the face of the meter is in the shadow, it is always in the shadow, it is under a cover

Then I guess you have to find some way of lighting it. A few strategically-placed reflectors? With a polarising filter to reduce reflections?

How often does everyone have to clean their sensor?

Whenever it gets so dusty I can't stand cloning the spots out of the sky.

Also, do you clean it or have the camera sent in for a professional cleaning?  I read on the internet on how to clean your sensor on your own.  I went to Wolf Camera to buy the supplys.  The salesman said they don't carry the sensor cleaning gear and does not recommend cleaning it on your own.  He suggested that he should have it professionaly cleaned for $75.

I clean it myself using the following:

1. Rocket blower. If that doesn't shift it then ...
2. Sensor cleaning brush. And if that doesn't shift it ...
3. Sensor swabs (But I've never got this far. Have bought a kit but not needed to use it yet).

I once took my camera into a shop for 'professional cleaning'. The sensor came out dirtier than when it went in. A total waste of money.

Just don't do what some people on the internet recommend, placing a piece of adhesive tape, sticky side down, on the sensor, then peeling it off. Yikes!

Quote from: hali on October 20, 2008, 09:46

as i said before , i like BigStock. but lately, yes, i've been getting the most atrocious rejection comments too.

I've always like BigStock.  And I still do! Been with them since mid-2006.  But I too have been getting some off-the-wall rejects. 

Same for me. I like them, but some of their reasons for rejection have me scratching my head. One image - accepted at IS, SS, DT, SX etc - was rejected for 'dust spots' in the sky.

They were birds.

Yikes! The stuff of nightmares.

Poor bird ... but nature's 'red in tooth and claw'.

Great!      Good way to start a Tuesday morning ...

... and such a tough request.

Interesting shot ... but you won't get it on iStock because of the truck.

I wonder, if in this case, it would work better if you changed the black frame to white. You could also clip off a fraction of the edge where, as Seren noted, you can see serious purple fringing. Mind you, you can see it on the trees too, so it could still be a problem.

Quote from: Bateleur on October 11, 2008, 01:48

This is gonna date me.

You ain't kidding. When you drove to take pictures was it in a horse and buggy? 

Nope. I didn't drive at 9  Not even a horse and buggy. But my dad drove a Ford Popular.

In this case, the site is here in Brazil, but I have another image, watermarked, used in a commercial UK site.  How do I report it to their police?

And another image stolen. Sympathies Adelaide.

But, unfortunately, I very much doubt if the UK police would do anything. They probably won't be the least bit interested.

We photographers should create some sort of union/fighting fund/whatever that would enable us to hammer a few of these thieves - hammer them as hard as the law allows.

I'm frustrated that new Nikons are only 12Mpix cameras.

Megapixels are not so very important. It's sensor size that counts. If Nikon goes up to 16Mp it just means they'll be cramming more pixels into the same size sensor, which will probably increase noise.

One of the main reasons I got the D3 was because because it has a full-frame sensor. It does everything I need it to and photos from it are acceptable in any agency.

You can't assume just because its Getty that they're always right.

I'm not assuming that "... just because it's Getty they're always right."

All I'm saying is that they're trying to take some action about it, however right or wrong that action is.

As an individual photographer, with limited means (and I guess that's like most of us on here), there's not an awful lot I can do if I find someone illegally using my images. I can ask them to stop, and that's about it. I don't have the resources to risk legal action and claims for copyright infringement ... especially if it's taking place in another country.

And the copyright infringers know this.

I'll lay money that this guy pops up somewhere else, doing the same thing. It's too easy to get away with it. What about that painter woman who won $4000 (and loads of kudos) for combining two photographs (apparently from Shutterstock) and claiming it as her own work.

What's needed if for some of these blatant thieves to get hammered, big time, to get the message across that it's unacceptable. The music industry is doing it, and the publishing industry will do it too. Why not the photographic industry?

This is gonna date me.

My first camera was an Agfa Billy ...



I accidentally left on a roadside wall in Wales - on the A470 at the entrance to the Fairy Falls, near Bettws-y-Coed, if you're passing and want to look for it. That's how traumatic the loss was. I was only 9 at the time, but I even remember the exact spot.

I can't remember if I had another in between - maybe I wasn't allowed one, given my forgetfulness - but the next one I can definitely remember was an early single-lens reflex, an Exa 1a



This had a waist-level viewfinder and the shutter and mirror combined, rather like one of those bread bins with rotating lids, so you couldn't see anything through the viewfinder until you cocked the shutter again. It also had a massive 1/30th to 1/175th range of shutter speeds ... oh, and 'Bulb'.

And trains were still being pulled by steam engines ...

I would say sell it, as it becomes valueless very quickly

I disagree. Yes, it becomes valueless in terms of money (though it may gain value again as a collectors' item    ). But it's not valueless in terms of what you can do with it.

I was using a Nikon D70s. I've upgraded to a D3 (getting serious) but I'm keeping the D70s. It's much smaller, lighter and better for carrying with me 'wherever I go'.

Keep it. You'll get much more value out of it that way.

So sad and sudden. Despite the fact that The Miz could be caustic and provocative, I learned a lot from his Photoshop tutorials, things that I've been doing today in my processing.

His memory will live on in the advice and guidance he's given people ... and in some of the outrageous things he said.

There was no one quite like him. He will be sadly missed.