I'm not sure when as it was whalst I was taking my break from DA but I sold my first DA print a couple of weeks ago.It was only a diddy print and thanks to DA's extortionate pricing policy and abominable artist profit ratio I made a princely sum of $0.14 that's aproximately 8 pence Brittish sterling....you jealous..... yeaaaah your jealous.
I haven't got a clue who the buyer was,but big,big thank's to them.It's not much,I know,but it's at least one new DA milestone for me.




My computer broke down not too long ago (taking with it a fair whack of both unprocessed and finished pieces of work I might add).Luckily,the best sister in the world (that's my sister in case your wondering......don't look like that,I don't care if your sister cured cancer or if indeed you yourself are a sister and have brought about a shift in the political climate leading to world peace....mines still the best....so there!!) has lent me her computer.
The computer doesn't have quite the same kick as mine so I'm having to learn completely new ways of editing pictures as programs such as Lightroom have a bit of trouble processing files straight from RAW,it'll do it.....eventually,it just likes to make me wait the time it takes to have 6 cups of coffee and half a pack of cigarettes,which actually is not as long as you may imagine but just enough time to drive me to computercide.
In actual fact this is no bad thing as one of my biggest barriers against growing as an artist is my subconcious insistance that what's worked on one picture will work on all pictures,which of course is absolute stool.Instead of learning new techniques and adding them to my arsenal of tricks (I say 'arsenal' it's more of a canon.....a really small toy cannon) I stubornly insist that as it worked the last time it will sure as dandy work again on a shot that was taken in completely different conditions,of a wholly different subject matter on a completely different day.And if it does'nt then so help me I'll reign fiery vengeance down upon my computer and all the little computer people inside (I call them computrons......... I can't say much more,they may be listening).It's rediculous,I know but then I am an idiot so what do you expect?

There was originally going to be a point to this rant but I can't remember quite what they may have been.I know I wanted to make people aware of the Computrons,as they are quite clearly evil and although there is no stopping them you should at least be aware of the threat they pose.
I also wanted to apologise for being behind on messages etc since my recent break from DA,and to thank you all for any faves and watches etc.
I also wanted to apologise for the constant updates or posting of re-jigged pictures.I'm finding as I look through my gallery that there are very few pictures I actually still like and absolutely none that I would consider a completely finished piece.The really annoying thing is that some of the re-edits look turd once I've posted them.....sigh,it's the computrons I'm sure of it.


Thankyou very much if you read all that....and if you didn't,well then go back to the bloody start and read it properly.You don't get to skip down to the bottom and get a 'thankyou' from me for doing nothing..............

........cheeky bugger's!!




















Belwo are some link's to free software that I find usefull and,if your not already aware of them or have paid for better,may be usefull to you too.

Usefull Free Software

QTPFSGUI
Admittedly crap name but very useful HDR app.
[link]
PHOTOSCAPE
Does absolutely everything including screen capture and RAW conversion.No one aspect is perfect but its fantastic for smoke photography,particulary the 'bloom' and 'backlight' functons
[link]
NEATIMAGE
Absolutely fantastic (for free anyway) noise reduction software.The only downside is that the free version does not save your meta data - but you can sort that by pasting back onto the original file in PS
[link]