Hobbies?

On 12th April 2008 20:15, Ron Brind wrote:
....And what about the lovely cats, I think all fox traps should have one! Dogs? Well they eat dogs in the Far East don't they, can't beat a bit of Labrador, Chow or unwanted Greyhound can you?....

Ron ... I think I never will submit to you my dog!!! Lol

Len, and any other expert who might be interested :), I'd been searching through the photos on PBase and , among many others, I noticed this Gil Azouri .  My photography level is really low being that an interest that I've developed only recently (still working on better excuses :), but his photos definitely caught my eyes.  What do you think about him ?   

Something else that puzzles me whenever I go through someone's album on the Internet is : where should I draw the line as far as the usage of photo editing tools??  What's regarded as acceptable and what is not?

Oh, I will also try to straiten horizons and converging verticals in buildins.

Everybody has different ideas on this one, and I will probably be told that I am wrong too.

Maria,

When I lived in San Diego, there were picnic tables on the beach where I used to go for lunch.  In fact so many people went there that the squirrels used to come right up to us, tap us on the legs with their little paws and then "beg" for food.  Of course EVERYBODY fed them (LOL) so they became quite accustomed to taking food out of our hands.

We have a similar situation at the Salem Willow Park near my house.  If fact it's a joke that if you don't give them food when they "ask" for it, they'll beat you up. LOL!

I don't really look at it in terms of what's acceptable, but rather what's appropriate for an individual image. I've done both - From just a simple touch up of sharpening and color tweak, to pretty drastic "non-realistic" distortions of the image. In my opinion, one is no more or less valid than the other as long as it "fits the needs of the image". Usually with inherently realistic subject matter, I try to just make it look as "naturally good" as I can, but sometimes it's fun to go wild. :-)

I don't like the idea (usually! :-) of trying to deceive the viewer; it's just a matter of making the final image match what I had in mind when I took it.

Maria, I just realized I didn't answer your other question.

I've not looked through every image in the gallery you linked (it's Monday morning here in the US, after all and I need to get to work, as much as I'd like not to! :-), but what I've seen is very nice. His "natural" shots are the kind I alluded to - Natural looking, but pushed about as far as possible without looking false in terms of color saturation, etc. All in all, very nice. 

>>>Ever heard of "Misothery" Ron?  I think the word was invented just for you, you skunk. LOL!

Misothery - hatred of animals? Certainly not, I think all animals should be kept within their own domain (anywhere but in the house that is) and that we should be looking after the kids and those who are less fortunate, before the animals.

Surprise, surprise Diana has now called me a Skunk if ever you did!! I wonder which term will end up being the norm for dear old Ron....Rat, Snake, or Skunk? No doubt you will get plenty of response to this Diana, but have to admit that I did find it very funny, because the very last description that I expected was Skunk! Very good!! (And by the way I think that all restaurants should have at least one cat just inside the door.......to wipe your feet on as you enter). LOVL!