They are a gorgeous pair. They are moving them up to the Highland Wildlife park as soon as funds allow a new enclosure. I can't wait to see them in the snow. They are an elusive pair though so I've no more decent ones of them (plenty of their tail disappearing though

). I've got one of Marwell's Amur Leopard from holiday last year.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6349638709/[/url
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6349638709/Marwell's Amur Lep[/url on Flickr


A few more of my favourite big cats

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6349638763/[/url
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6349638763/Tiger cub HWP[/url on Flickr
One of the three Amur Tiger cubs from HWP who are all now grown up

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6350385450/[/url
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6350385450/Marwell Cheetah[/url on Flickr

The first Cheetah I ever seen. Magnificent animals.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6350385386/[/url
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6350385386/Tibor[/url on Flickr

Tibor, Edinburgh's Sumatran Tiger

Absolutely beautiful!

Last one from me for now. Mowgli is my favourite animal in the zoo. Jaguars are my favourite animal. It's not a great pic as he's the most elusive animal they have - even worse than the Amur Lep's.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6351279469/[/url
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_graeme/6351279469/Mowgli[/url on Flickr

The Canon S95 looks good to me.

I was slightly attracted to the interchangeable-lens compacts but the small sensors they have means that they are not the replacement for an SLR that I had thought they might be.
The attraction then evaporated for me.

So, for those times when the SLR is too bulky, I'm going for a compact ... probably the Canon S95.

Emma absolutely hammers digital compact cameras, by taking them fishing and dropping them on shingle, rocks etc, she's managed to get through a fair few. A couple of years ago I told her to get a Lumix DMC-FT1 and so far it's managed to cope with all the abuse she's thrown at it. It's obviously been superceded now and I have no idea what the replacement model is.

thanks both

Has anyone got any pictures of professional rugby or football grounds that I could use? Thanks in advance

Can anyone suggest a camera for me? I'm looking for a camera that I could use for rugby games, decent zoom and pretty clear. I'd also like to be able to use for everyday life although my main use would be taking pics from the terraces at pro games and also some amateur matches. I wouldn't like to spend more than £400 but could probably just stretch to £500 for something good.

Cheers in advance.

The Canon 50d Can be picked up in your budget on eBay, well suited to sports photography with it's rapid shutter speed and practically no delay, a Tamron 70-300 lens would be good for rugby, everyday life you would need something shorter, the stock 18-55mm lens? Search eBay and look at getting one with the 18-55mm lens, and purchase the zoom lens later.

At F4/5.6 it isn't fast enough for sports photography.

Hmmmm. A tad sweeping.

Given good light (and even winter days can have good light sometimes) f/4 or f/5.6 should allow 1/500 at a reasonable ISO (say 400 or thereabouts).

I shoot rugby with a f/2.8 lens but often set the aperture to f/5.6 to allow slightly more leeway with the focussing of fast-moving subjects.

Having not used the tamron at rugby I couldn't say for sure, it's acceptable for powerboat, Sunday league football and cricket.

The guy was asking with a budget, it's within his budget and he'll get some great snaps. Like the poster above, I've managed in winter months with 1/500 on ISO100, not the best light but decent results. I wouldn't have told him to go spend a grand on glass before deciding he didn't really like taking photos.

Thanks a lot, I'll check it out

Anyone thinking of buying a point-and-shoot this Christmas will find some useful, generic, info here ...

[urlhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57329700-1/how-to-tell-if-a-cheap-camera-is-any-good/[/url

Looking at getting an "entry level" DSLR for Christmas. Anyone recommend any?

Been looking at the Nikon d3100 but can't decide whether its worth just buying the body and getting a better lens or one that comes with an 18-55 lens

All recommendations welcome, looking no more than around £450

Entry level Canons and Nikons will all do a great job, just check with the Nikon how long it has been around, their entry models tend to be around a bit longer than Canon's and you may get more for your money with a Canon.

Your idea with the lens is right, the Canon kit lens isn't that bad but if you have the money have a look at some second hand [url=http://bit.ly/ueSzORSigma's 24-70 f2.8[/url is a fantastic lens for the money.

Having had some reasonable success with concert photography last year: www.flickr.com/photos/mortonstal ... 79/detail/ I'm now very excited that my daughter has managed to get us front row seats for The Overtones next year. It's the same venue - Blackpool Opera House - but for Olly I was about two thirds of the way back and used my 55-250 lens. Obviously this won't be any good for the front row seats, so just wondering if anyone can suggest a decent lens for me for this distance. Cheers

Having had some reasonable success with concert photography last year: www.flickr.com/photos/mortonstal ... 79/detail/ I'm now very excited that my daughter has managed to get us front row seats for The Overtones next year. It's the same venue - Blackpool Opera House - but for Olly I was about two thirds of the way back and used my 55-250 lens. Obviously this won't be any good for the front row seats, so just wondering if anyone can suggest a decent lens for me for this distance. Cheers

Any recommendations on a Canon? All seem a bit pricey except for the 1100

My cousin has just bought that and she shot a whole wedding in automatic with the kit 18-55mm lens. Horrible as it sounds, she did a decent job and her friend was over the moon, I was gobsmacked.

The Nikon d3100 seems to have a better spec than the Canon 1100

I love HWP, it is such a great place. The wife and I did the keeper for a day package on our honeymoon and loved every minute of it. Glad we got to see the cubs when they were small(er).

I was sad the Uri was euthanased along with Mercedes, but they were getting on a bit. Anyway here are a few pics from the day (April 2010)

Feeding Uri



Uri sat by the lake



One of the cubs, because we had been feeding them, they were very "friendly"



Cubs have big teeth too!



Putting all the beef out for the little puddy cats



Watch those fingers



Rewarding Mercedes the polar bear after sucessful target training.



All in all a good day.

Polar Bears look a lot beter surrounded by ice

It's a great place Thornton Saint. We're regular visitors. If you go up again there's now a fantastic cake shop in Kingussie called the Potting Shed that is well worth a visit. They are the same people that have the nursery and cake shop out at Inshraich.



They do, but even wild ones aren't on ice all year round as shown by the Frozen Planets programme.

In Mercedes' case she'd have been dead in 1984 without the intervention of RZSS and the car company so whilst she lived in not ideal conditions at Edinburgh it's better than being dead. The enclosure built for her at HWP is great and that enclosure and her 'roadtesting' of it is going to play a big part in helping in the conservation of Polar Bears in the future.

Quote ="rover49"Polar Bears look a lot beter surrounded by ice'" And we don't have any of that in Scotland, close to Aviemore... Mercedes lived a long and fruitful life at both Edinburgh Zoo where she bred cubs and HWP where she had a couple of years of fantastic conditions, anyone who saw her romping through the snow would have seen an animal completely happy with her surroundings. She ended up in the zoo because she had become a pest wandering to town to scavenge for food, more info here www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/support/ ... ppeal.html

Quote ="rover49"Polar Bears look a lot beter surrounded by ice'" And we don't have any of that in Scotland, close to Aviemore... Mercedes lived a long and fruitful life at both Edinburgh Zoo where she bred cubs and HWP where she had a couple of years of fantastic conditions, anyone who saw her romping through the snow would have seen an animal completely happy with her surroundings. She ended up in the zoo because she had become a pest wandering to town to scavenge for food, more info here www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/support/ ... ppeal.html

anyone who likes "wildlife" photography should get themselves to Chester Zoo and/or Longleat, I'll try and post some of my pics tomorrow.

And this is when I will concede that, on the day in Longleat I do wish, with all my heart, I had bought the D60 and not the 550, with the lens I hired the shutter speed just wasn't quite fast enought to catch the bird of prey show as well as I'd have liked. Still got some shots I am fairly proud of on a personal level though.