• Members 454 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 6:15 p.m.

    This one has some nice qualities, the general balance and the muted tones work really nicely. Olympus cameras always did have nice, natural colours.

    But this one is a stunner. The silhouetted outline of the lone tree set against the soft light picking out the tree lined form and contours of the valley below is a lovely combination.

    Have you mentioned Swaledale before? I've never been there, but it sounded familiar and when I looked it up on an OS map I realised I'd scouted the area for a potential visit before, but I can't for the life of me remember why.

  • Members 454 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 6:30 p.m.

    Phrases such as "professional development course" fill me with dread, but if you get to visit nice places like these maybe it's not so bad.

    Great images as always, but these two images stood out due to the contemporary lighting. I imagine they looked a bit more bleak back in their heyday.

    I used to do a lot of HDR merges back when I was shooting M43, but I've tended to move away from it these days as the FF and MF bodies I use generally have enough DR for most situations. I do bracket quite a lot though and I really wish the Z8 allowed negative only bracketing like the Z7 (and every other digital camera I've owned) does, it baffles me why it doesn't.

  • Members 1184 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 6:46 p.m.

    No, new to me, and only a little over an hour away, so I expect I'll be returning. Next time I'll take some lunch though. The village tea room was shut, and the village pub only had soup - which I tried but turned out to be the most revolting thing I have tasted in years. Certainly bore no relation to leeks or potatoes!

  • Members 1963 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:08 p.m.

    They want you to admire their decor...

  • Members 2336 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:10 p.m.

    Love the burst of colour in this one.

  • Members 1963 posts
  • Members 2336 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:14 p.m.

    Good to see you are getting out and about again, and this is a lovely set. I especially like these two. The last is a nice bit of seeing.

  • Members 1963 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:14 p.m.

    Fab shots, as usual. My fave...

  • Members 2336 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:16 p.m.

    Good to see you doing some small bird photography again. I really enjoy these small bird shots.

  • Members 1963 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:17 p.m.

    Fab location and photos. One of them.

  • Members 1963 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:21 p.m.

    Fab selection and great results. My fave.

  • Members 2336 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:35 p.m.

    This is a pretty powerful shot. The abandoned silo looks pretty ominous.

  • Members 2336 posts
    Oct. 25, 2025, 7:51 p.m.

    Well, The Institution of Structural Engineers (Pre Brexit) asks for 30 hours of Professional Development, via corses and such. The Consiglio Nazionali Ingegneri, here in Italy, you guessed it asked for 30 hours of Professional Development. Both will remove your permission to practice if you do not do 30 hours. So this state of affairs was obviously dreamt up by the boffins in Brussels. The Italians take this 30 hour thing very seriously, and clearly state you cannot practice if you do not have the points. I have to do accredited courses, with proof of participation.

    IStructE met a lot of resistance, when it was introduced and do not enforce it seriously. Every few years they will select you and tell you to do your duty. You just tell the that you have read a couple of books which took 30 hours and you are fine. (Very Italian).

    It is mostly, just a huge gravy train for moonlighting university professors, and a huge waste of time for those of us who actually work and produce.

    Of couse I update my skills to stay competitive, but nobody is going to do a couse on structural plastics when I need it.

  • Members 1267 posts
    Oct. 26, 2025, 7:43 a.m.

    Yes, I think I'd have gone for this and cloned out the annoying branch that detracts from the aesthetic but do understand you take a more documentary approach.

    I think some of us in here are reaching a certain age where things are starting to fall off. Difficult to go out for a drink with people and not talk about health. It's been a tough year for both my wife and I but hopefully we're on the up, relatively speaking. I can empathise with at least some of your conditions and also having one that has taken years to get to the bottom of. In my case they gave me a battery of broad-spectrum drugs which did the trick but introduced side-effects and last year I was referred to an excellent doctor who said she is one of the very few specialists in my condition and has reduced my drugs down to a (very expensive) bi-monthly injection. I say all this not in a display of oneupmanship but to give you a bit of encouragement that they'll probably get there in the end.

  • Members 1267 posts
    Oct. 26, 2025, 7:49 a.m.

    Oh dear. I used to enjoy courses that were useful to me but became irate at those ridiculous compliance courses.
    You don't have to do 30 hours for each body do you?

  • Members 1267 posts
    Oct. 26, 2025, 7:52 a.m.

    BTW - That link doesn't work unless one removes the full stop.

  • Members 2336 posts
    Oct. 26, 2025, 10:26 a.m.

    My problem is finding couses that are relavant to what I do. Sitting through a couse that I have no interest in apart from the points is mind numbing. I have to do 30 for each, but the UK is a farce, so it is not a problem.

  • Members 1184 posts
    Oct. 26, 2025, 9:28 p.m.

    There's something strangely compelling, ominous even, about this. The back lighting is perfect.