Ripley

Didn't have to LizT. A huge meeting room was set aside to play with them. No wees on the carpet either as they put down some matting. :laugh:

I'm better with older kids, they tend to like me. Babies make me nervous and I'm sure they can sense this in my body language and no I do not want to hold them. At a work lunch one of the women asked if I'd hold her baby while she went to the loo. I knew the baby would cry and I didn't want to hold her but she handed her over quickly. Sure enough, she let out a wail. I could also smell that she needed changing but thought surely mum knows. I gave her to anolder woman who has an adult child opposite to deal with and she said straight away to the mother that she needed changing.

Then a colleague on another floor brought her baby up and he cried so yep, if there is a baby brought to the floor near me, I will stay at or leave my desk as I'm not interested in the babies of people who aren't friends.

We had puppies brought into our office the other month. Labradors from a well known charity. From where I sit, only myself and another woman went up to play with them as there were a number of lab puppies (and it's time away from the desk). One of the women who is obsessed with marriage and having a baby, but not an animal lover, said that the puppies shouldn't be allowed in the office and I thought neither should babies and kids love, this is a corporate office, not a creche.

I dont understand the big deal about shopping centres and children. I just pop in my ipod and listen to music while I shop so I dont have to hear squeals as I dont like the noise either, but if you go to a shopping centre you expect some noise. Shopping centres are geared towards families anyway. Last Saturday morning at a cafe, there was a child standing on the cake display counter in front of me and hitting the glass while I lined up to get a coffee. His mother didnt ask him to get down, so I decided to move away from him and go to the café next door rather than listen to him. The only time recently I have asked a child to stop something was last month, we went to get some takeaway one evening in a small town and a little girl old enough to know better was banging on the restaurants fish tank that contained gold fish. I asked her to stop and explained that she wouldnt like it if she was trying to go to sleep and someone came along and pounded on her bedroom door loudly. She stopped it, but ran off to tell her father who was busy enjoying his dinner with friends whilst letting his two kids run amok in the restaurant. His father looked over at me, I met his gaze and smiled and he just smiled back lol.

As for long haul plane trips, yes its awful not to get any sleep because of a screaming child and it's happened to me before too, but its also hell sitting next to an obese person who spills over into your seat, arm rest hogs, people who recline their seat right back, drunks, coughing and sniffling people or people who snort it right back up their nostrils. Thats why noise cancelling headphones, an eye mask and a valium ensures a smooth long haul flight.

I dont have children, just didnt feel the urge to have them but I dont dislike them either. Guess Im indifferent but I do enjoy having my friends niece over occasionally as shes well mannered, sensitive and 10 going on 35. At work in my section I have two women who only talk about pregnancy or getting pregnant, kids, weddings and they dont like animals and feel all animals should never be allowed near kids or in the house. Their conversation is very limited but the invention of the ipod and sitting away from them helps. Unfortunately in an office environment you are forced to work with women you wouldnt even speak to at the bus stop.

[

Saluki

Blue Picardy Spaniel

Newfoundland

Rough collie

Shetland Sheepdog

The first four I will never own, even though I love their temperament, and I don't think the Blue Picardy Spaniel is available in Australia? I saw one in France and he was the most stunning dog, but the last one (sheltie) is a real possibility for the future.

I love the floppy eared breeds and if they are semi fluffy or big and fluffy with floppy ears, I'm won over.

I wouldn't hire anyone who wasn't AIPP certified for one of the most important and cherished days of your life.

eta: AIPP - Australian Institute of Professional Photographers.

eta: I went to the wedding of someone who didn't want to hire a professional due to cost and asked guests to take photos. Because I had a DSLR I was expected to take a lot of photos. I don't like photographing people and prefer to take photos of wildlife and landscapes so I was a little put out to say the least when the emails hassling me for photos started arriving. I still haven't processed the photos as I have other photos of my own to do and we aren't in touch anymore so it's the least of my priorities.

I also know from my own wedding when a photographer hired by the resort (we eloped) who wasn't a member of AIPP yet had an SLR (film back then) and talked the talk in pushing his business up that region, took our wedding pics. I didn't like them one bit and they are all in a box. Bad composition, underexposed - the only semi decent ones were taken outside when he used off camera flash but no reflector for that (he didn't have an assistant) so there are shadows across our faces (photos were taken in the wet tropics in a rainforest).

I would spend money on a qualified professional and skimp on the flowers or not spend as much on the dress but everyone has different priorities.

I just saw the comment on your FB. Got to love a passionate man. His comment made me

But just because it's "wildlife" doesn't make it sacrosanct to me

Ah well. You aren't alone in that, someone on my FB wall had a go at me already

It's a ta ta lizard. I have roughly 7 billion of them in my backyard. They sit on the chairs, come in the back door, hang out in the cat's bowls and molest the doggie toys.

Can't say I freak out about the few that Boof catches each year, really.

Did they really have a go at you? I'll have to look, did you leave it there? I saw it, felt the same as Pers and thought, well everyone is different with how they feel about certain animals so I just logged off again. I love seeing your other photos, just not that one but I'm not a cat fan at all, so each to their own!

Love your photos. I really want to go diving now, except one problem is I only like diving in warm water and can't afford a tropical holiday atm. Love that Gregorian fan one.

I watched a programme once about great British eccentrics or something. One episode was all about this nutter who ate roadkill. He wasn't poor, he just liked eating roadkill. He had a chest freezer full of hedgehogs, owls and other British wildlife but his favourite wildlife to eat was Badger.\

I'm not surprised, poor wild creature. A work friend lived in Hong Kong a couple of years ago and told me a few things her partner saw available in restaurants, at a price. She didn't enjoy living there, but her partner had to live there for two years for work.

The saddest thing relating to wildlife I read in the news this week was the extinction of the last rhino in Vietnam, the Javan Rhinoceros. Killed by poachers for its horn, the last of its kind. This didn't make the news in the Aust papers, I read about it in a UK newspaper. Here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15430787

So now there are none left in the wild at all. After a google, there isn't even one left in a zoo - so gone forever thanks to traditional medicine customs. Some parts of the rainforests in SE Asia, you can't even hear birdsong, everything has been trapped for the wildlife trade or trapped to be eaten. From the Chinese river dolphin who became extinct 5 or so years ago to what next. Very sad

Crappy grab shot iphone photo with no flash but you get the idea who is in charge here.

It makes me sad to see the pelicans, though. I certainly am happy to see them being helped, but I don't really advocate snapping pictures of then during this time, it seems to be just another stress when they have gone through so much. I suppose I am just sad they ended up covered in oil in the first place, that the prescient exists for this photo.

I saw that winning photo in the newspapers after the oil spill disaster. The photographer is a photojournalist I think - he also won that category in these awards

The judge said about the winning photo: "The chair of the judging panel, Mark Carwardine, described the image as ‘a strong environmental statement, technical perfection and a work of art all rolled into one. The sheer simplicity of this powerful image makes it really beautiful and shocking at the same time’

My favourite is this one, it's so beautiful

Runner up, Underwater category

Night Sharks - Thomas Peter Peschak (Germany/South Africa)

Light shining into the depths of the lagoon of Bassas da India, a remote atoll in the Mozambique Channel, reveals a gathering of juvenile Galapagos sharks. The light is from a spotlight on a research boat above, which is being used to illuminate the reef so that the divers can see what's going on. Thomas was part of the expedition to census the population of this vulnerable species. 'Not having to use underwater strobes or a flash,' he says, 'meant it was possible to convey a sense of the nocturnal scene.' This lagoon is one of the few places where the Galapagos shark is found beyond the Pacific and is the only known ocean nursery for it, with schools of 50 or more occurring

and I like this one because of the beautiful backlighting

Urban Widlife, Highly Commended

On the tracks of a Coyote - Martin Cooper (Canada)

This stretch of railway track in Burnaby, British Columbia, is Martin's favourite spot for photographing local wildlife. And autumn, with its beautiful, mellow light, is his favourite season to be there. One October dawn, while Martin was sitting on the embankment waiting for a beaver to reappear from a culvert, a coyote came out of the undergrowth a short distance down the track and started sniffing around for signs of rodents. 'At that moment, I knew the backlit shot I wanted,' says Martin. Slowly moving onto the track, he lay down on the ballast and waited, pressing the shutter as the coyote turned its head to look up at the sky.

eta: Actually the monkey was runner up in Endangered Wildlife category. Sorry, my error. This was the winning photo

Taking Off - Peter Chadwick (South Africa)

With space at a premium, the normally territorial African black oystercatchers on Malgas Island, South Africa, are forced to congregate when feeding on the rocky shore. It's a time of intense social interaction, different breeding pairs flying in to claim their turn at the seaside table, prising shellfish off the rocks both to eat and to take back for their chicks. All the while, they keep an eye on the waves. 'They usually know exactly when to run from a crashing wave,' says Peter, 'but this wave seemed to take them by surprise'. Found only along the coastline of southern Africa, the charismatic species is the subject of a conservation success story. Back in the 1980s, numbers had declined to some 4,500 birds, mainly because their breeding beaches are also where humans with their dogs and off-road vehicles go, resulting in the death of many of the chicks. But though the species remains near-threatened, protection from disturbance in the breeding season has resulted in an increase in numbers to about 6,000.

Nikon D300S + 500mm f4 lens; 1/1600 sec at f8; ISO 640; Manfrotto tripod.

Really like this one as it has an art deco look about it. How sad that some idiot weed killed the lot of them

Runner up - Plants category, Fading Beauty - David Maitland (UK)

Canon EOS 5D Mark II + 70-200mm f2.8 lens; 1/160 sec at f11; ISO 50.

On a car-park embankment near David's home in Wiltshire, a mass of poppies appeared one day. 'I love poppies,' he says, 'and I can't resist photographing them. It's hard to think of another plant that's so fleetingly beautiful . . . But when poppies flower en masse, it's almost too much, and it's hard to capture the ephemeral nature of their beauty.' For a week he checked on the patch every day, looking for a particular grouping. 'I wanted an image of simplicity - mostly of spent seedheads, with just a few poppies still in full bloom,' he explains. From a prone position, he shot them against an overcast sky to create an architecture of stems 'with little flashes of brilliance'. Three days later, someone 'weed-killered the lot,' he says. 'Most hadn't set seed. So there'll be no poppy meadow there next year.'

Winner - Wild Places

Celestial Arch - Stephane Vetter (France

Stephane took 2 hours to walk to Creux du Van in western Switzerland, laden with heavy equipment. He had chosen this natural rocky amphitheatre as a grand backdrop to showcase his subject - the Milky Way. The temperature was -15°C (-5°F), but the sky was clear and there was no wind. He set up camp in the dark beside the ravine, his tripod balanced on the edge. 'The sky moves surprisingly quickly,' says Stephane, 'and I needed to be ready for the moment the Milky Way was right above the Creux du Van'. Clouds on the horizon blocked stray light from towns and villages. 'Gazing at the myriad of stars and constellations,' adds Stephane, 'it's fascinating to think that some of that light set off towards Earth millions of years ago'. He took 24 images of the vista. These were then 'stitched' to create a panoramic view, showing the celestial curve of the Milky Way complemented by the terrestrial curve of ancient rock.

Winner - Animals in their Environment

Snow Hare - Benjam Pöntinen (Finland)

Benjam always keeps his 300mm lens handy, just in case. And one day in March it paid off. Overnight, a storm had covered Lapua in thick snow. It was still snowing heavily, with big flakes. 'The thick snow muted all sounds, so everything was utterly silent,' he says. 'As I passed the hay barn, I suddenly saw movement. Then I saw the picture. I had just enough time to open the window, focus and take the shot before the hare vanished into the white. I knew then it was going to be my picture of the year.'

Winner Creative Visions of Nature

Illusion - Stefano Unterthiner (Italy)

The winter gathering of whoopers on Lake Kussharo, on Hokkaido, Japan, was a picture of chaos. The swans were constantly standing up, sitting down, heading off, interacting and calling. 'I suddenly saw that this could be the key to a completely different kind of image - one that shows the rhythms of a flock's movements,' says Stefano. He started to imagine the group of swans as one, flowing over the ice, seen at different points in time and space, and he set out to create the illusion. The swan enters lower right, wanders around a bit, sits down a few times, and exits top right - a single shot of continuous time and motion.

Winner - Animal Portraits

Sinuousness - Marco Colombo (Italy)

Nikon D700 + 70-200mm f2.8 lens; 1.6 sec at f18; ISO 200; Manfrotto 190PROB tripod + 804CR2 head.

Snakes can be difficult to find and even more difficult to photograph in an attractive setting. So when Marco found this female grass snake beside a beautiful stream in Lombardy, Italy, he knew he had struck gold. The snake stayed relaxed and motionless - her head held in profile - while Marco set up his tripod to take her portrait. She was probably watching for amphibians such as frogs (grass snakes can swim) and just didn't notice the human behind her. Marco took the decision to use a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the water. 'I was enchanted by the scene,' he says. 'The beautiful reptile, the polished pebbles, the red roots and the flowing water created the image. I merely had to look in the viewfinder and press the shutter.'

Winner - Behaviour, Birds

The Assassin - Steve Mills (UK)

Canon EOS 50D + 500mm f4 lens; 1/500 sec at f5 (+1.7 e/v); ISO 400.

A severe freeze in December 2010 caused major problems for British birds, especially those needing to feed in mud. Even secretive birds were forced into the open. Knowing any snow-free area was a precious resource, Steve located a tiny patch of exposed grass near where he lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire, and waited. Eventually a snipe emerged and began feeding frantically. 'I was only a few metres away,' says Steve. 'In normal conditions, a snipe would be more cautious.' Within a few moments, though, it had paid the ultimate price. A merlin swooped in fast and low and grabbed it in a flurry of snow. The struggle was short. The merlin pinioned the snipe, stared briefly at Steve and then killed its prey with a series of rapid blows to the head. 'The attack was so unexpected, so dramatic and so close,' says Steve, 'that I was overjoyed to find I had captured the moment, but I also felt great sympathy for the loser.

More awards and photos here. People often prefer the runners up to the winners so more photos here

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/index.jsp

Good to see an Australian receiving a Highly Commended in the Animal Portraits category with Migaloo the white humpback

Highly Commended - White Fella - Mark McCormack

Migaloo (Aboriginal for 'white fella') is the only known all-white humpback whale in the world. Marc had photographed him at sea level but knew that the way to get the perfect portrait would be from the air. He had already made three attempts, on days when the water was too rough to capture the white whale against the white-capped waves. On hearing that a tour boat had spotted Migaloo off Green Island, in the far north of Queensland, Marc chartered a helicopter to take him directly to the spot. 'On this day the water was almost smooth,' he says. 'I clicked the shutter as Migaloo took one last breath and disappeared like a giant ghost into the depths.' Migaloo belongs to the eastern Australian humpback population that is thought to total about 15,000 - still way below half the number that existed before commercial whaling began.

The most prestigious wildlife photography awards in the world for 2011 have been announced. Last year's winner was disqualified after it was found out he used a captive, tame wolf in his photo. I try and go to see the exhibition each year when it tours Australia, as the photos are amazing blown up and they are displayed at Sydney Museum, which is within walking distance from work.

2011 Veolia/Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards

The winning images will be featured in an international exhibition beginning at the Natural History Museum, London, on Friday 21 October

Overall Winner: Still Life in Oil - Daniel Beltra (Spain)

Crude oil trickles off the feathers of the rescued brown pelicans, turning the white lining sheets into a sticky, stinking mess. The pelicans are going through the first stage of cleaning at a temporary bird-rescue facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. They've already been sprayed with a light oil to break up the heavy crude trapped in their feathers, which has turned their normally pale heads orange and their brown and grey feathers mahogany.

Winner - Behaviour, Mammals. Polar Power - Joe Bunni (France)

(this also won the People's Choice award). I think the look on the polar bear is priceless and love the story behind the photo

After three days on a small boat looking for polar bears in Repulse Bay, Nunavut, Canada, Joe got lucky. 'We cruised at a distance, so we didn't disturb the bear. Once we were sure it was relaxed with our presence, I slipped quietly into the water with just a mask and fins, attached to the boat by a rope.' The polar bear now started to swim towards the boat. It didn't appear to notice Joe, and for 20 minutes he was able to take photographs from the water. But then the bear caught sight of its own reflection in the dome port and swam up to Joe. 'It's amazing when a huge, powerful animal comes beside you.' It came so close that its nose touched the housing, startling it. The second after Joe took this shot, the bear reached out and touched the dome with its paw. Then it turned and swam away, leaving Joe with an unforgettable image - symbolic 'of the power and elegance of a wonderful creature struggling to survive in a fast-changing climate'.

Endangered Wildlife - Cyril Ruoso (France)

Tiny warm up

Folded up into a fur-ball, this youngster is warming its extremities in between bouts of play and feeding. He is part of a band of about 70 or so Qinling golden snub-nosed monkeys living high up in China's Qinling Mountains, surviving on lichen, leaves, bark and buds. 'If mother is not around to cuddle up to, then sitting like this is the best way to keep warm in the extreme winter cold,' says Cyril. Sitting apart from its mother also makes such a little monkey vulnerable to attack by goshawks or golden eagles. The species is endangered, and this subspecies probably numbers no more than about 4,000. The total population of all races of golden snub-nosed monkeys is only 8,000-20,000.

Winner - Plants and Fungi Sandra Bartocha (Germany)

Sandra found this delicate group in a marshy area on the shore of Lake Tollensesee in Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania, Germany, overhung with a criss-cross mass of leafless tree branches. 'The setting sun created a beautiful orange reflection on the water behind. I took an in-camera double exposure image, with one sharp exposure and then one much softer one, so the scene would appear as dreamy as it felt.'

Winner, Urban Widllife. Boy meets Nature - Alexander Badyaev (USA)

Each year, on a few warm late-summer evenings, satin moths flutter at the windows of Alex's cabin deep in the Montana wilderness. Introduced to North America with timber shipments from Europe in the 1920s, they emerge over just a few days in August and are attracted by lights. In turn, they are irresistible lures for the neighbourhood long-legged myotis bats, otherwise restricted to feeding mostly on mosquitoes and caddisflies. 'It took a couple of summers before I figured out how to photograph the scene without overpowering the warm glow from the window lamp or disturbing predators and prey,' says Alex. 'By the time I'd mastered the technical side, my 13-month-old son Victor's love of bat-watching completed the tableau. Here he's standing on his bed, spellbound by the scene unfolding before him

Winner Photojournalist category - The Price of Oil - Daniel Beltrá

Winner - Underwater category - The Grace of Giants - Paul Souders (USA)

'Even before I slid off the iceberg into the sea, my heart was racing and my lips were turning blue,' says Paul. 'I had no idea what to expect, other than that, under water, these huge masses of flesh and tusk would swim with grace and power. And that's what I wanted to show.' Paul had gone to Svalbard in Arctic Norway hoping to photograph walruses under water. He knew they could be dangerous, but he planned to appear as unthreatening as possible and hoped that the walruses would just be curious about him. The first sight of one approaching out of the gloom was the gleam of white tusk. Paul instinctively used the glass dome of his camera housing as a shield. The walrus investigated him, pressing up against the dome, while its giant herd-mates slowly circled Paul. 'Their curiosity satisfied,' says Paul, 'they moved off in search of something more entertaining than a hyperventilating photographer.'

I am not looking to upgrade, but can someone tell me what is so great about the 7D? I have a 50D which I find great for action shots (much better than the 30D I had before). I only the central focus point anyway (the sharpest) for moving things (whales diving, birds in flight etc.) as I want it to lock onto the target and not the background, and found the focus tracking great on the 50D using this method. The only thing I'd really love would be centre focus assist points around the central focus point, which I know the 1D has. Yes, I'd love that.

Gorgeous pics! I'm envious of the breach shots. I went out whalewatching just past Sydney Heads a couple of weeks ago. The whales decided to approach the boat, I still had my 300mm lens attached and was wishing I'd packed the wide angle (I didn't). I will put up pics in another thread, don't want to hijack your's.

Our council uses 1080 programs to bait foxes. There are signs up in the area now about one in early October. They bury them so the foxes dig them up. Friends used to live up that way and said the wild dog problem was a huge problem.

wrong pic

300mm f/4 L. It's never off my camera, but I only take photos if we are going bushwalking etc.

eta: I've found I can get closer since I bought a neutral coloured neoprene cover for it and it doesn't stand out like a fist full of sore fingers.

Lovely shots everyone.

I'm not great at B/W conversions. I have recently bought LR though so should have a play around with b/w in Lightroom next time I edit photos.

These are Photoshop B/W conversions I've done in the past.

Monelite's beautiful Dobermann - the late Rex. I miss him.

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B/W choc toned wild fur seal

Moo

Wags, go out if you can. There are two main whale watching boats that leave the Quay twice a day. I have a friend who races (yachts) most weekends and she has seen whales just past Sydney heads recently. Try and go on the morning cruise before all the other boats get out there. I get seasick too, but if I take a tablet I'm ok.

That pelagic seabird/whale trip I went on, we went over 2 hours way out to the open ocean where you couldn't see land anymore. I felt seasick, even though I made sure I was on the most stable part of the boat, standing up and looking at the horizon as we sped along, so one of the marine biologists on board gave me a tablet and and I felt so much better. We spent most of the day out there and on the way back the south-westerlies picked up and there was a bit of slop and chop. I went to bed that night feeling like I was rolling over the waves on that boat.

You don't know when/where the whales are going to breach and when they do breach, it is very quickly over with. This is another one from the Sydney whale watching boat last year.

I prefer sunny conditions so long as you aren't shooting into the sun. This was taken in foggy, overcast conditions in NZ - sperm whale

Love the beach scenes CM.

I've got the sigma 10-20. In LR there is a lens correction box where you tick which lens you've used (it has a lot of lenses in the dropdown menu) and it corrects some distortion (sometimes).

Sigma 10-20 pics:

One thing with a wide angle lens is you can sometimes get uneven skies if you attach a filter to it like I did with this one. You can fix it in PS with a gradient layer, I just noticed it, will fix the sky on the weekend.

A noddy tern (wild seabird) let me get close.

All taken with a 300mm f/4 prime.

The trips out of Sydney are for viewing. There were birders there who went up top and stayed there and some UK tourists with big lenses.

They do throw fish heads in the water to bring the birds in but it's observation only. There was a marine biologist from Macquarie Uni on board when I went and he and a colleague jumped in the ocean to take photos of the sperm whales. They snorkelled up to them (the boat kept its distance as required by law) and he said he got a few shots (he had a DSLR with full underwater kit) but the whales weren't accommodating and swam off pretty quickly.

I think they were the batch of whale pics I posted up first, kirislin. However, the other shots looked better on the back of the camera and didn't make the cut when I uploaded them - I deleted the majority as I can't be bothered with processing time with shots like that. My 50D was new then (got it last August) and it was the first time I had tested it.

The shots of the sea birds above were taken with a 30D. Same lens for all those pics