This is two of my fav pics.

The first one is from malta, the wreck in the background is the tugboat rozi.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7...ozi20ae.th.jpg

And this one is from Egypt, taken just south about the brothers... those are Yellow tale barracudas.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/1...udas5zc.th.jpg

That first one is beautiful, did you take those?

YES!

:D Yeah, it's a great pic...

Wow that is a cool camera, I just looked it up...shutter speed up to 10 minutes!!! Mine only does 16 seconds and that gets some pretty good night shots, I bet you could get some fantastic shots at night. Have you tried it?

Sorry Neil, but I don't follow. perhaps your post wasn't for me though.. :)

I looked at the information on the image to see what model camera you have, I looked it up and apparently you can set the shutter speed to 10 minutes. If you set it on a tripod outside on a clear night you could get some amazing shots of the stars. Have a look in the manual for your camera if you don't know what I'm on about lol

I've got shots like this

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...hy/night02.jpg

With a 16 second exposure, so with 10 minutes that could be amazing.

Now I'm with you!
Yeah that camera is quite nice, although I think I am growing out of it... i want to be able to use fish-eye lenses and such stuff! :D

The pictures I take underwater are all manual, due to the fact that the measuring don't work underwater.. :D and I have external (sub strobes) speed lights, and because I can't afford TTL I've to work it manually :).

I use two Ikelite DS 50 sub strobes for the light, it works fine, especially when you want the depth in the picture such as the one from the Rozi.

I got a great pic from Luxor in Egypt, where I used a Nikon D70, set to shutter time 1/16..(I think!) just as you advised, it sooo bloody hard to keep the camera still though.

Here is the one from Luxor

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5...07110wu.th.jpg

I wish I could afford one of the really fancy cameras, but for now mine is pretty good.

I use my fathers cameras, it's much cheaper that way. :D

The most important thing is that you can use manual settings on a camera, the rest you can live without.

Well it is only recently that I've started to use the manual settings for the shutter speed because I like taking pictures of stars and such

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...aphy/0032t.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...aphy/0033t.jpg

yeah, its funny to play around! :D
I like your pics, the are inspiring!

I found another couple of shots from the park that I took months ago. This is made from 2 pictures which I took from slightly different places, not intending to make a panoramic shot of them, but I just did it now (though the colours are awful matches).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...rkPanorama.jpg

The one I took yesterday is from where the bushes are at the left of this one, as you can see it has been cut down a lot the past few months

The clouds do matches, in shape I mean. very nice, but as you said, the colours are awful matches. :)

The clouds and ripples in the water only match a little because I used some tools to try to merge them a little.I wanted to do it quick so didn't bother with the colours to be honest.

It's amazing what you can to with pics nowadays. just like those people you removed from that church (or what ever...) picture.

It's too bad i can't do those things.. but then again, I still prefer to take photos with and old Pentax 6x7... :D

I love photoshopping, that one of the cathedral wasn't specifically difficult, I've done ones harder than that.

A load of my photographs are on my fotopic account www.blampish.fotopic.net

This is good picture... it's cool, and it's different, I like the photo objective!

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/3364/neil0sg.th.jpg

If you want to make the photo more thrilling with only the help you your camera, use a speed light and put the shutter time to say 1/125 or perhaps 1/250 or even higher depending on the light, and you will get this kind of effect:

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/4...net19al.th.jpg

This is rather cool especially when it’s this kind of objective. the visibility behind the jellyfish is something like 20 meters, but with this technique you can make the pic far more interesting. This pic is slightly overexposed though...

Wow i'm realy impressed by those pics , are those done with digital cameras? my dad was an expert with the old fashioned ones

My underwater pics are taken with a digital, so is the one from Luxor.. But as I said, I prefer the old technique!

Nothing beats the optics in a Leica camera! :D (Nowadays the as well comes as digital, but they are very expensive!)

Yeah but dont you get a much better and clearer picture with a digital?

I've never used anything but digital camera's, and I wouldn't bother with film ones simply because I like to be able to edit and delete the pictures myself, which is better done using digital.

i used to have the old sort but i much prefer the digital

You can't actually compare digital too the original technique.

First of all, the sensor in a digital camera can't with today’s technique match quality films.

Second, a digital camera is never as fast as a normal camera due to the sensor (Cmos are the ones they uses, i think, nowadays but still...)

And when it comes to the sharpness in a picture, not thing can be compared to a Hasselblad or a Leica, due to the lenses. For instance, Leica has only 5 mega pixel in their digital models, and that's because you don't need more then so to get a good quality picture if you have a very good lens.

Nikons ED glass is for sure a good one, but still, no sensors can match the quality of a film.

And, you can use a professional scanner to get the pictures into the computer with the same quality as a digital camera.

Most of the professional photographers still uses film with some exceptions.

But from a hobby perspective, there is no need for a camera with film, buy /use a digital.

Oh so thats why they never take a pic straight away. i thought ours was just abit faulty. i didnt realize that .

Yeah, it takes time for it to absorb the light or what ever, it's really enjoying: Especially when you have a couple of dolphins around you!!

OMG you have swam with dolphins?? oh wow your so lucky

Yes. The thing is that it's like a once in life time thing, because unlike the manta rays Dolphins don't like the bubbles that the scuba gears creates, so they more or less never come up close to you (unless you are in certain places on certain times of the year, when they somehow is very friendly!!), and my camera didn't work well!! I was very pissed of...

But that's life I guess.. I got a few pics though, but none really good. :|

Out of the 2,000+ pictures I have taken since I got my camera (around 7 months ago) I have prepared and uploaded some of the ones I consider to be the best http://blampish.fotopic.net/c759122.html 38 in total

Those are nice! I like the lionfish, although I’m not sure the actual name of it, it's not a common and it's not a spotted nor is it a clearfin... perhaps it's miniature.. :D

That is probably one of the best photos I've ever taken, it was in a museum in Liverpool, I'm not sure what the fish is called (lets say it is named John lol)

Yeah, we can call it john!! :D
It is a lionfish, but there are many kinds of lionfishes... :D

Here are a couple I took just a few minutes ago (despite it being freezing outside and me wearing shorts lol)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/Moon.jpg
That is probably the best shot yet I got of the moon, I was trying different shutter speeds and this was at 1/1000.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/Mars.jpg
Apparently this is Mars. My mum said it was in the paper about how it could be seen recently and judging by the red glow on the image (which looks more orange to the naked eye) I presume it might be. This is the best shot I could get, the optical zoom is only 8x.

When you take those shots at the moon and the stars, do you hold the camera in your hand or do you have something as a support??

Both pics where very good.

I have a tripod

I just found out something cool today; Texas, the band, are in my town next week to turn on the Xmas lights http://www.visitsthelens.com/display...2&channel=vst1 Judging by the timetable I guess they'll be performing maybe 4 or 5 songs so I'll take my DVCam and try to record it :D

Intruding here, but since I love pictures it was nice looking at Neil's. Neil, why don't you sign up at Flickr? I love that website/community and would upload my own pics if my stupid connection wouldn't take about 5 mins (!!!!) to upload a single one :( But it's great, you have pools and groups and all sorts of things.

I'll have a look at that later

I took yet more photos tonight, but there was a single shot that was quite outstanding. It is a little cloudy out at the moment so I couldn't get any good shots of the stars, but I noticed a rather amazing arc of light around the moon and managed to get a shot of it, and this original, unedited shot alone looks rather good

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/1-00.jpg

Then I photoshopped it a little for different results

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/1-01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/1-02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/1-03.jpg

I just wish that my camera allowed longer exposures, but the last picture is best (have to post it seperate, already got 4 here, damn limit)

This is the shot that is best, I simply selected the highlights (i.e. the bright shining moon) and inverted the selection, added a feather and then used the automatic colour, contrast and levels setting to achieve...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...raphy/1-04.jpg

The last one looks like an eye