Martyn Pitt

Rick Formatting will erase the data ... sort of ... it's still there until you write over it ... but let's not format it. Is it the camera or the memory card that has stopped working? You may have better luck removing the card from the camera and using a card reader plugged into a USB on the PC, at least you would be able to see the card as an external drive and be able to view any files on it, if so you could simply drag them onto your PC.

The Whitethroat were busy pairing up and nest building

I was waiting patiently for a Sedgie to pose for me when this fella came bounding down the path. Looks like he had been running through damp grass as his coat was pretty wet.

One of the many Sedge Warblers now residing at Belvide for the summer, already pairing up and building nests.

Something I don't see very often ... Hair ... sorry a Hare, posing nicely in the sunshine

This was amusing watching the young Mallards chasing, and catching flies

Has to be early 70's all the skinheads bouncing around to 6 x 6 ... god knows how they danced in the DMs'

A simple Blue Tit amongst the Phragmites reeds, they often search for insects in the feather flower spikes of the reeds.

Not sure he has got that much time spare to be honest Steve

Sorry Steve missed this, I would say Willow Warbler the pale cheek area below the eye would not be on a Chiffy

Thanks for posting that John really interesting

Thankfully when it comes to bidding on ebay I didn't know how to Steve Both sides of that Constellations was totally unplayable, still at least it would look the part on those big screens they have on the stage these days.

A male one Bob, they have wicked eyes, lunch appears to be Pigeon A female Sparrowhawk would be a bit larger and brown coloured rather than the grey / blue

A Buzzard overhead, I kept still and tried not to look like a rabbit ... looks like it has lost a primary, possibly a squabble with a Crow

They certainly love a scrap, as do swans, they can be really vicious

Not for the same reason, but you can add E/V to brighten the image, try +1 or +2 see which gives the result you want. At least with digital you can use a bit of trial and error. Sunsets and sunrise are tricky to get right because of the extreme contrast in the scene. To make the orange hues deeper set the white balance to cloudy or shade. I would recommend the following book to anyone keen to learn the mysteries of taking good images, it is concise and written in plain english so it is easy to follow Digital Exposure Handbook .

Demo, issue or the sought after Disco Demand copy

Speak for yourself Steve ... I told a guy last week that the "P" setting meant Professional

Sad news indeed, thank you Fisher for the pleasure that one record brought to us all, may you rest in peace Martyn

Nice touch getting her a shovel to match her top Baz

Johnny ... I hope you don't mind, but the quality is actually pretty good, focus is spot on, the problem is that camera light meters assume averages when automatically working out exposure, so they expect everything to be a mid grey colour, which is why most shots of the snow people take look grey, the camera has under exposed, the opposite happens if you were taking an image of a predominately black coloured bird. Back in the days of film I picked up a handy saying that has always stuck in the memory banks - Add light to white - most cameras have an E/V adjustment option, what you need to do is dial in around +1 possibly +2, (it's digital try one and see), this will correct the cameras metering. For a predominately black coloured subject apply the opposite and apply a -1 to -2 E/V adjustment You can always tweak it later in Photoshop Elements or something similar that allows basic adjustment. I spent all of 60 seconds in Photoshop Elements on your Sparrowhawk, adjusted the levels and contrast a touch, and got this

Horizontal snow today, still I needed the fresh air ... and several layers of clothing Tree Sparrow numbers are up, which is nice to see as they had declined over the last 12 months

A bit ironic choosing a song called "For once in my life" to play every day I would hope there would be some driftwood on the island so that I could fashion a dance floor,in which case my choice would be "Uptight (Everything is alright)"

A rather pleasant female Pheasant

I have one like that Steve...nice one