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Went for a run up Arthurs Seat tonight with the intention of photographing the sunset and ended up rattling off a few of the Scoob as well. First I've really taken since putting the Prodrive grill on and it was still reasonably clean after the Jim Clark if you overlook the flies welded to it. Light was great for pics tonight, recommended location if your going to photograph the car! And a long shot of the location... More on Flickr Current plans for it. Alloys re-powder coated after I kerbed one really bad, back window tints, possibly a splitter if it'll clear the drive with one on and then the whole thing detailed to take the little paint imprefections out!

Few more from the Jim Clark, doubt I'll ever get around to processing the rest to be honest. Nice day out and nice to finally put some faces to names from here!

Road closes at 10.30, first Historic at 11.05, first National at 11.45, certainly wouldn't go any earlier than 9.15. Only 45 minute drive, and should get parked right at the stage. Always have here in the past.

Yes, its Bob alright Davie. Not sure if he's going or not, he's down there today and is letting me know later.

Might also be meeting someone else so that'll likely be the shell station at Deghorn on the Edinburgh bypass. Road closes at Ayton at 10.30 and we'll be parked up right at the stage so maybe about 9.30? Few choices at this spot, either Ayton Castle as the backdrop or there is a series of 2 S bends where they join the main road. There's also a farm section and a little railway bridge that the top guys might just lift the wheels on. Will meet one of the pro rally photo boys down there with any luck, if he doesn't know where to go for the best shots no-one will! If we get to Harehead its a hairpin so bring the wide lens!

I'm going down Sunday from Edinburgh if you want to tail me down. Prob do Ayton 1 & 2 and maybe Harehead 2 on way back if I can find the turn off on the A1. Also depending on the weather, not a lot of fun if it hoses it down, done many JC's in the wet and the worst thing is it decimates the field. Was thinking of going tomorrow but landed a free ticket for the Heinekin Cup final at Murrayfied tomorrow so...

Bought a Marumi ring flash for the Nikon today. Much cheaper alternative at £125. No idea at all how to use it properly though! Furustrating beyond belief.

It's about 3/4 of a mile before Swinton Crossroads. It's be very hard to get near it though, probably a cross country hike or get in before the road closure. There's another big jump after the crossroads too on a much narrower bit of road, really dodgey bit to be standing watching or taking pic though and its a cross field and jump through the hedges to get there again.

Anyone going to the start in Edinburgh at Fountain Park tomorrow night? Thought I would wander along after work as its less than 2 miles away.

Go to the Jim Clark site and download the regulations for each event, you get detailed stage time info in them. 4Hero, all the great photo locations will be very hard to get near these days. There were always the classics, the 2 big Swinton jumps, the ford on Blackadder, the humpback bridge on Blackadder, the Lanton ford etc but you can't get near now for health and safety reasons. In some cases I'm not surprised, I got a hot wheel nut on the leg at the blackadder humpback when Raymond Munro sheared a wheel on landing there many years ago! However, there are a few photogenic locations. Duns itself is a no brainer. You can drive into the Bothwell stage and park up if you get there before the road closes and there are loads of good places. There's a bit on a small metal bridge when they might lift wheels but you locked in till the road reopens. There is also the hairpin or the farm section on that stage. Village of Eccles is nice as a backdrop, hard to get close so use a BIG lens! Ayton down where it's very near the A1 is where the speccy pack image is taken, you can get Ayton Castle in the backdrop there. There's also a farm near that thats pretty photogenic, you could get both runs there on Sunday AM, thats where I'll be. Macks Mill has some huge jumps but you'll need to get there very early and walk a good distance in before the road closes too. I've got a pic of Jonny Milner about 12 feet in the air over the Blackadder humpback in his Corolla WRC, must post it if I can find it. Shame its not the event it used to be, it certainly was the best rally in the UK for many years, shadow of its former self now.

Where do you find all these beasties! I can hardly find any to bother with the macro lens! Quick question about macro stuff. My macro lens is a 105mm that does true 1:1 macro, if I put an extension tube on that could I get in even closer as I simply could not get an image like the one above! Anyone any ideas on budget ring flashes for Nikon? Cheapy one prefered, cant justify £300-£400 for the Sigma or Nikon ones. Jessops do one at £125 but none in stock anywhere.

I wouldn't be so sure, there's been a lot on Twitter about movie capability etc and other features in 0s3 that the current hardware cannot support so that will essentially mean new hardware as well. That's just one example but there is a lot of talk about multiple versions, ie, a basic version and an all singing and dancing version. The recent price cuts in the 02 stores also seem to point to a new version coming, they done the same with the 2G, dropped the prices to clear it out for the 3G. Of course, if your not that fussed about a new version get one now and you will get OS3 as a free upgrade when it's released.

Had one since they came out and it's the one thing I'd be lost without. It's not like any other mobile you'll get, its a lot more than that! Hang off a month or so though, just incase the rumoured new version comes along.

I'll be at Ayton Sunday morning, the bit where it comes closest to the A1 where you can see Ayton Castle. good section around there once they leave the main road, easy parking too. Probably head up to the hairpin on Harehead after that, easy to get into again from the A1.

Enjoying the HDR stuff now. Now doing it from a single RAW image and manually adjusting the exposure in Adobe Lightroom. Much easier. Taken today on Calton Hill.

I am shooting raw and fine jpg these days, but as photoshop needs at least cs2 to read the nikon nef file I can't do anything with them! iPhoto can read them doesn't convert as far as I know so pretty pointless. Will need a bittorrent discount to upgrade the photoshop just now after buying the new camera.

Only got access to photoshop cs at home or the bundled Nikon stuff and iPhoto hence why I usually shoot JPEG.

That one was done using the auto bracketing stepping up and down 2EV. Worked ok but have had a few issues with other shots getting them to line up. The RAW method seems a lot better but to be honest I've yet to figure out how to work with RAW images. Can Photomatix 3 work with a single raw image? I've got a trial of Nikon Capture 2 on the Mac just now but have yet to figure out how to use it either!

Going to be in Coldingham this weekend so might head down to Ayton on Sunday morning. Good bit right of the A1, its the location of the pic on the front of the speccy pack for this year.

Much happier with this HDR. What a sunset tonight over the Forth. Not an HDR but very pleased with it.

Need some feedback from the HDR guys! First attempt at HDR, I've little idea what I was doing, and little idea if this is good enough or not! Done with Photomatix 3 which is much better than Photoshop CS4 at processing the image btw. Not the greatest scene but I was charging around trying to get the sunset.

The bug in mid air is an exceptional shot. This HDR stuff? I really like it but have no idea what it's all about? Have tried googling but not turned up anything definative. How do you do it? I know it's photoshop based, is CS a high enough version to do it with?

Taken tonight at South Queensferry

There used to be so many places you could get to with the big jumps but they are well guarded by the marshal's these days and you cannot get near them without press access. I done every Jim Clark from 1998 to 2005, most with full press access and got some great shots but in the end the red tape stopped it all and I've not gone near the last 3 years. If you want big jumps, put a big big lens on and head to Swinton Crossroads, there's also another huge jump on Swinton, about half a mile before the crossroads but you'll need to go cross country on foot to get near it. If the blackadder stage is used there is a moster jump on a hump back bridge too. If you can get stage maps try to look for out the way spots but all the good photo points will be better guarded than Stalag 17.

Not a bad first attempt. Get yourself onto flickr and see what sort of comments etc you get. You can also get some good idea and tips on how to use the kit on there. Do a search for the same lens your using to see what other people have managed to get out of it. Might be worth looking on 7dayshop.com for their cheap close up filters if you going to do much plants and stuff, cheap way into the close up photos. My 67mm one done me well till I got the macro lens and was only £3.99! Some of the flower close ups on my Flicker were done with the close up. Polarizing filter is a good idea too, stops the sky etc washing out.