mbird

Hi Dan I have a Pure Highway in the car, which receives the DAB transmission and then transmits it to the normal car stereo via a suitable FM frequency. The reception around Norwich was pretty good wit hthe windscreen aeriel, but lost it further south on the A11. I bought an external roof mounted aerial and the reception is 200% better. The reason I mention the car, is that one of our fellow boaters (though not a member of this forum) has a DAM Pure Highway mounted in his boat, and also has the external car aerial on his roof (it's only about 8" long as the bishop said to the actress), and is magnetic so doesn't cause any issues at bridges. He reckoned he got good reception just about everywhere on the norther rivers, but I don't know about the southern end. Can't beat a bit of Planet Rock as you're cruising around

Cor, thanks for the encouragement Simon! The problem is always going to be available space, especially on a sports cruiser. These are designed to have the living accomodation outside in the cockpit which is fine during the warmer months, but I still maintain it would be pretty miserable on a wet winters day under draughty canvas for the boys. Couple that with our requirement to still pass under Ludham (so about 9' max air draft) I realise the options are vastly reduced. As we would still spend 85% of our time on the rivers, I'm not willing to sacrifice the whole of the Ant, but obviously accept the upper Bure and Ant would be no longer accessible. I know the answer to that would be to move down south, but although I do like to visit the south a couple of times a year, the southern rivers just don't do it for me, with miles and miles of wide rivers and reed beds. I have seen a couple of Storboro's but as I have no experience with anything other than river craft, a lot of digging is necessary I feel! (See http://www.jonesboatyard.co.uk/boatsales/boatDetails/178_Storebro_Royal_31_Baltic_For_Sale.aspx for example)

I've convinced SWMBO that it is essential i get a hand help VHF if we want to take out canoes up to the creeks around Morston and Brancaster, so it will be on the cards! We certainly did, but more time with those twin 7.4L engines would have been even more fun . I wouldn't want the fuel bill though

Something has happened I never thought possible ..... I've developed an interest in the thought of venturing into the briney The problem is that along with another forumite (who I daresay will make himself known if he wants to) I took the RYA ICC qualification last weekend and passed. I learned an awful lot, and upon studying chartwork, course plotting and tidal vectors, I found myself becoming fascinated with the prosepct of enjoying the broads, but also being able to pop down the coast should the fancy take me, a few times a year. As you will understand, my Alpha 32 with it's 1.5 BMC is hardly the right craft for this, so a tentative search of brokerages has ensued, with very disappointing results. SWMBO is very sceptical of the whole idea, so we looked at a few boats in the local area just to get an idea of the living accomodation layouts etc, and it has to be said that most of what we've seen in the sub £40k price brackets is very claustrophobic and most of it tatty to say the least. We would need something that would still be capable of getting under Ludham Bridge (say 9' air draught) with decent sleeping accomodation for 4 (two of which are rapidly growing boys - the eldest is taller than my wife). Our Alpha fits our needs on the river perfectly, being reasonable spacious and comfortable, but some of these sea going types do seem to be form over function. What sort of designs would you peeps think I should be looking at?

They are excellent Simon . There are shots there I certainly didn't see or think of

Barry, Just out of interest, have you tried to right click on one of your picture files and then going to the "open with" option on the menu that pops up to see if MPM is there? I can't find MPM in the program list in the Start menu, but it does appear on the right-click menu.

No problem Jim I'm by no means an expert on these things but as a self confessed lazy git I always try to find the easiest way of doing something

Hi Jim/Barry Using Microsoft Picture Manager it is easy to resize loads of pics at once. When you open Picture Manager (I'll call it MPM from now on to save typing!), go to the View menu and select thumbnails (there is also an icon for this on the toolbar, normally top-left). You will see thumbnails of all the images in that gallery displayed. Whilst holding down the shift key, select the ones you want to resize, so they are all highlighted orange, release the shift key, then click the "edit pictures" button. From the edit pictures side menu, select resize. I then fill in the "custom width x height" boxes (I put 1400 in both of these) then click okay. MPM will then resize each picture to a maximum of 1400 pixels in each direction (don't worry, it will maintain the aspect ratio so you won't end up with square pictures). You will notice that all the pictures in the thumbnail view you selected will now have an asterisk by the file name, indicating these have changed and need to be saved. Just hit the save icon, and after a short delay, the resized pics will be in your folder. If you don't want to resize the originals, it is worth doing a copy-paste after selcting your images and then working on the copies that are created i nthe thumbnail view. Hope that all makes sense, but shout if not

Hi Steve Welcome to the forum, and you jump in whenever you like. We're always happy for input! As to posting links etc, that is no problem, and is easy if you use the "URL" button at the top of the reply page

Lovely shots Pat, and I reckon they are good and sharp! I also use Microsoft Picture Manager for resizing some pictures and it does a pretty good job usually.

So why do Jack and Connor look like they've been caught red-handed doing something they shouldn't And yes, your Snow Bunting is much better than mine

I would never say that Col, and infact I think the angle you used made better use of the clouds behind. I took several photos of the bow sprit, but the only one for me that worked was the one I accidentally got some land in the background. Funny how an accident can work sometimes

And so to the final location at Brancaster Staithe: Bruce pointed out the subject saying "This would make a good shot", waited for everyone to set-up .... and then moved! I followed Monochrome study of a lump of wood Don't anchors work better in the water? I bet the local council sponsor this sign These, I guess, used to be cockle and mussel cooking sheds Lobster pots Well that's all my lot folks, hope you like them. Over to you guys

Hi Guys, Back again (and Suzi Perry didn't really have her legs out this week ) Lovely shots Col, and I particularly like the one of the line of boats you have cropped down to a panoramic letterbox size. That one is easily worthy of a frame I reckon. With regard to sharpening in LR Simon, I basically boost the CLarity and Vibrance settings quite a lot, which can get a bit contrasty so you have to be a bit careful. I then raise the Sharpening "Amount" slider and "Detail" slider to anything from about 25 to 40 or so. You can see on the pic of the Snow Bunting, I had to sharpen too much really as the bird was very small in the frame even with my 300mm zoom on. When I cropped it as tight as I dare, the lack of sharpness of the lens really showed up, so I had to sharpen in LR a lot more than I would have liked, which has made the grass behind the bird look a little odd. Anyway, heres the rest: First the trip tip to Wells and we all got onto the little train..... As you can see, this is a really crap shot, as for some reason I focused between the boys and they both had their eyes shut. I'll leave the portaits to you, I think, Simon! The reason for Colins big grin? He knows there's a pint of Wherry at the end of the line Viv, Bruce, Simon and James (who is trying incredibly hard NOT to look at the burk with the camera) Roy and Pat taking it easy The bow sprit of a big rag & stick. I tried several shots of this but felt the only one that worked was where there was a thin sliver of land at the bottom of the frame, which anchors the subject and gives it context. (Sounds a bit arty-farty I know, but that's how I saw it ) A boat, not much else to say A rusty old boat cradle's wheel. I should have move position slightly to get the rail entering the water......

Our second location of the day was the delightful Morston Quay: Tide was low, but just starting to come back in This one is my personal favourite from the whole day A sign that the shellfish industry is still alive Mud, mud, glorious mud ..... and some boats! And more mud! That's all for tonight, as I really do have to go and watch The Gadget Show to see if Suzi Perry has her legs out More to follow tomorrow

Ok, I've got out of my sulk after LR crashed on me, and re-processed me "keepers", so here goes: These first four were from our first venue of the day, at Cley-next-the-sea. This little chap wasn't at all put off from his search for breackfast by all the chaps with tripods! A view of Cley mill from the marsh Tractor and boat, both resting in the grass Just some reeds

How about "Colin tries to prise Simon's Sony gear from the recycling

Hi Colin, We guessed you had trouble finding a parking space nearer the town, and decided to cut your losses. It was good to see you again though!

Hi Brian I love the one of the Bald Eagle, and I wouldn't have said that was blurry at all! The Kangaroo does look a little fuzzy around the head, but I wonder if that is to do with where the camera was actually focusing rather than camera shake, as some other areas of the photo are nicely focused.

HI Brian IS = Image Stabliser to help reduce camera shake at slower shutter speeds USM = Ultra-Sonic Motor - used by the autofocus and focuses quicker and quieter than non-usm. APO - no idea what it stands for, but this is a quote from Sigma's website "In order to attain the highest quality images, the APO lens has been made using special low-dispersion (SLD) glass and is designed to minimize color aberration."

Hi Brian My zoom is a Canon EF 70-300 f4-5.6 IS USM. You've seen my kingfisher pics etc on here, so you can see the image quality is pretty good (though not up to the standards of the type of lenses Lord Paul uses for example). They are currently £425 at Warehouse express, though I am sure a bit of shopping around would bring this down (eg one on ebay from a UK supplier, brand new, for £359 at the moment). The Sigma and Tamron lenses are probably cheaper, and some are as goood, if not better, that the Canon ones, but I have no experience of these so cannot comment. You're welcome to try mine out if you want and see what you reckon.

Would you believe it. I just about finished tweaking the photos I wanted to upload in LR2, and then the damned program crashed. I opened it up again and all my tweaking has been lost. I'm slightly miffed

Thanks for the explaination Dave, that all makes sense. I didn't think for a minute that images of that quality would be captured by a "normal" camera . They are simply awesome images

Another breathtaking picture How do you get rid of the "noise" from such a long exposure?

Beautiful shot Ian . That just shouts everything I love about the Broads that one. Loddon is a lovely little spot Andy, especially if you moor at Pyes Mill rather than the basin so your not too near the road. Very interesting little place to wander around too, and there is the White Horse in Chedgrave just 5 mins walk away which is a cracking pub.