Spot the difference!

For the past few years www.DAFC.net has been steadily improving as a site to provide information, match reports and a messageboard for fans all over the world to discuss the Pars online. The site is free and is available for everyone who can get onto the World Wide Web.

Although the site is free to use, there are considerable costs involved in maintaining/improving the site, as well as providing finances to the Club whenever we can in the form of shirt sponsorship (Noel Hunt No.9) this season.

We would like to provide more money to the club as well as continuing improvements to the site which is done on a weekly basis. All the people who work on the site do so on a voluntary basis and do not get paid for their work which takes up many hours every week.

What we require urgently now is a fast lens to compliment the new camera the site bought prior to the Scottish Cup Final 2004.

Here is a similiar picture taken by the DAFC official photographer (Blair Westwaters) with a fast lens

Below you will see two pictures taken at this seasons home game against Inverness C.T. when Barry Nicholson was "tripped" inside the box and the referee waved play on. He later admitted that contact was made.

The first picture (below) was taken by my good self at the fastest possible setting for the lens. As you can see, it could have been a good picture - but it`s not as it`s badly blurred. That was the fastest picture the camera could offer me with the light that was available at the time. In a short a good picture wasted with what limited resources we have in a lens. Every week I have to "bin" decent pictures that are blurred and have to put up often second best pictures which are not blurred. I know you appreciate what you get in the match reports, but the quality can be improved with a fast lens.

The second picture (below), taken by Blair Westwaters (who takes the pictures for the Pars programmes/merchandise), was taken at roughly the same time and a little to my left which is where we normally sit during the second half. As you can see his picture is much clearer and sharper because he is using a fast sports lens. The difference in quality is like night and day.

Which would you prefer out of the two pictures? The answer speaks for itself. These days I`m finding it difficult to get decent pictures after 3.20pm - particluarly at away games. At Easter Road recently I gave up taking pictures after 30 minutes as the light was that bad. The majority of the pictures from that game concentrated on the celebrations from Toddy`s equaliser...just because they were standing relatively still for decent pictures! (below)

A fast second-hand lens is what we need for clear, sharp pictures week after week. An added bonus with these lenses is that they blur out the background - to make the players stand out more. These lenses are not cheap and cost several hundred pounds second hand. There are two ways in which you can help us:

1. Hard cash
2. Clicking on the adverts

You can donate money to www.DAFC.net by crossing Brian, Andrew, Jason, Stephen and Neil`s palms with silver. Alternatively you can pay through the Paypal facility at the top of every page. It`s secure, and the only info we receive is the amount paid and who it is from. We also take cheque`s payable to DAFC.net

The site also receives money from adviva who have random adverts, usually at the top of each page. Click on these adverts and see what they have to offer. There are often bargains and good deals in them. For every click on the adverts, the site receives money. Recently the messageboard was upgraded onto a bigger server. This was paid for with you, the fans clicking on the adverts. Prior to that the messageboard often crashed when there was more than 20 people on it at any time.

So far, we have received donations from:

the bridie (£10)
faxman (£10)
fu manchu (£10)
DougieDave (£10)
QMUCPar (£5) Excellent, considering he`s a student.
Dino 4 (£15)
PARS_SOS (£10)
ParsLass (£10)
Leamington sPAR (£10)
Buffy (£100 Woo Hoo!)
Lambo1885 (£10)
Shaggy J (£10)
Bovril Man (£20)
Parfect68 (£10)
hivy_boby (£15)
bigtallpap (£10)
pars_andy (£10)
Fu Manchu (£10)
labrat (£50)
Anon (£10)
Sarah (£25)
margaret_pars (£20)
Daddy_Brew (£10)
James Doonan (£5)
Kenneth Connolly (£10)
Gregor Hood (£10)
Pudsey Par (£10)
Peter (£10)
William Roan (£20)
PeachtreePar (£50)

[I`m not sure if these are on here already - Neil can you check ]
Steven Williamson (£10)
Ewan Hamilton (£10)
Ian Smith (£15 - converted ?? par )
Rob Robson (£15)
rikaka (£5)
parsdaft (£10)
brew_almighty (£20)

if your name is not on here and you paid direct to bank please let me know.


£500 in total thus far. Keep it coming, your site need your support. we are going to look for a new lens so hopefully we can find a good second hand one that will do us. we`ll let you know when we find one.



To get your name on the list of donators, click on the paypal facility for www.DAFC.net

Alternatively, you can get in touch with editor@dafc.net for other methods of payment.

Adverts like the ones below, directly sponsor DAFC.net so we would be grateful if you took the time to click on the links below and find about them.

• Site Sponsors
• Topic about this on the messageboard