@Emilio Garcia: Thanks Emilio!.....I'm pleased that the resizing tip worked but it's a shame that your photos are still not as sharp as you would like. For my own horizontal format photos I resize to exactly 800 pixels wide with the highest (12) quality setting in photoshop.

Here's a futher tip that Momo left for me regarding resizing and I quote : "Ian... oh, you know, I complained about Am3 making my images soft and changing color and that was even with my sizing images to 800...then i discovered that all my images were in adobe rgb and not srgb...i change the profile and they're fine now...i forgot that i set my computer to automatically change my F30 images to adobe's rgb profile...i did that for work which is press work...i've gotta change that first thing ..."

@Lorraine: Thanks Lorraine....It's a beautiful place isn't it!
I'm glad you've liked the photos so far. The ones over the next few days will be rather different as they were taken in the Paris unedrground Metro system.

@Dan: Thanks Dan!...I really love taking tripod mounted night photos, especially when it's in a truly beautiful part of the world such as this one.

@eddy: Thanks very much Eddy!

@ally (:: Thanks very much!

@GJC: Thanks very much GJC...I had quite a bit of time to take photos on that recent trip to France. I actually took about 800 photos so I've got a lot to pick and choose from.....so many in fact that I'm sure I'll haven't even processed some of them.

@Andrea Auf dem Brinke: Thanks very much....yes, it's very beautiful in the Alps isn't it!

@Auror: Thanks very much Auror!

@amy: Thanks Amy!....although I'd done long exposure night shots with this new camera before going to the alps I hadn't taken any where the sky was important so these photos were a first for me.....like you I was surprised at how the clouds came out but pleased with the overall effect.

@Michael Rawluk: Me too Michael...great isn't it!.....in real life those lights in the distant valley were twinkling rather than the flat image we see here, and the whole thing was quite magical in the still, cold night air so high up in the mountains like that!

@Momo: Thanks for the tip Momo...If you don't mind, I've cut and pasted it into the resizing advice in the header to my photos.

@Twelvebit: Well as far as taking a good photo is concerned I came to the conclusion a couple of months ago when i got my DSLR that 95% of it is finding interesting light in a good location, but deep down all that really matters is if you are having fun and are passionate about it.

As for myself I alternate between periods when things are going well and other times when I get so frustrated at my own lack of progress compared to all the other wonderful photographers that are out there that I wonder what the point is!

@Oswegan: Thanks very much.....it's really nice of you to say that!

I had great fun taking these shots and I'm hope it showed.

@pedro alexandre: Hey that's really good of you to take that amount of trouble to log in vote for it...thanks very much!

@Andrew: Thanks very much Andrew!