Well the GOOD NEWS is the baton has finally been passed.

Despite an overwhelming show of support in the poll (thank you Fortune Chan - your vote counted), I have only now been (un)named moderator of the "Pictures & Movies" Forum.
I can only assume my poor showing in "Twat of the year & Moderator for Fight Club", there may have been some lingering doubts as to my suitability for the role.
However, after promises of home-made mince pies to L-B for Xmas, the transition is complete and I have officially joined the ranks of the much reviled. (And about time too)

However, because of the abuse I will undoubtably receive I have requested anonymity

The AIM of the forum will be:

1) to show PHOTOS that are lamma related;
This is not just about slapping a few pictures on a forum wall, otherwise we might get some idiot posting photos all the time & taking trollism to a deeper level. The idea will be to not only offer critique but to give a greater understanding of the lengths that people go to to get that photo, also the equipment & method of obtaining that image (F-Levels, DOF, Aperature, Sensitivity, G-Strings, Flashlights, Lenses, etc, etc). There are plenty of renowned, accomplished, and professional photographers on Lamma, but we never get anything from them, so we'll have to go it alone & do as best we can.
But then again, any old pictures will be welcome (Lamma relative).

2) to highlight MOVIES written, produced and directed by Lamma residents and/ or their Mums, or at least had a walk on part. Up for first review & possible showing at a bar near you (if they'll allow it), will be movies from the effervescent Mr. Bruce Baron...., if I can get any copies from him. Also, anybody that's had an affair with a movie star, or a relative of theirs, & were they any good.
Reviews, recommendations of any movie will also be welcome.

The BAD NEWS.............
I bought my first camera 4 months ago & I haven't been to the movies for about 5 years.

And then there's the BURNING BUSH and the immortal words of Moses - "Okay whose dumb idea was this"

First picture of a relative of a Lamma resident.....

Welcome to the "official ranks of the much reviled", Mr Anonymous.

Soon you might also be entitled to a copy of Harry's book - which you'll have to pay for yourself, of course - signed and dedicated to [color=green]"(insert your name here instead of mine)... who gets more abuse tha Tung Chee Hwa. Well done!"[/color]

Let's start this forum off with reminding you that this is NOT a Fight Club forum and attacks on member's relatives are not welcome.

I'd also recommend you to get a hold of Photoshop or another photo-processing software, to improve and fine-tune your photos which seem to be getting much better steadily. But this photo above (what a mess!) is certainly not among them!

With a little minimal tweaking it would actually have been recognisable and you'd have recognised that this doesn't look at all like a member of the famous clan of Granola Eaters. Quite a superficial likeness, yes, but the unmistakable grin of the clan chief - a genetic family trait, I believe - is completely missing!

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Thanks for yr words of guidance but I'm afraid you've dropped the plot oh pickled meister...............
As has possibly been noticed by visitors to these hallowed forums - Where is Granola Eater? Why is the Fight Club dormant? - the answer is in the image posted above.

GE comes from a long line of skulking bottom feeders and his avatar image is no less than a facade used to succumb the poor unsuspecting voters into a false sense of security in the knowledge that once the cyberpublic were lulled, he could gravitate to whence he came - the shadows.
And what better way to depict his true character than with a pair of ugly eyeballs leering out of those very same shadows.

As for photoshop.........., the image had already been tweaked........, but not as a mess as you quite wrongly stated............ but of a mess.

Whilst this may seem like an attack on Mr. Granola..........., I know he will understand & take it in his stride in the knowledge that "Plan B" ( ) is now on the move & almost ready to swing into action.
And besides which I am trying to strike a feeling of bonhomie between fellow moderators.

Thank you L-B once again for your well meaning tips on tweak control.
The problem (for all you readers out there) is that if you push the colour curve too far as has been done in image "B" (L-B's) when you have very little DOF (depth of field) to play with, is that the intentionally fuzzy background becomes horribly mottled - now we know we won't do it anymore - will we readers.

Thank you L-B for making this deliberate mistake to start our "new" forum off on the right track.

BTW - can anybody guess what sort of creature the "eyeballs" belong to.

That's why I think the number 1 PhotoShop skill is making and manipualting selections. The attached isn't a great improvement, but the only tweaking was on the bug itself.

Thanks Alan, would agree with you that if you wanted to tweak a particular area for emphasis this would be a far better way to go - unfortunately I don't have Photoshop & in my "tweaker" software I don't know if I can perform the action.

Much better than wholesale tweaking, if one can do it.
However with this particular image was just trying to have the image possess a particular effect (lurking in the shadows with dominating eyeballs) and as such maybe I could have raised the eyeball emphasis a bit more.

Below is a copy of the original image before tweaking.
BTW it's a stick insect.

I'd be frankly amazed if any photo editing software didn't have selections in some form. RTFM as they say. And have a look on the disks that come with digital cameras, scanners and such, they often bundle quite decent software, sometimes cut down versions like "Photoshop LE" or "PhotoDeluxe" from Adobe, which are actually easier to use and almost as powerful as the beast itself.