraiture (dogs and people). As long as you can get some distance between you and your dog.

If you can stretch the budget, the 70-200 2.8 L IS is an amazing piece of kit. Even bigger and heavier though.

I also wanted to know if you think this is too expensive a lens for someone who is a relative beginner and often just leaves camera on auto?

I'm not a zoom girl, so my go to lens is the 50mm 1.8. I've shot entire weddings on that lens. Plus, it's small and light, which is a bonus.

I've got the 50mm lens - it is great but I mainly use it for close up shots.

Just read on a blog that the 24- 70 mm is a good all purpose lens. Has anyone got any idea how much it might be though?

although I dont have one, this is supposed to be very good for a crop camera. Similar focal range to what your kit lens is but better quality, hence the price, it can be fixed at 2.8 which gives you that lovely shallow depth of field and it's reputed to be very sharp.

http://www.dwidigitalcameras.com.au/store/product.asp?idProduct=823

Thanks for that - it is better to always buy the Canon lens rather than something like Tamron?

Have had a Canon 400d for a while now and really like taking photos. Still only using the kit lens I got with camera (18-55 mm) and a portrait lens which is okay. Just wondering what you would reccomend as a reasonably good all purpose lens that can be used most of the time. I have been reading about Canon24-70mm f/2.8 lens, although it is fairly expensive. Has anyone had experience with this lens or can reccommend another one?

A diverse range of community groups offering support in my eyes is better than just a couple. Go and pluck your eyebrows or something.

What a unit, why not be happy with the joy of giving quietly and anonymously , or would you like to bask in the glory of generosity, would you like updates on what your particular donation was spent on?

Thanks for the bank info Austen.

?????????????????????????

I know I said I wasn't going to say anything further but I don't know what this means either? I didn't say anything about bank info to anyone? Megz - haven't seen any useful comments you have made, apart from making sarcastic comments about other people. There are a lot more important things in life then trying to score points off other people.

Oh but that money won't have "organised by Chewie, she who feels the need to say rude things than actually argue a valid point"

Sadly, that was my first thought when I read her reply.

Also, love how this thread has already gone from helping a family to being all about Squid. What a surprise :rolleyes:

Don't think it's appropriate and don't honestly think the parents would be in any frame of mind to appreciate or even process the fact that a donation would show that not all dog owners are bad.

Did you read the mother's comments about the dog who killed her child? If she's able to feel something for the animal that did this to her family, I'm sure she's capable of processing the fact that maybe other dog owners aren't irresponsible morons and do want to help her and her family cope through this.

Even if she doesn't, what the hell does that even matter? Donations should be to help her family, not push an agenda.

"

Exactly, that's why it doesn't matter where donations come from. - as I mentioned in the rest of the quote ( which you haven't included) . So sad to see this thread becoming a" he said, she said" - I think some of you seem to have a bit too much time on your hands if you don't have anything more useful to do than bickering/ picking fights with one another. Just give it a rest. (and this shall be my last comment on the matter.)

Don't think it's appropriate and don't honestly think the parents would be in any frame of mind to appreciate or even process the fact that a donation would show that not all dog owners are bad. If people want to donate money, why not donate through one of the many fundraising projects that I am sure people have already organised for this poor family.

I also don't think it's appropriate to use the death of this poor child to start a thread bickering about who said what and why etc. Just leave it alone.

Our dogs and cats just wander through the back yard together without any problems we often get questions from visitors how it is possible they all get a long When we just had the chooks we had them locked up for a couple of months and the dogs found that a lot more interesting...read..running in front of the chookpen barking. Now when they are free there is no problem at all anymore.

Oh dear - did this barking go on for a long time? The only part that the dogs will be able to see is the front door of the chicken pen - was even thinking of putting up a piece of material or something so that the dogs couldn't see the ckickens. At the moment, would just not be comfortable tempting fate. Don't think our dogs are really interested in killing - just want to play and get over excited.

If there's some on-going problem with uncontrolled dogs in the area surrounding my home, I wouldn't take my small dogs, alone, for a walk in those streets at all.

And I wouldn't be requiring an elderly lady to try to fight off an attacking dog, whatever she has in her hand. The elderly are in the 2nd most common group for being bitten & attacked by dogs. There's also the risk of falling.

I'm so sorry your gran's had those truly awful experiences. Thanks to irresponsible people not controlling their dogs.

Yes - I agree.

We have two small dogs who have TWICE been attacked by large offlead dogs not controlled by their owners. My kids are now petrified ( and I am not too keen either) to take the dogs walking around our area as there are so many offlead dogs.It's a sad state of affairs when you can't walk dogs in your local area because you are scared they are going to get attacked by other dogs.

I converted my aviary into a chook enclosure for my pekin bantams. I have 3 std poodles ranging 4yrs to 12yrs, my poo's love to sit & stare at the "girls".....it depends on the day but my 12yo poo will bark at the pen, it drives me nuts

We have only only one unfortunate incident (i was interstate for the weekend ) it involved my 11yrold daughter thinking she had shut the gate properly. That was all my 5yo bitch needed

It is 12mths since the girls have been in the aviary, but I would not trust the bird-dogs as far as I could throw them

PS We love the eggs we get!

Does he/she bark incessently or will she stop after a little while.

It really depends on the dog. Some will give it up, others won't and will continue harrassing the chickens.

Slightly off topic, but I have noticed a lot of chicken/poultry related threads popping up lately. Just a friendly reminder that there is a dedicated Poultry thread where any and all chicken [and other poultry] related questions are more than welcome.

Poultry Thread

Oops sorry - that is probably my fault!

I don't have chickens yet, but my chook run will have corrugated iron at least to dog-head-height level so my dogs do not have visual contact with the birds.

I was thinking of doing this too - As I mentioned in previous post, the only section that the dogs will be able to see the chickens will be from the front, and I thought if I covered the door in, they would not see them.

Well, we are constructing the chicken pen along a back fence, so the only place the dogs will be able to see them is from the front door basically and it will be completely dog proof, but am just wondering if the dogs are going to be constantly barking or whether they will get used to it. The chicken run will be quite big so don't really need to let them free range. ( but am just concerned amount of barking etc. Hopefully it will only go on for the first day or so and when the dogs realise they can't get in they will just stop it ( but am not really sure about this last part).

Further to my previous correspondence, I wanted to know what experiences people here have had with dogs and chickens. Given that this is a dog forum, I assume that most of those who have chickens also have dogs.

We are building a run for our chickens which we are making dog proof. My query is as follows.

Our dogs do tend to bark at anyone walking past.

We took our dogs to visit neighbours two doors up ( who also have a secure chicken pen) and they spent the whole time barking and trying to get into the chicken pen. My question is this - do you think the dogs will continue to bark after the first day or two ( and drive the neighbourhood mad) or do you think it is something they will get used t and end up just ignoring?

Was very excited about the whole chicken thing but am now starting to wonder if it is a good idea after all.

I would be more careful giving a chicken neck to a larger breed... they are small enough to swallow whole if your dog is a scoffer...

I much prefer carcasses as they tend to chew them better and cannot scoff. I also like Turkey necks.

Austen, where do you get your lamb necks from? I wonder if they are easy to obtain in WA.

Used to go to a pet food supplies place (I'm in NSW, so no good for you) but it closed down, so now I go to a normal butchers - he usually has them in stock - and he saws them up for me. If not in stock, they can usually get them for you.

We feed our dogs Royal Canin twice a day and have been experimenting with different types of bones - chicken necks etc.

On the advice of our vet we have started feeding lamb necks as they are much chunkier and require much more chewing.

My question is how often should we be giving them lamb necks?

Yep Miranda its a real bummer when we have been feeding for 7 1/2 years.

The notification goes on to say that these temperatures and pressures are, to their knowledge, higher than is required anywhere else in the world.

There is an alternative which has been proposed by A.Q.I.S., and that is Gamma Irridiation, which is NOT acceptable to Nutro, its retailers, or its consumers.

There was an instance late last year where some of Nutro's Lamb and Rice had been affected by the irridiation and it left a bad smell to the product which caused dogs here not to touch it. Those bags were immediately recalled.

I stopped using it after that happened. I am now on Nutrience Holistic and the dogs are doing really well on it!

Yep - I tried my dogs on it around about that time but they absolutely hated it - now I'm wondering if I got a bad batch? Oh well - guess it's all irrelevant now.

Yes - I've got the 400D - so far have only used autofocus settings with the twin lens kit and I am very happy with the photos. When I have a bit more time on my hands, I would like to do a course on photography , how to use manual settings etc. and buy some new lenses but for now am just happy using what I've got.

austen, It was through my local council's Community College. They ran two courses - an introductory photography one and an advanced photography one - I did the advanced one - both were catered to people with DSLRs. It was 2 Saturdays and cost about $150 I think. The college run them twice a year - I'm booking my husband in on the introductory one in March so he can take the camera off the darn green auto button for once. I found out about them as the college distributes a brochure in the mail with all types of different courses you can do and it was in that.

I want to do a landscape workshop in the Blue Mts in a few months but I'll have to see how finances go as this one is not cheap.

thanks for that - have a few things on the first half of the year so I might just play around with the camera and then in the second half, I'll book myself into the introductory course.

I too use filters on my lenses, particularly my good ones for the simple fact that I am subjecting my lenses

to dust/dirt/gravel/insects as I am out in the bush alot - and also puppy licks quite often. MUCH prefer to clean

or replace a filter than the lens glass.

Good luck with your new camera.

I'm off to buy one today - what I think I wll do if I'm just taking pictures at home with the kids etc -I won't bother putting it on, but when I'm out or taking pictures of the dogs or at the beach etc, I will put it on. What do you think?

I also nearly ended up getting a Nikon d80 because both the guys at Harvey Norman were going on about how much better a camera it was than the Canon. I thought it was interesting because nearly everyone else I talked to reccommended the Canon. Do you think the sales people get more comission for selling a particular brand?

Would love to sales figures for both cameras to see what most people bought.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I got my camera today and already I love it - the pictures are so much better than my compact digital.

I bought my camera from Harvey Norman and unfortunately they had run out of uv filters so I am off to buy one tomorrow. I am sure that years ago on my old slr camera I bought a polarising filter and for some reason I thought i t made the photos darker (but am not really sure about that) I thought I would just start with the uv one and see how I go. Hope there is no difference in quality of photos.

Thanks again for your help - it is much appreciated. (I also got a 4gb Extremee III compact flash card - apparently they run faster?)

I have a UV filter on my new sigma 17-70 to protect it. Cheaper to replace a $60 filter than a lens.

I also have a Hoya Polariser for my 18-55mm kit lens and a 2 stop Grad filter for my 17-17.

He He - wish i knew what all those things meant - is the $20 one alright to get?

Also - just wondering if anyone knew a good basic book about photography - not about exposures etc - because I think i will be just using auto for the first six months or so - but more about techniques - i.e. the way to position your subject etc.