PossumCorner

www.rentalens.com.au a few people had used way back, but now that website seems to have a glitch. Don't have a phone No. Otherwise there's always Michaels on Elizabeth Street. Or try Camera House in Croydon, better to call there in person than telephone usually, they were helpful.

Tks all, especially Steve, just what I was after. So today they had about a dozen quail eggs (each). Happy faces. Except Frodo, he doesn't do egg shell, not even tiny ones, had to break his for him. He's now qualifies to be among the frail aged, so I hope upping his egg quota gives him an extra lease, and I'll work on the devious egg-shell feeding.

Cannot, enough problems with both species killing baby chickens when they can without encouraging their predation - magpies will enter pens if doors open. Aside from that feed for wild birds is sparse, it's a bit of damned if you do or you don't, so far as making them dependent goes, then there's no fallback for them if the treat feed runs out. (But water is put everywhere for them, that's priority). Hopefully not here - DPI have strict guidelines on clean nest boxes, frequent collection, gloves, date stamping, storage, use new cartons, all that. So I don't take chances with random eggs in case someone picks one up and puts with a today collection. And thanks but no thanks to the cooking suggestions, doggies can have them raw or not at all, and I don't feed eggs back to chooks - I know they are top protein and all that, it's just personal choice and they get prime food already so don't need it. Works for some people for sure. Thanks everyone for input, I thought there might have been something more set in stone on max quantities for dogs (they would eat a bucketful a day if they had the chance).

How good or bad are raw eggs in the adult/older dogs' diet - and how many is too many per dog per day or per week. The dogs get about three eggs a week each, and some go in the bin if I have a surplus from the chooks - with me not going anywhere I'd give them or sell them within a few days. So I could feed a few more or a lot more to the dogs, just not sure what is good nutrition or too much of a good thing. Never noticed any bad effects, nor any particular brilliance of coat or the like that I'd say due to eggs. I tried a search but can't find anything on quantity or quality as a food supplement.

So very sorry to hear this Denali, we all care, Iook after your family and yourself. Not so. Dogs can also experience shock, grief, the terrible pain of loss.

You done good. I think it will do everything you want it to and more.

Thanks Huga, lovely shots of the dogs as well as people and the water light and colour. Not a lot of joy on many of their little faces - compared to expressions in flyball or agility shots. (My dogs would say you're kidding and wouldn't get out of the car if it meant getting wet).

That's part of the comfort zone thing that the clever marketers of digital considered - as I said above it's why digital followed the popular 35mil format. It's also a hobby-horse or soap-box of mine (disgressing) - people advise in choosing a camera "go to the shop pick one you feel comfortable with" - I think that's a bit rubbish: pick the camera that has the features you like want need, then work with it til it becomes your comfort zone, not the other way around and be stuck with something below your potential. Anyway, square format: always loved it, you have the same good composition/proportion general rules to follow or break, but can fill the image to height with the important subject with less worry about distracting space at each end like overblown sky patches or dead pot-plants. So when enlargements are made, more of the negative area is useable so you get a better quality final image, less cropping - whether it's in the dark-room or computer. I won't put any links here - if you google something like "photography square format" there is lots to look at, you can even get a feel for the passion about it just from the list. As a pathetic example, I made some card boxes up and took this yesterday thinking of putting something on a flier for my farmers' market quail eggs. First shot is 'as shot' thinking to crop square to get rid of the Magna and Tym the Tractor. But should've got in closer as the crop as done isn't quite what I wanted. So today I'll put another egg-pot on a brick behind the front ones, and fill a square frame. (Or not). Me point is that square is better than oblong sometimes not always but mostly. And if I win the lottery I'll buy one of the you-beaut $40,000 cameras that can do it in spades with choice of film or digital, yum.

Aside from doing the darkroom bit (and you would need to: last time I checked the cost of pro-lab film camera develop-and-print black-and-white I fell about in shock) there is not huge difference between 35mil and digital so far as framing/cropping/image proportion go. Something about when digital was in its early days they kept to a sort of 35mil proportion so users would still be in their comfort zone and make transition more appealing. Worked. So why not wait a bit longer just keep looking for a good but affordable old Hanimex or Rollei or Hasselblad for 120 film (two and a quarter inch square format). More fun more challenging more old-time photojournalist satisfying. Also way more time-consuming, I wouldn't go back to film for that reason but it has a "look" that is special.

I've heard them talk of it a couple of times on the ABC - I think their wish is for full-on "working farm" dogs (not hobby farm/pet dogs) - would be good to see some of the less stock standard breeds included though. Frodo said if they don't want a poodle cross in a Superman cape guarding the chook pen they can shove it. Oh well, I tried. Perseph you really should do this. I'll look out for a mob being driven past on our road, they always look good, suppose I'd need a model release form signed, threw them out, back of an envelope will probably work.

I've averted disaster so far, and give all the credit to Croydon Dog Obedience Club. In the years my dogs were pretty consistently bottom of their classes, they still scraped through to pass their certificates and retained a fair recall and an understanding of "leave it". Piper the RottieX is a foody, she understands swap from basic flyball, and will leave anything she is contemplating killing if there might be a treat. Frodo the little black something-oodle still thinks the world revolves around him, so accepts the chooks as part of his adoring fan club. Rheneas the Shetland SD-cross, well he pretty much still has cotton-wool for brains, but responds happily to the no word. Oh credit also to the guinea fowl. They were meant to be correctly locked up for at least six weeks before releasing to head for the horizon, but they escaped the coop on the first day and chose to stay. So next morning, not knowing the guineas were loose, I let the dogs out. Oh wow they said, look, lunch, big fresh lunches not piddly little lunches like the untouchable chooks. And the guinea fowl said oh look, dogs, how fun, let's beat the sh++ out of them. So they did. That was two years ago, and the dogs still walk respectful wide circles around the guineas. And never look interested in the chooks now: Piper is very good at the Rottweiler stare, but if a chicken sees her with a bone and says my bone now, tick off dog - she just defers with a sigh, no tension. Started with just four, and 2 years later have around 20 hens, 4 good roosters, 20 young growers free range, and enough eggs to sell for incubating and/or at farmers markets (yes all registrations done as producer/seller). If the dogs had not had sound basic obedience training I don't think I would have had the same toolbox of a high value reward-based system to draw on. Bit of luck involved.

4/52 Along the Maldon Road.

I'm way behind so playing catch-up. 3/52 Guineafowl finding a cool spot.

Yes and yes. I think it has to be. Although the definition of "serious" can get a bit woolly - just like all the nonsense talk about whether a photographer is or is not a professional. It is a case of you get what you pay for. Shooting in Raw then processing via lightroom and photoshop is generally considered the best of the best, there's no argument against that. Doesn't mean cheaper programs cannot give lovely results. Or that jpeg cannot cut it. Good though to be aware of the differences when making choices. Tdierikx, if you have CS4, try to get hold of a couple of the Scott Kelby books to flick through, he keeps it simple and doesn't rely on "prior knowledge" of basic steps. Perseph I love your edits using SageLight, and I did get around to buying it, but need to motivate myself to use it more. I do like that it edits in Raw and automatically keeps the original, just need as you said to sit down and use it more. Edit for identity error, sorry FF that was td's post.

Good one Trifecta. I guess it could come under the old saying - "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive".

No luck, I've been out both nights/early hours mornings, checking chooks re foxes, (so many around). But no, not a flicker in the sky, surprised because the thing I heard on the ABC, well it was really talked up.

Tonight, showing in a sky near you (if your are in southern parts of Australia). I don't know how difficult it is to take a shot but will try. We need a clear sky, and maybe a bit of a google search looking for tips. Thordale in the Shetland Islands takes some lovely images of the Northern Lights but I think they are reliably seen more often there.

2 of 52. Huge flocks of Little Corellas sleep somewhere along the Loddon River. On their way to the summer feeding grounds they "drop off" the young birds that can fly but would not make the distance, and camp them for the day. Stay here kids, be good. Often a hundred or so in the taller trees in the nature strip, they practice tiny flights all day waiting for the parents to return at night. Just after sunrise this morning, a group of sixty babies in one of our front yard gum trees.

Could you post one Perseph, that link won't work for me.

Beautiful shots Nushie, where were you?

Well of course technically no. I should have said that I climbed that bloody tower once and was terrified and was not repeat not doing it again in just a few days for the same shot, if ever. I didn't think it was a huge error, it being Christmas/New Year and all that. Your list is a good memory jog, good job.

Is this the right place? Why am I first, I'm never first.?? Christmas Day 2013. Sunset over Cairn Curran Reservoir from the Tarrengower fire-spotting tower. Grampians on horizon at right, Maryborough at closer hill at left.

Not too late to opt in?? I stuffed the monthly challenge I started with last year, so the NYR is to be organised this time. Topic is broad, "Our District" - we don't have a town, it's just an area on the map, well it used to have a church but it closed. There are plenty of dry paddocks and Sunshine harvesters at work, and the ponies, dogs, chooks etc. keep us sane. I think. (Hey Gapvic, look forward to some shot now and then of your big ponies and garden to remind me of green).

Agreed Kirislin, I was really in two minds about posting though, as you said my main point here was the 'f8 and be there' factor as a basic PJ tip. (I also put the link in the chook people threads as foxes are our main pest eh). But there is the tiny moral dilemma of using pain and suffering as the focal point rather than the simple PJ of a moment in time, it gets murky to analyse. Like the Pulitzer winners book, so many of the shots are not good photography, just a shot of a moment of violence with extraordinary ripple effects from both the moment and the image. Too deep, will go and feed the ponies.

The photographer's comment reminded me of the reply to the question how do you take a good photograph. "f8 and be there". Brilliant shot, good heads-up on how easy it can be to lose a little dog, I used to think that was a myth years ago, leaned that it is not unusual. He must be chuffed, you wouldn't carry a camera on a tractor all day if you weren't hoping for a special shot. Glad the ABC picked it up. Link deleted. Think most of the regulars here have seen it for the photography interest.