rubiton

No idea really. I usually take the battery out and wipe the battery where it contact the camera and seems to fix. But only happens with flash pics and I dont take them all that often so usually disconnect and wipe those points too but no ide if thats actually the problem or not (or if turning the camera off and pulling the power resets it). That was with the 10D ONe problem I did have was that in a sequence occasionally the camera would take one shot at a more open aperture (so over exposing the image) the rest of the pics would be fine. Though it was just the 10D and the wear and tear but the other day the 40D did it. Hardly been used and have had to racedays where its happened to one image each time (out of about 250-300 or so). One was in a sequence and once was individual images. No idea why it does it - battery seemed charged enough too.

Excellent camera - try the settings I suggested and change your aperture up and down from there or try changing your expsore (shutter speed) up and down too til the image looks right (and read up on how to use the exposure meter inside the view finder - basically you want to change the settings til thats in the centre if you zoom right in on the dog). Also before you go out take pics in the yard where you can get the colour right and adjust the brightness if need be on screen on the back of the camera - I find that the factory setting is too dark to see the image properly outdoors. Once you know what looks right on the screen you can adjust settings when out to make sure the images arent too bright or too dark.

Basically as explained you can either 1- Take the subject relatively close and have the background well in teh distance (say a dog sitting in front of the camera a one edge of an oval that has trees WAY over the other side - dog will be focussed (say head shot) and background will be blurry - aperture up to F8 will do it but obviously lower the aperture number more blurry the background as your focus depth shrinks. 2- photoshop as described

I use to get somethng similar except the dark part would b black and the other part would be normal BUT I was using a flash inside at the time. Found I had to turn the camera off and take out the battery to fix it and take the flash off wipe and put back. Not sure why it happened though - another photographer got the same thing as well using a flash at night (different canon models - yours mine and his). Is the battery fresh or starting to run down a bit when it happens?

Ruthless what sort of a camera are you using? What the camera (if set on auto) is doing is it exposes the image for the overall image ie the sand. Because sand it light and reflective it underexposures the image. If you are using a SLR/DSLR it can be overcome using manual setttings (eg 400 ISO, 1000 speed, F8 or F11 aperture). if its a point and shoot not sure maybe try to get photos closer to the water where the water colour fill up the background around the dogs not the sand.

Yes - the lens size!!!! I'm there with my 100-300mm little lens (or the even smaller one) and no one looks twice at you but immediately goes to the person with the big grey one!!!! Maybe thats why Im planning on getting a big grey one!!! (no seriously I need one for what its for not the looks but added bonus) But seriously I know people who believe that the motor drive take as many as possible and delete the bad ones technique. Works for them but would send me bonkers - I still stick to the try to get the stride right first go and if you miss try again (you know if you got it right) for the horse shows. Only victory gallops at AIHT and horse racing is different The motor drive technique also sends anyone nearby for a low tolerance for endless clicking a bit crazy.

400 ISO is for outdoor where there is plenty of light or slightly overcast (I use that all the time its as low as I'll go) - go at the very least 800 probably higher better if possible. Otherwise kja has set out the steps if you can adjust the camera. Only thing is that around 1600 ISO you may get grain in the image if it is still under exposed. If you arent confident with the full manual put it on shutter speed priority and try taking pics on 1/60 or 1/125 and the camera will adjust the aperture itself (tey you only need change around the ISO and speed instead of three settings). If possible have the camera on a tripod it will lessen the blur as the lower the shutter speed the more chance of camera movement as the photo is taken. Don't go too low on the shutter 1/60th or higher under that it gets very hard to hold still. Most little old point and shoots from the film days took pics on 1/125th (for a comparision). Practice before the day inside your house on the various settings - its not the same but you will know how to change settings instead of trying to work it out on the day in low light conditions.

No thats fair enough - have noticed that in a few of the stock books (where they list contacts for magazines etc) many list that they don't want zoo bird shots (these were wildlife magazines) and there was a spiel about not to take zoo shots and try to pass them off as wild shots. I just remember the vulture (or it may have been the other bird that looks like a vulture) as he was sitting up there as his meal (the rib cage of what looked like a horse) was sitting on the ground cooking in the sun. The open range zoo and city zoo are run by the same people here - Monarto seems to have expanded as they were planning so am also planning to head out there too (went there maybe 15 years ago and they would point and go here we will have this and that as we were looking at bare paddocks) - they only had the horses, zebras, Giraffes and a few antelope last time from memory.

LOL - covered in leeches!!!! However with a background that defined it would be easy to clone a person out if need be. Its photos taken somewhere like a Royal Show i the arena that I wont attempt as the background is not the same so you cant just clone even a few millimetres. However where there is trees/plants/grass you can get away with it as people will not look really closely if they didntknow something was there in the first place. Talking about photo trips I was checking out the Adelaide zoo website - looks like the tigers are behind glass these days and the vulture and some of the smaller big cats have gone (died not replaced maybe). Though the site mentions Leopard feed times yet no leopard on the map (the had the tigers and lions out front and panthers, leopards and vulture out back of the big cat area. Whole area appears to have been redone on the site. ETA - I agree with you Ripley - half the idea of photography is to get it right when taking the photo I'm not keen on highly photoshopped stuff either. I know some cropped around horses and replace the background I don't like how it looks (which is probably good since I can't trace around the outside of a horse eimage either with PS due to stuffing the tendon years and years ago - fine for everything but holding the button down long enough to trace even with the magnetic lasso). At least on photography magazine raved about how much you have to adjust every image you take but I have found that wrong I think they were just anti digital and trying to hold on to film. As for film negs that are 5 years old are OK but the ones that are 20 years old have started to degrade regardless of being kept in storage away from dust in dark places and as cool as possible

To change an image to black and white just tick grayscale and it will ask if you want to remove the colour information and go OK. Then you have the image in black and white. Takes about 2 secods. However save the images as something else (eg imagename black and white) so that if it doesnt look as good as expected you still have the original shot. I often save things as imagename and add an a to the end so they are next to each other in the folder later if I do any photoshopping beyond cropping. Don't see th eproblem with the last day images being jpegs - unless you want to print them the size of a wall they should come out fine.

What are you planing to take pics of Eza - if you need to zoom in go for the 70-300 but if its something up close go for the smaller lens. I always shoot in jpegs. Have always meant to try raw but havent bothered that format uses up WAY too much space and when I go out for a day of taking pics I need that space (no matter how many cards I take). However I really havent had to 'correct' much at all. Only if its really really dark and then Im probably pushig the limits anyway. Try taking a few images on RAW and the rest jpeg if you are going out for the day or you may run out of space very quickly. Eza if you are using photoshop the 'highlight' tool will do a lot of what kja did to that photo. That tool is great for bringing up areas that might be in shadow without 'blowing out' the rest of the image. AS for storage - as soon as I have enough for a CD or DVD I'll burn a couple of copies and put them away and after a number of months I delete the images on the computer as it takes up to much space. By burning you also have a back up copy of the images somewhere too. However take time to learn the manual workings of the camera and you leave less up to the machine to work out what its doing. If its sunny on Saturday try the settings on ISO 400, Speed 1000 and aperture on F8. If they are still bright up the speed or go to F11 etc. Try some other manual settings too.

Up the highlight for the second one (or contrast) - play with both just to bring it up a little. Leave the branch in - adds some perspective to the shot. ETA - only edit photos when needed though I do often crop but thats pretty minor in the editing department. The highlight tool brings up the dark areas while leaving the brght areas as they are.

That is an excellent site Tadpole - the forums ten to get a bit picky but for the actual information on cameras its the best one. As has been said the 40D is simply the upgrade. I've now moved the 10D to the backup and small lens camera (when the 40D is being used at the same time). The only thing I dont like about the 40D is I find the screen ISNT as crystal clear as the 10D one is. Bigger and easier to see yes but harder to tell if the focus is spot on (as I do action images of animals going at 60km you always get one or two in the burst that are a little soft). Seems a bigger version of hte 350D screen rather than a bigger version of the 10D screen. Other than that I am glad I waited for it but if you are not doing professional photography any of the Canons (400D, 20D onwards) will be more than you need. I'm even told the 40D can do stuff that I haven't even noticed yet (need to read the book a bit more throughly).

Myer has the 40D and 30D both side by side. Which camera? Canon 40D easily - brilliant camera nearly does all the work itself! Seriously a few weeks back I was taking pics of horses going up to the start with about 1 sec to frame on the horse (other runners were going past the other way before turning around and coming back) and Im thinking no hope for focus yet get home and pics are great. One day I mightget to try it out on the equestrian events (and one day after that I might even get to try an IS lens on it). Agreed - Scott Kelby's photoshop books are brilliant - step by step so they are mega easy to follow (some books just say make a duplicate copy then do this this and this whereas his books say press this button press that button - much easier no frustration at trying to get past step 1)!

First ruthless you have to decide what sort of photo you are after - you've had two methods described - mine is for close up action photos of the dog where you dont want to see the background much only whereas the other method (Im shocking at names but with the blue sky at beach with dog on page 1) will give you a nice overall image. Both methods are equally correct but different type of image needs a different technique (never be worried about using a ISO setting like 400 or high shutter speed in a SLR it is what makes the images so much clearer than a point and shoot - years ago I use to take racehorse pics on at most 1/250th til the other photographers told me to try the higher speeds and instantly I got better results). I was at the horse trials a couple of years ago and a bloke asked me what I was taking the photos on (I said F8 1/1000th) and he said oh no that is wrong you should go no higher than 1/250th (claimed he was a photography teacher and his mate had had calendars or books out). For him he thought a good photo was a nice wide all the image nice and clear for me I needed the horse nice and sharp and the background blurry so the horse stands out. Different results were wanted so different techniques are used (no the bloke wouldn't see my side yet Im the one sitting there in the flouro jacket thing).

For a sunny day put it on F8 Speed at least 1000 and ISO of 400. Overcast put it on ISO 800 leave speed on 1000 and movement the aperture control until the indicator in the viewfinder is in the middle (point at the grass if need be anything with sky will give an inccorect reading). For focus put it on AI Servo. Then pan with dog (sit down or be down at dog eye level). ETA put it in M (for manual mode then change the settings). Auto will go for the middle point with exposure of the whole image not necessarily the subject.

Quality camera Sales - sells only Canon stuff - well priced and very quick (delieverd by AAE). Based in Perth.

Focus on the jump with an aperture of about F8 and take the photo as the dog goes over the jump. I would take it on a 45 degree angle (focus on middle of the top jump element). ISO 400 is fine for sunny weather and 1/1000th preferable shutter speed. Hope it is sunny and try to get th e sun behind you. ETA - pan with dog and take as dog goes over jump (thats with agility - running flat out same thing just harder to pick the exact spot the dog will run past).

There is a difference between the brand name andgeneric batteries for the SLRs BUT unless you are using the camera a lot (as in hundreds of pics each week) you will not pick the difference. Bu tthe age of the battery affecs its performance as does the camera itself. Also how long its been since the battery was charged makes a difference to. I too went to the RAAF Airshow and took about 5-600 photos with the new camera and it was still on full charge according to the camera indicator (obviously not full butwasnt going to stop anytime son).

I take photos on teh highest jpeg - they are on the computer and are then burnt to CD and DVD. Good racehorses get kept on the computer but the rest end up on those CDs & DVDs to keep everything on teh computer would fill it up too much in the end.

Only times the dog smells - 1 - when she is wet and 2 when she needs a bath (much like people you could say). If the bedding is washed and floor vacuumed cannot see any problems with 'lingering' smell - (however years ago I have seen people leave 'lingering' smells in rooms). But then I cannot think of a time when I have been in a dog persons house actually ever been able to smell that dogs were there.

From all those animal planet tv shows (esp Animal Precinct with those poor cats that an owner tried to feed a vegetarian diet to) would have thought dogs prefer a meat based diet (ie in the wild they ate teh prey and whatever plant materiel said prey had eaten) but can survive if necessary on plants. cats cannot they need meat or end up very very sick. Unfortunately you do hear ofthose rare cases where someone has tried to put their ideals onto their pets when it comes to eating rather than finding the diet that best suits the animal.

Does it work within a day of the first dose? You may (or my not) remember I posted ages back about the dog being lame after resting after exercise. Well she got worse again the other night so wet to vet. Vet said that she could feel the less muscle tone and stiffness in the back legs moreso in one than the other. Said that indicated arthritis and recommended course of cartrophan injections. Dog is only just 7 but when younger use to happily throw herself down and roll on paving (yes throw the hip onto the ground with a WHACK from a run no dropping and rolling). Now only reserves thatmove for inside and on grass. But anyway had injection last night and tonight dog has energy to burn running/bouncing around like a mad thing - coud it really have worked that fast? Vet said usually takes up to the third injection.

Never had a problem with the front dew claws and the dog uses them to manipulate toys etc. Would let them be unless there is some kind of problem with them.

The worst thing (according to the dog) you can do to her aside from having that evil vacuum machine on clearing away her hair from the carpet is to turn the HOSE on her. If the hose is on and someone picks it up she will take off inside and may come if called but very very slowly ready at any moment to run if you try and turn that hose near her. Anyway due to this phobia she is washed in the bath. Nothing like covering the bathroom with hair but at least we get a clean dog as she will put up with the small hose for the reward of treats now and again (just have to be ready to let her go in a nearby room for the mega rolling session that follows getting wet).