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A busy day today, I think I may have crossed paths with fishing royalty (no pic though, a bright blue flash and it was gone)

1 - A poorly workhorse
2. Ducks on a pond
3. Dragonfly sculpture
4. Just by the side of the road
5. A young coot
6. A fish, a fish , a fishy fish ohhh
7. A fishing heron
8 & 9. a couple of birds
10. Green damselfly

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Where did you see the kingfisher?

Today in pictures
 

Foxhill nature reserve.

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Had a little drive to silverdale,you can't beat the views over the bay :)

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Nice selection there -I love your ducks on a pond. I am amazaed how anyone ever manages to photograph a kingfisher - they are just so fast when you spot them. Magical sight - there is one just up the road from me on the river and my heart skips a beat when I see him.

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You need a licence to photograph them here (near there nest). Must admit though, if I saw one on a branch, I would risk it.

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For a short period the Parks dept. had one like that, only ours was a Piaggio, it was prone to go onto two wheels on tight corners. Also until wagons became the norm we also used 3 wheeled Bonza trucks for working within the park, if you overfilled them with soil and drove up the hill in Oak Hill Park they went on two wheels, but the back two.

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Eh? What kind of guff is that? :confused:

Today in pictures
 

Not posted a link with tapatalk before, hope it works.
http://www.wildlifelens.co.uk/kingfisher-photography/

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See.....you learn something every day on here.
I never knew that. I have never seen a live Kingfisher in the wild.....though some years ago I found a dead one at the bottom of Union st in Accringon.

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Today we went to Southport.
There willbe some pics later, but right now they are still in the camera.
They will need to be picked over and resized.
It was the Orange Day Parade....so the place was packed.

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A few random landscape pics from my trip to silverdale :)

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Here are my Pics of the Protestant Orange Parade in Southport today

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I have never come across Natural England before, so don't know who they are responsible too. And support what they say about approaching nests and disturbing them. However there is a bigger picture here, we have a legal right to take photographs when we are located on publicly accessed land, be it town or country, and to photograph all things visible from that land. So the question is if I take all precautions to protect the breeding zones of the kingfisher and am located on publicly accessed land, under what authority does this group have the right to say I have to have a licence, and who polices the nest sites to make sure this happens. Don't particularly want to get into a debate about the rights and wrongs of this particular licensing legality, but more the right to take photographs when I am out in public.

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Natural England - What we do

This gives some information about the organisation.

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I agree with you Dave, and as far as i`m concerned, if i`m there i`ve already done the disturbing (accidentally), what harm does taking a photograph make.
I`ve read on other sites that the sound of a cameras shutter is enough to scare off a kingfisher, yet i`ve heard locally that one of the best places to see them is under the M65 motorway bridge, doesn`t really make a lot of sense.
I suppose it`s down to what they are used to. If you are on a well walked path, they are used to seeing people so you aren`t disturbing them. If you go somewhere a bit more secluded (Hyndburn Brook spring to mind), that`s when you may be causing an issue.

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Me Too...it would be too good a chance to miss.
If they are there, and I am there...it is purely coincidental. I would not go looking for them specifically and I would never disturb nesting birds knowingly.

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I did follow the links and found its an umbrella group to encompass all the other groups working in the field of countryside, biodiversity, Bat protection, Badger population control, and many more groups, it is however directly responsible directly to the Secretary of State.

I know of one haunt of the kingfisher that lives within an area set aside for paint-ball activity, yet maintains a hole in the bank despite all the noise and excess paint balls littering the "battle ground", another is a man made structure right next to a footpath, so perhaps they are a more robust species than we think. As you walk a lot of the same regions as I do perhaps these are the ones you are also referring too.

Without getting into a rant about the countryside and the policing that occurs to keep it that way, no one as far as I know has ever attempted to stop the motorbike scramblers that disturb more than kingfisher nests, and are active on more public footpaths as time moves on, yet the damage does not get challenged, and is more destructive to the biodiversity than I ever would tip toeing up to a kingfisher nest to take a photograph. Something I think I have a legal right to do. Right pre-rant over, I must now post my pictures before I run out of time.

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Today in Pictures, wet bits akimbo.

1. The countryside now has a brown tinge to it as the grass goes to seed.
2. I have stood here through different seasons, and every view is a pleasure.
3. You can see the brown tinge to the grass as it moves in the breeze like a morning mist.
4. Seeds waiting to leave home on the next gust.
5. We have entered the digital age, its Digi-talis.
6. Someone left a gate open, and all the wickthings escaped.
7. The disappearing jetty, it get less every year.
8. I tried to identify thith, but couldn't so ith a moth on a thithle.
9. Time for the uphill part of the way home.
10. A last look back, with a possible look of rain in the air.

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took this on Thursday ... was so far away that we didn't know a rabbit was behind the heron till I put the photos on the computer :D

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I like those kind of surprises. Nice shot Jen.

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Thanks for that -very interesting. I haven't seen 'my' Kingfisher for a while. Not sure if it's a nesting area or not - have always seen it at around the same time in the same area in the past though....

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Lovely beach and not a soul in site -perfect. That windswept tree is great.

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Number 5 is ripe for the colour selction treatment Dave......and it would look brilliant.

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I agree....and that tree would look brilliant in Mono......very dramatic.

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Yes, it was surprisingly quite (just how I like it), I've a few more pics to upload so watch this space :)

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I agree M, I may have a play with some of the pics at a later date, I'm just sorting them out into categories for now as I've 140 pics to go through :)

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You must put it on here when you have 'fettled' it.
I would be interested to see it.....though I can see it in my head:)

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A few random animal pics from the other day :)

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Here is the link to my YouTube clip(s)....for anyone who's gives a monkeys :D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LTvFI_dSJwY

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A few of mine from today - subjects a bit ripetitive but I wanted to see if I could identify that fungus under the oak tree and I think I have found it - a Boletus spp as DaveMac suggested - see pics on these links to compare. B. queletii « boletales.com
Boletus queletii - Funghi Commestibili - Funghi in Italia - Fiori in Italia - Forum Micologia e Botanica

Don't know if I'll risk picking them and eating them though! :confused::D

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not todays Pics...but some from yesterday that I have 'fettled'.
Number 4 is the original.(as if you hadn't guessd).

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Very Aesthetically Pleasing M ;)

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thank you...just me messing around.
I like messing around. If they told me it was work(or housework) I wouldn't do it! :D
Just an aside here. In picture number 1 does the chap behind the nurse look like that comedian from the PG tips advert(or is it just me who thinks that)....I can't think of his name right now(having a grey moment).

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Johnny Vegas?

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That's the guy.
Do you think he looks like him...or should I book myself in at Specsavers?

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Number 7 is my favourite....even though I am not fond of bugs.

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Don't forget the fungi season is just around the corner, so now is the time to get new batteries in your fungi detector, and to get a base line for the mycelium sensitivity.

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I have been to see my sister and hubby today and came back over the goat track so it gave me an opportunity to take a few photos with a prime lens, no zoom, just the operators skills. It's a 50mm Af VR Nikon and stops down to 1.8. cracking little job, doesn't get enough use.
Please not that no walking was involved, as usual I took them from the car.

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Looks like him to me too M, Do you Specsavers do discounts on bulk appointments! :D

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Today in Pictures, a walk around the colliery, so with my Davy lamp, tin of snap, and my best Sunday helmet, off we went.

1. I forgot to say, I brought my trunks as well.
2. Once dumped from domestic gardens, it now spreads in the wild, and a welcome colour to break up the browns. (Loosestrife)
3. Woods, walls and weeds.
4. Willowherb and the wooden bridge.
5. don't look down...don't look down....DON'T LOOK DOWN.
6. Then out of the dense canopy there appears a remnant of the past.
7. What's going on here.........HEY........... pack it in.
8. If possible I like to include a Goats Beard.
9. So there I am scrambling through the undergrowth minding my own business, when without warning this jumped out in front of me. Mugged by a Mycena.
10. Huncoat level crossing is just over there. Time to blow out the Davy Lamp.

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That's the way to do it Gremlin. No point in making life hard.
Some lovely shots there.

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Swans in need!

Hi all.
I'm not sure how to work things on here but wondered if anybody can help and maybe post this message as a new thread

The swans at Church canal have been attacked and are dying and there is one young which is ok

They look like their necks are broken. Still just about living. RSPCA were informed 1 and half hours ago but no one turned up. We tried the Telegraph too. Kids are looking after the swans the best they can for now.

Anybody know what to do ?

Sorry if this is a bit panicky but it's a crying shame and darn right Sick - whoever's done it.
I'm going back there now

Any help at all would be appreciated - they are at the stone bridge behind Emerson and Renwicks near express gifts

Cheers

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Not sure. I think there would have to be at least ten of us.:)

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Sounds like a call to the police would be the best bet. Wild animals are protected under law, they would get a better response from the RSPCA.

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hopefully pictures have attached

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Another basket of excellent pics, but number 8 is the winner for me. I love it.

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They have, only having the picturs to go off its not feasible to diagnose the problem, but a bird with a broken neck would be dead, possibly they have ingested something harmful.

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It does help Margaret when all the wheels are driven on the car and it sits high up. I wouldn't have dared take the old GT6 down there.

I did actually take one photo from outside the car, it's one which was impossible to take otherwise. The subject was the car.

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Oh that is heart breaking.
I would phone the police too. The RSPCA are a waste of space.

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I dare not print how I feel about the situation, the perpetrators should have their arms broken and left OUTSIDE A&E for a month. B******

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Russell, it might be as Dave says...they may have ingested something....birds with broken necks are usually dead......and the poster says that these are close to death.

I hope someone does something to help them soon.

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Whatever Margaret I just hope the poor creatures get help very soon, the young birds will need protecting as well.

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Hi all
Just an update about the swans. Sorry to butt into your forum last night but it was a moment of desperation and sadness as you can imagine

The RSPCA did turn up in the end - I think they had to come from Halifax. As was suggested on here, the rspca did believe that they were poisoned and they removed some bread from inside their mouths/ necks. They took the swans away. The pictures that I posted did not really reflect how awful the swans were. They could not raise their necks. The little one which was born within the last two weeks (there was only one young this year) seemed fine.

The nest this year was made close to the swing bridge opposite canal side to express gifts. That empty nest is a very sad sight

Just as an aside, there have been some cats poisoned in Church lately - according to local gossip

Regards

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Thank you for the update...it is really kind of you to let us know how things went.
You were not butting in.....you were looking for advice.
I am sure that I speak for all those who post to this thread, when I say that I hope the swans will be looked after .....and hopefully will recover.

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Looks a bit like him to me as well.

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So are Lancashire Police

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Glad things sort of got sorted, the problem , if it is poisoning, it could have been a lot worse if a child had got hold of whatever it was that was contaminated. Kids always put "stuff" in their mouth as an automatic motion. Also if cats have also been poisoned then it looks like it is covering a wider area than the canal.

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How terrible - I hope it isn't a serial poisoner and is just an isolated case. Whatever it turns out to be I hope they catch whoever did something so evil and cruel to such beautiful creatures.
As Dave points out if someone gave them deliberately contaminated bread it would have been easy for a child to have put it in their mouth with worse consequences, there are a great number of folk who walk their dogs along there and we all know how good they are at sniffing out some tasty morsel...

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I love how you fettled number 3 Margaret - how did you do it?

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glad you liked it Dianne.
I did it with photoscape....recommended by DaveMac...it is a time consuming process but it is worth it(if you get the right picture)...Oh yes and I like it even better because it was free.

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Mrs P has an eye for spotting photos that are crying out for colour isolation, and I suppose if someone says "how did you do that" it is praise indeed.

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Today in Pictures, another day of bedlam down at the Cut.

1. It is BargeArama, this barge has just gone through Foster Swing Bridge.
2. Another going in the other direction waits to go through.
3. The boat waiting at the bridge has just bounced off the centre of the structure, and is making no attempt to open the bridge, the bloke waiting had to head to the bridge with the handle.
4. This barge is sporting the flag of New Zealand, I wonder if he has come all this way, I don't think he goes home for dinner.
5. Leaving the mayhem behind, I start to enjoy the tranquillity.
6. Its a swing bridge, that doesn't swing or bridge, will re-position and take another photo now its quiet.
7. BLOOD AND SAND its all kicking off again.
8. This guy was going so fast he was doing water wheelies.
9. Just time for a bit of photographic faffing.
10. Barges a GO-GO has now passed, so its back to bird song, the wind breathing through the flowers, the gentle rustle of the grasses rubbing together,......and the distant lullaby of a pneumatic drill digging up Burnley Road, bliss.

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I do all my editing on my iPhone (pic art), I can have it finished by the time my PC or laptop boot up :)
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Husband is murmuring about getting an I-pad for work - will it be able to do the same things?

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I do not have a smart phone....and although I have an IPad the editing apps are not as good as the FREE photoscape on my desk top.

I will not have a smart phone until they are so smart that they do the housework without being told:)

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There are some editing apps, but I haven't found anything that touches photoscape....especially for the colour selection work which I really like.
I have an app on my iPad that does colour selection, but the fine control is not so good.

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The iPad app for colour selection is called Coloursplurge.

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According to the telegraph website today they had to be put to sleep.

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Yes Frank, I saw it on the headlines of the paper when I was in town.
It is a sad and sick person who could do this.

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I have 2012 photoshop pro software for messing photos about but don't often use it apart from re-sizing the photo for the forum.
I also have a Very good Nikon editing suite which is free with the higher end cameras.
I have tried it but prefer to keep photos real and try to develop my skills by camera setting, always using manual.
I put borders round photos with uMark copyright software which only costs about a tenner.
I am on my third generation of iPhones and just discovered I can use it to take panoramic photos but you can't beat a true wide angle lens, not fish eye.
I took a lot of photos last week for the Barnoldwick respite centre and printed a few on magnetic paper so they can have fridge magnets with their photos on.
It's my way of putting something back into the community.

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I'd assume so with it being a apple device m, there's numerous photography apps but "pic art" (to me) seems very user friendly.

Just downloaded it M, I'll give it a try when I've some free time :)

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No problem with iPad, there is an application already built in to mess photos about plus some free ones you can down load..
I tried it a few times for fun but deleted them afterwards.

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Here's that pic of the wind swept tree, I went for the old oil painting look.the app is called 'pics art' not "pic art" :)
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It's what takes your fancy but personally I don't like photos which have been doctored ; too far over the top.

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My manipulated pics are obvious(when they bring out a camera that will do colour selection techniques, I will be having one)...and I do it because I like the artisitc effects I can create.....but like you Russell, I do prefer pics to be as natural as possible.

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Yes there are numerous apps and I have downloaded quite a few which looked like they would be good, but have been disappointed.
Most of the manipulted stuff I have posted(the colour reduction stuff) is done on PhotoScape.
It is a brilliant program easy to use with lots of different effects......and FREE.
By the way did I mention it was FREE? :D

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Dave - your captions are priceless! Love your photos too, especially number 9 :)

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That should have read 'artistic'.....I am just giving Jaysays keyboard a run...it has been out of action for too long.

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Accyexplorer...see what you have done......that is another photo editing app on my Ipad :D

I will have a play around with that later.

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Lightroom mainly for me now. I used to think along the same lines as Gremlin, but had my mind changed a while back after reading an article on the subject. If I can find it I`ll put up a link (not trying to change anyones mind about it, it was an interesting article and worth a read if you`re interested).

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I used to think that manipulating images was 'cheating' making a picture into something it wasn't.
But I do enjoy making a picture different to the original.
It takes nothing at all from the beauty or validity of that picture.....it just creates something which is based on the original.....and my creation is going to be original to me because it is the way only I would create it.

My dear old dad was a photographer of the old school, but he did some manipulating of his own.....he superimposed images onto different backgrounds....he coloured photo's when there were only monochrome pictures.
I often wonder what he would make of digital photography and the editing that is now possible.

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Here`s one similar to the one I read before, it was a bit more detailed but I can`t find that one -

Post processing digital images - right or wrong?

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Interesting article....and yes, I remember helping my dad in his darkroom and he would check the developing images and he would leave some in the developer longer, before putting them in the 'fixer'....I was only about ten years old at the time and did not fully understand the process.

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The bit I found most interesting was the fact that almost all images have had post processing applied by the camera before you even see the picture you`ve took.
But the camera software doesn`t always get it right, you know the image you saw, not the camera. The camera can only guess what is right from the information it has received from the sensor.
That was the reason for me starting to process my images myself rather than letting the camera do it.

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I know what you mean Gremlin and I "do" very little to mine except a bit of cropping and sometimes reducing changeing the light/contrast. I have the Photoscape application which Dave and Margaret put me onto but I'm not very good with it. Have never sat down and tried to get to grips with it properly and it probably needs updating too.

I liked the colour effect on A-ex's windswept tree but the oil-painting crazing is perhaps a bit much. I would like to see it in simple B&W really!

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I wouldn't update your Photoscape Dianne, there is very little new that is in it...you just need to have a play with the version you have.

I have been a bit naughty and I have copied AccyExplorers picture of the tree.....I have cropped it and changed it to just Monochrome.
I have confessed and I have promised to send the image to Accyexplorer so that he can have it for his archives and if he wants to let you see it he can post it on here.....the choice is up to him.

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Lol!!!! You just couldn't resist :p

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Yes I thought it was just me with those thoughts. It isn't that I don't like the picture....I am not fond of the 'crazing'......I think it distracts from what is a beautiful image.

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I am so transparent.

I had the image in my head......it is such a lovely shot of the tree.

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I knew that JPEG images had been 'fettled' by the camera, and RAW images need to be dealt with by the appropriate software, but hadn't really thought of this as manipulation...more as a conversion exercise, but when you look at it it very similar.
Three of my cameras will take RAW images, but I have never bothered with using this format, considering it to be a bit of a fag.

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I use lightroom as well

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Just a stroll around Entwistle Res today. Would suit Gremlin as it is flat and just acroos the road from the car park.You can walk as little or as far as you want.

Today in pictures
 

Shooting RAW max? Looks like it from pic 2.

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I haven't used raw fro quite some time. I am going to set my camera to shoot raw and jpeg again.

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On reflection,perhaps, I did go a little over the top with my oil pic version :p.
Here it is in simple B&W.
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I'm still curious as to how M has manipulated it and asked her to post it on here if she will :)

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this is not my picture.......it is one that Accyexplorer took.
All I have done is to change it to a Monochrome picture...for impact and dramatic effect.
I hope you like it Jason.
Alongside the original for comparison.

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I like that version of yours better than the oil painting one(in fact I like it better than the colour version if I am honest).......and it is not dissimilar to what I have done.
I just cropped the picture to give more impact to the tree...oh and I turned up the contrast a bit.

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Well done M, another aesthetically pleasing manipulation on your behalf :D

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I should have said....Thank you for letting me 'fiddle'with your picture.
I enjoyed it.