I would have thought that releasing aircraft from a sufficiently high altitude would be quite advantageous in a number of ways.

It must be cheaper to use a helium based platform to elevate any number of aircraft (25 at a time. say), which could have much smaller fuel tanks, as a result of not needing to reach altitude.

An airstrip below would make an excellent site for emergency recover in case of engine failure, as well as a good place to “reload” the helium platforms.

Of course, defence of these platforms could be problematic. But who knows, we may see more of this kind of idea being used with pilotless warplanes with AI which could themselves be made cheaply enough to be expendable.

(Did I just describe missiles?)

OYE

Is that loud enough? 😀 😀 :diablo:

Hi Phill

Yes, its a worry about having people use your pics without your permission and with anything on line it is always a risk – however, there are a couple of things you can do to minimise this:

1) Post the images at low resolution – for example I post mine at 96dpi 800 pixels on the longest length and then save them at around 80kb. This does not prevent someone using them on line but the image will be far too small/low quality to be of use to anyone to print/publish

2) Use photoshop or another photo editing program to write your name and web details and a copyright note on the image itself so if anyone does use it and someone else sees it they will know where it came from and in some instances it may give you free publicity!

3) Something I do not do but which is possible is to set your site so that no one can download anything. If someone right clicks they just get a message saying the site is for viewing only – best to google for this software though

4) Add metadata to the image itself again possible in photoshop for example so your name and contact details are saved within the image and no one can claim they do not know where it originates from

At the end of the day you just have to weigh up the pros and cons and I reckon with larger versions of your images available on your site you will keep people coming back to visit!!

Cheers
Andy

All sensible stuff, and pretty much what I do myself.

I do have to say that perhaps everything is either too big or a bit too small, though.

There is free gallery software, which runs on your webspace, available to handle images so that visitors can choose any single image, watch a slide show and displays your pictures in a thumbnail view. (Well actually viewers browsers “run it”, but that’s too techy to go into here.)

I use Coppermine (which is free), but you do need access to an SQL database on your webspace.

An alternative option, if you use Frontpage, is to use the gallery tool, which will allow you to display thumbnail images of individual pictures which, when clicked on, expand to their full size. You control what “full size” means, by editing copies of your photos with an image editor, such as PS Pro or Photoshop.

Of course, if you use Frontpage, you’ll need to have FrontPage extensions enabled on the webspace. Most webspace hosts have it as an option, usually for free.

Take a look at my site, if you like. I can help if you need it.

I’m also daunted by the lens issues with DSLRs – if you buy a Canon, and want a good lens with anti shake you will pay a lot for a suitable one, as the cameras don’t have it in the body.

Cameras with anti-shake built into the body make for cheaper lenses, but by all accounts aren’t quite as good as the Canon system.

They are done in the digital domain.

You should still be able to use your stills camera, but the quality might suffer as you would have to scan the prints or slides into your computer.

Just to explain, Simon, the vapour is not being vented, it is caused by the vehicle squeezing water out of the air as it progresses, which appears as a (short lived) cloud.

It can be seen almost every sunny day if you live under the flight path of a regular commercial airline. And can/did cause a lot of consternation for high flying bombers, as it’s a dead giveaway.