Might I suggest that in future you publish just the better pictures only rather than also including the ones that you seem to have taken accidentally. I mean a random photo of a dog's arse isn't really that interesting is it?

It's a photo of someone's wizard of oz socks i put it in just for them so no apologue.
Maybe you could post your photos of CM Papa.

What I think you need to do is take along your tripod, and take pictures without a flash (so that the flash doesn't just bounce off the nearest white/reflective object); you need the tripod to keep things steady because this gives you a much longer exposure time. Then adjust the brightness (in Photoshop), in either image>adjustments>auto levels, or image>adjustments>brightness/contrast. Otherwise you be always gettin results like below in the winter...

Critical Mass London

Tbe advice of using a tripod for night stuff is good. Doesn't need to be a full size one. If you use a pocket sized tripod, there's always either a horizontal or vertical surface nearby to rest it on. You can also greatly improve many mediochre pics by fiddling around with them using even the simplest of graphics programs. You don't need photoshop. Unless you're earning a living from photography, something as complex and cumbersome as photoshop is a real sledgehammer approach. Using just a basic program, I revealed much hidden detail in your nft pic by just lifting the gamma or midtones setting - normally found under image/levels or adjust/levels. I removed the dog's arse etc in the other by using the crop tool. There is always unecessary stuff such as dull sky or tarmac in a picture and you can nearly always improve any pic by cropping. Never be afraid to fiddle around with your graphics program, providing you keep copies of the original files, you can't break anything. Just don't overdo the tweaking. hope that helps.

Good difference in those pics - if people get the time it would be good to do this with the pictures - but if no time no worries - I'd rather see the dogs arse or wotever rather than nothing :) thanks for the pics - see you on NYE :-)

PS - what's a good bit of software that isn't an atomic sledghammer like photoshop?

I actually used to be the Dogs Arse Judge at Crufts and consider the above image to be probably the finest dogs arse I have seen. Well done!