Linda K

getting exposure right in camera, combined with desired shutter speed and aperture to get the look you want, using a good lens to have maximum sharpness, editing using a program such as Photoshop to ensure white balance is correct (if you have not set up the white balance initially using custom white balance setting in the camera) using layers in photoshop to highlight colour in certain areas, and mask in others, and in some ases, just the simple skill of being able to read the light, anticipate when it will give the look you want, and be in the right place at the right time. potentially also, use of an off camera flash or reflector to achieve the look as a camera can only record 5 stops of difference between dark and light, whereas our eyes can see 11 - in some cases this could mean multiple exposures at the same time and merging later.

happy first birthday gorgeous man, you are the youngest looking 1yo puppy

yes, but that then is the difference between a snapshot and a proper portrait. And even if you fix devil eyes, a snapshot is still a snapshot. Agree that sometimes you just need to take a shot without setting it up, but when I do that, I accept what I am taking is just a snapshot, and is not going to be perfect.

even easier fix - don't use a flash, as you really want to have natural light catchlights in the eyes, which make the animal look far more alive than replacing the devil eye. If it is dark enough you need a flash to take the shot, move.

this does also apply to kittens too, not just puppies. As for it being policed, don't worry, you have both Gumtree & Petlink actively encouraging adds to be reported to them if no nos are quoted in the adds, you have the general public told to report any adds on council noticeboards to the council, and heaven forbid that there was a typo in the no in your add, the buyer is also told to report you to the DPI if it turns out that the no in the add is not the same as the no on the chip (which I also imagine could be easy if there is multiple animals being chipped at the same time too and the vet puts the wrong sticker on the wrong bit of paper - all designed to do all the work of followup for the DPI without them needing to have anymore feet on ground to do so. Sucks that I cannot even advertise my own kittens on my own website, let alone anywhere else until hey are chipped, which won;t be until they are desexed at approx 11 weeks of age - they are just not big enough to be chipped any earlier. And since the Pethaven FB group is now actively encouraging everyone to look over their fences and dob anyone with more than 2 cats or dogs into their local councils, to make sure they are not rogue owners, Big Brother is well and truly walking amongst us.

anyone can easily steal an image just by doing a screen capture anyway, then using an editing software and cropping and removing the rest of the stuff, so pretty much take it for granted that once it is online anywhere, if someone is devious enough to want to steal it, they will.

yeah, but you didn't say who the PR marketing group was, it could have been the PR marketing group fo anything, But thanks for clarifying that it was the zoo itself, as I know they do have big signs up everywhere saying you can take photos for personal use and that they can't be sold or anything unless you have written permission from the zoo to do so, so just wanted to make sure you weren;t going to get in trouble :) . Good work getting this exposure for the zoo

quick question - do you work at the zoo, as they do have a pretty stringent policy about images being used - no worries of you are, but would not want you to get in trouble if you don't have their permission to do so

put it this way, as a pro photographer, I have heard of that many cases of people not even bothering to remove watermarks, and just printing them off anyway, to know that if they really want to steal an image, they will. Sadly, there are people that are out there that always want something for nothing - personally I believe in TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch), but since they were previously getting them for free anyway, anything now gained will be a bonus anyway

get a website like smugmug or red bubble, post them up there in galleries and then let them send you the money for the ones they want, you can then either chose to email them back (in which case they get a digital file, and you can;t stop them though doing what they like to it), or go through the additional cost of getting address, printing a 4x6 or whatever size and posting to them (in which case make them pay for postage too) All you give out at the event is details of where they go to look at the shots, it is up to them to sort through and find, and buy. You will feel a lot better as you are still taking shots for yourself anyway, but not feeling like you are being taken advantage of (which you are being now), and you are right - they people I feel least appreciated any work I did was those I did as photos in exchange for time - anyone who has ever contracted me to do a paid shoot has been far more appreciative. Costs - well, up to you, but I do shots at cat shows (when i am there anyway), at $15 an image, which is a websized file, if they want a print (5x7), it is $30, full sized digital image is $60.

agree with the others that the main times I have had focus issues with a Canon is either battery running low, too close, or not enough contrast (eg pure black animal, no contrast areas), in which case I would switch to manual and do it myself. Perhaps you got that bit too close, you could easily check on that by looking at the pictures zoomed in at 100% in your photo browser of choice and see how sharp the images were, and whether they were in focus at the point you used to focus. If the battery was not low, first thing I would try was taking a step back. I would also say that sometimes my Canon (5dII), does some weird one off things, but turning it off and turning it on again fixes it - I can be shooting away and all of a sudden it will come up with an error message saying it can't shoot anymore, but this turning off and on gain clears the problem, so it could also have bee nothing to do with you too.

be careful what you wish for with state laws being made to go National - you would not want the lovely laws we have go through in Vic recently, such as the restricted breed law and their lovely document of description used to determine dogs at danger to people, which can be made to fit a wide variety of types at a pinch, nor would you like the lovely one we now have as at 1 Jan that any puppies or kittens advertised online (even on ones on website), must have microchip nos included in the add, The only exception is if one is a registered DAB, then that no can be quoted instead. In other words, puppy farmers don't need to, but smaller breeders who are not a DAB can't advertise and compete with either them or interstate breeders for advertising until the animals have been chipped. Do you really want those laws carried across everywhere?

yep, we lost a 15 year old cat last year, and her brother went through about a month of grieivng, he got so bad that I really thought I was going to lose him, as he almost seemed to be going through kitty alzheimers, he would wander room to room crying if we were not in sight, and would be fast asleep and then cry out as if in pain, would cry if we went to pick him up at all, and really just looked all of a sudden so old. After about a month, he seemed to shake it off, and has settled back to the elder statesman playful boy that he is in the household, enjoying games again, devon slapping our devon, and not the frail boy he turned into. I did also bring home the body for him to see after his sister had been PTS, not sure if that really helped or created the problem, but none of the other cats reacted at all to her passing, if anything, it meant my older devon girl now decided she would take the alpha kitty role in the house that Misty ha previously occupied

they are absolutely adorable, I think I am in love.........

we use them with GCCFV (cat shows), for events run by our society, and having had to go and pick up a batch and seeing them up close firsthand, they are simply stunning (and seeing stuff in the presentation case while I was waiting in reception), was weak at the knees to find myself only a few inches away from a Garryowen winners sash (so obviously the RAS use them to make those too) - will be the closest I ever get to the winners sash for that, that's for sure!!!!!

the sad news though is that now bringing animals back out of there means it is a category 4 country, so animals will need rabies titre tests and the longer quarantine stay from Jan 1, effectively making it now more cost prohibitive to import from the UK

no they are never just only an anything - RIP little one, fly free, and hugs to you, so sorry to hear this

would be hiring a 70-200 2.8, and a 24-70, and getting the bride to foot the bill for those, if you are going indoors you really need to use lenses that can be opened up as wide as possible, and 5.6 isn't going to cut it. But personally, I would not be doing it, if you are going to the wedding as a friend, you are not going to be able to enjoy it for worrying about getting the shots right, agree with all that has been said about her taking total advantage of you both. If you can't get out of it, would be getting all the terms and conditions in writing , esp that you can;t guarantee certain shots, nad get a list from her of exactly what she does want, how much editing / work she expects on the images, and what you will be giving - a person on another forum I use recently got married, and has looked at the photos, and has over 300 images she wants edited with liquify to her images - IMO you would not be wanting to give up your enjoyment at the wedding, and then be potentially stuck at a computer for hours upon hour editing images just as a favour, that is not my idea of fun. IMO RUN do not walk away from this idea!!!!

looks way too blown, unless you have the raw image CS4 is not going to help, and even then, unless there is data in those blown spots (and does not look like it), don't think anything can be done, sorry

and now I am crying, that is so beautiful, thanks for sharing

heard this today, all sounded pretty good, no irrational outbursts except by a few in favour of BSL, and one guy who wanted to get rid of all dogs in any city / suburban area, or by people who worked all day, a good display of being deed not breed that should control legislation I thought

they were so amazing, my kids wanted to stay up especially to watch them, they looked so pumped to do the jumps, and was glad when they rested one of the bunnies so they did not overwork them

I have a kitten that had a grade 3 murmur at 12 weeks, 1 1/3 years later, the murmur has gone - the vet listened for about 5 minutes, as she could simply not believe that it had corrected itself, but it has. Good luck with your little man, hope he lives a long healthy life and can be the playmate for your son

no words can describe what I would like to do to the person that could do this to this poor little ones

agree with the comments about watching the puppies, if they didn't know before there are more to get, they do now, glad she is back as when I saw the signs, was feeling heartbroken for her and the pups.