Random Thread of Photography

Angie

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Re: Photography Opinions Requested

It's been... 10 years? since I've last seen you, but I was thinking you were in an office setting at that time, weren't you? That's just a huge change, but it must be very rewarding!

These are technically well done. Exposure looks good and the focus seems spot on. For shooting manual, this is a great start of understanding your equipment and how it works. Keep it up.

I would further push yourself in finding work that inspires you. Start with one photo - study it. Find elements you really like about it and try to recreate those in your own images. Maybe it's the perspective, the light, the color, the expression, etc.

Thank you so much. I've been trying to find a good source for photos to just review. I mostly like taking photos of my kids (which I don't post here for obvious reasons), and then also of flowers/insects.

None of the ones in my first post did much with the light, as it was either overcast or in an indoor butterfly garden for each - I much prefer the lighting on these, taken for when the class I was taking did a night on lighting:



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stateofmind

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This reminded me of my trip to Woodland Caribou National Park in Canada with Happy Joe and his Dad a few years ago. So many emotion evoking, (Thanks Angie), scenes I HAD to capture, and did for many. Just can't post them all... :wink:
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Antihawk240

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Unfortunately, I'm joining this thread a week late, but thought I would chip in. My wife loves being an amateur photographer. When I actually noticed her work on a "cheaper" camera, I started listening to her subtle hints about wanting "a really nice one, with a really nice lens."..........So I bought her one for Christmas a couple of years ago. By far the best present I have ever given her. Our house now has artwork that I find interesting, my office now has artwork that I find interesting, only because they are of pictures similar to ones in this thread. It's cool because I see those pictures blown up, framed on a wall, and know that I was standing right by her when she took the picture.

Angie: for what it is worth, I think the butterfly pics in post #1 were the best. Zoomed right in and caught their eyes. Reminds me of a picture of a praying mantis my wife caught that is one of my all time favorites of hers.
 

Tri4Cy

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Post some thoughts, and if anyone else wants any help just let me know...

Can help with equipment, shooting, software, you name it!

I look forward to it and may try to make some of those classes work. Now that I wrapped up my professional (work) classes I'd like to develop my photography a bit to REALLY capture some great moments on my adventures!
 

Angie

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This reminded me of my trip to Woodland Caribou National Park in Canada with Happy Joe and his Dad a few years ago. So many emotion evoking, (Thanks Angie), scenes I HAD to capture, and did for many. Just can't post them all... :wink:
P1010044_zpsfw0ln2uu.jpg

Man, you know the water's clear when you can see the reflection of the clouds in it! :bigsmile: Beautiful scenery!
!

Unfortunately, I'm joining this thread a week late, but thought I would chip in. My wife loves being an amateur photographer. When I actually noticed her work on a "cheaper" camera, I started listening to her subtle hints about wanting "a really nice one, with a really nice lens."..........So I bought her one for Christmas a couple of years ago. By far the best present I have ever given her. Our house now has artwork that I find interesting, my office now has artwork that I find interesting, only because they are of pictures similar to ones in this thread. It's cool because I see those pictures blown up, framed on a wall, and know that I was standing right by her when she took the picture.

Angie: for what it is worth, I think the butterfly pics in post #1 were the best. Zoomed right in and caught their eyes. Reminds me of a picture of a praying mantis my wife caught that is one of my all time favorites of hers.

That's really awesome that you have taken an active interest and pride in her work. Photography is so personal, but you also really want to have a reaction in your audience (especially someone so important to you as your spouse). What kind of camera and lens did you get her?

You just made my day! I had a hard time with that butterfly at first - my camera really wanted to focus on his wings, but I wanted his eyes. It's more of a pointed focal point, rather than a more flat one, if that makes sense? I don't think that's any technical term, but one I just made up. :wink: I'd love to see her work!
 

ceeboe

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Re: Photography Opinions Requested

It's been... 10 years? since I've last seen you, but I was thinking you were in an office setting at that time, weren't you? That's just a huge change, but it must be very rewarding!

Thank you so much. I've been trying to find a good source for photos to just review. I mostly like taking photos of my kids (which I don't post here for obvious reasons), and then also of flowers/insects.

None of the ones in my first post did much with the light, as it was either overcast or in an indoor butterfly garden for each - I much prefer the lighting on these, taken for when the class I was taking did a night on lighting:

10 years sounds right - a lot has changed. Still in office work, but doing photography professionally part time. Not too many can make it full time in Des Moines so the job security comes in handy.

Source for photos, let me think:

Something to consider that was actually just brought to my attention is a National Geographic Subscription. Cheap, good stories, and excellent photos.

Yahoo's Flickr isn't too bad.

500 px

Smug Mug


I actually keep a photography journal. Cut out images, jot down thoughts and ideas, all a creative book of my experiences to help remind me what I liked about a particular idea or technique. This may be a good practice.


Your first flower image has great lighting. The light color is pleasing, with enough contrast to help the image pop with depth. Good bokeh,

I would agree, your others were flat for light, but that can sometimes work depending on the subject.

I feel like there is so much I could share, but could easily overload. I guess if there are any questions from anyone and I'll be happy to answer.
 

Angie

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Re: Photography Opinions Requested

10 years sounds right - a lot has changed. Still in office work, but doing photography professionally part time. Not too many can make it full time in Des Moines so the job security comes in handy.

Source for photos, let me think:

Something to consider that was actually just brought to my attention is a National Geographic Subscription. Cheap, good stories, and excellent photos.

Yahoo's Flickr isn't too bad.

500 px

Smug Mug


I actually keep a photography journal. Cut out images, jot down thoughts and ideas, all a creative book of my experiences to help remind me what I liked about a particular idea or technique. This may be a good practice.


Your first flower image has great lighting. The light color is pleasing, with enough contrast to help the image pop with depth. Good bokeh,

I would agree, your others were flat for light, but that can sometimes work depending on the subject.

I feel like there is so much I could share, but could easily overload. I guess if there are any questions from anyone and I'll be happy to answer.

i think we would all love you to stick around - that post alone has tons of info!!
 

brutodd

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I've been lurking in this thread and figure that I should throw in a pic or two of my own!

That said, big fan of flickr and 500px; I can search by camera model (in my case, Sony A6000) in Flickr to see what everybody else is shooting/has shot with the cam. 500px gives you the option of getting into the Adobe CC crowd and getting the "Awesome + Adobe" deal for ~$13/month (Adobe CC by itself is $9.99/month).

I shoot on the side, for fun. I've sold a few photos to close work colleagues but my main pride and joy is that my parents AND IN-LAWS have a pic I gave them hanging up, front and center in their living room.

I digress - critique away!
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Arkansas Cyclone

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This has always been one of my favorites. It's a pic of my step-daughter, Sean, taken at the beach on the Pacific in San Roque, Philippines.
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ceeboe

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i think we would all love you to stick around - that post alone has tons of info!!

Thank you thats very kind!

I've been lurking in this thread and figure that I should throw in a pic or two of my own!

That said, big fan of flickr and 500px; I can search by camera model (in my case, Sony A6000) in Flickr to see what everybody else is shooting/has shot with the cam. 500px gives you the option of getting into the Adobe CC crowd and getting the "Awesome + Adobe" deal for ~$13/month (Adobe CC by itself is $9.99/month).

I shoot on the side, for fun. I've sold a few photos to close work colleagues but my main pride and joy is that my parents AND IN-LAWS have a pic I gave them hanging up, front and center in their living room.

I digress - critique away!
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Here are my thoughts, but definitely not carved in stone. Photography is subjective, so I don't want you or anyone else to feel like there are other perspectives on these.

Composition: I love what you have going on. The framing of the rock is really nice and helps direct the viewer and experience the image as you want them to. I might have cropped the top so you don't see the sky and allow the rock formation to frame the entire image. My eye is lead off the photo once I hit the upper sky.

Lighting: This has great potential. This is an example that I would have taken multiple images as the sun was setting and find one that works the best. I say this because the sky is a touch too bright for my liking, although it does help fill in the background really well. Play with your shutter speeds, etc. as the sun sets. You may have gotten a more vibrant sky while still retaining the background detail...

Technical note: Not sure your software program, but try a Noise reduction software. Overall the image looks great, but had noticed on the full version that you have some noise throught. This is mostly due to your sensor of your camera. The DeNoise will help smooth our some of the details and help it print really well. Play and see what results you like.

Overall well done!
 

NWICY

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Looking at shaglist at Shaggy Texas (was shaggy bevo). Someone there is selling a Canon 60mm macrolens for $350 if I remember right. Thought I would mention it for all photography people. No idea if it's a good price.
 

ceeboe

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One quick note I thought of that I wanted to share.

File Type and Image Quality

Everyone is shooting with different equipment, so this will probably not apply to some of you, but thought it would be helpful to discuss.

When shooting your images, if your able, shoot in a RAW format as much as possible. Basically this is as close to film negative quality in a digital file as you can get to retain as much data as possible as you process your photos later. Only downside, these files can get rather big in size, so be prepared for increased storage space. Also, if you choose to use this file type, don't be alarmed as you're processing if the files look dull or flat. What you see on your camera when shooting is a jpeg version of photo. Once you import into your software to process, RAW strips away any camera processing to get you a 'raw' image to work with.

If you're unable to shoot RAW, then go as high of quality jpeg as you can. This is an 8-bit file format so I wouldn't recommend going crazy on processing as you could start distorting your image and hating the end result. JPEG is not a format that welcomes tons of post processing.

Again, very technical info that can be too overwhelming, so if you have follow questions I will be happy to help answer those.
 

Angie

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I've been lurking in this thread and figure that I should throw in a pic or two of my own!

That said, big fan of flickr and 500px; I can search by camera model (in my case, Sony A6000) in Flickr to see what everybody else is shooting/has shot with the cam. 500px gives you the option of getting into the Adobe CC crowd and getting the "Awesome + Adobe" deal for ~$13/month (Adobe CC by itself is $9.99/month).

I shoot on the side, for fun. I've sold a few photos to close work colleagues but my main pride and joy is that my parents AND IN-LAWS have a pic I gave them hanging up, front and center in their living room.

I digress - critique away!
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I love your physical positioning on this one, to let the light peek through the rock - if you had composed the photo from another angle, it wouldn't have worked. Thank you so much for the tips - what is the Awesome + Adobe? I do the Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop for $9.99/mo, what do you get with the Awesome?

This has always been one of my favorites. It's a pic of my step-daughter, Sean, taken at the beach on the Pacific in San Roque, Philippines.
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Jealous. "I'm just sitting over here, jumping on a beach in front of a rainbow."
 

Angie

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I'm looking to get a 70-300mm lens, nothing fancy, so I'm looking at Tamrons on KEH used. Would you guys go for a step down that was in "excellent plus" quality, or would you get one that is better for "excellent" quality? My options:

Fancier lens: https://www.keh.com/286702/tamron-70-300mm-f-4-5-6-ld-tele-macro-572d-lens-for-canon-ef-mount-62

"Excellent plus" quality: https://www.keh.com/212660/tamron-70-300mm-f-4-5-6-ld-tele-macro-372d-lens-for-canon-ef-mount-58

From everything I have heard about KEH, even the "excellent" quality is fairly pristine, but the grading details do mention the possible differences in quality. The newer model looks to be easier to use, however.
 

no2cyclones

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Wow, you're awesome for jumping into this thread, guitar! I'm just dabbling, mainly with my iPhone at this point. Do you have any recommendations for phone photography equipment? Eventually I'll make the jump and invest in a nicer camera, but there is kind of a niche of phone photographers out there that I've stumbled upon.
 

ceeboe

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I'm looking to get a 70-300mm lens, nothing fancy, so I'm looking at Tamrons on KEH used. Would you guys go for a step down that was in "excellent plus" quality, or would you get one that is better for "excellent" quality? My options:

Fancier lens: https://www.keh.com/286702/tamron-70-300mm-f-4-5-6-ld-tele-macro-572d-lens-for-canon-ef-mount-62

"Excellent plus" quality: https://www.keh.com/212660/tamron-70-300mm-f-4-5-6-ld-tele-macro-372d-lens-for-canon-ef-mount-58

From everything I have heard about KEH, even the "excellent" quality is fairly pristine, but the grading details do mention the possible differences in quality. The newer model looks to be easier to use, however.

First, I hope I'm not coming across as a know it all - so my advance apologies. Secondly, I'm actually teaching a Through the Looking Glass class at LHF Photo Day - so for any further advice about all types of lenses, definitely stop out.


Glass is the biggest and most import investment that anyone can spend money on. You can have a fancy camera with bad glass and it will be a bad photo. You can have an old camera with great glass and have a great photo. Tamron is a good brand to consider, but still do your research.

Some notes: 70-300mm is a do it all telephoto zoom lens. Depending on how serious you are or want to be, I can see this lens being replaced eventually, with little return on investment.

F4-5.6 aperture: This may work for you depending on what you want to shoot. If you're expecting soft, blurry bokeh - this is not the right lens. What the aperture means is as you zoom from 70-300 mm your minimum aperture setting has to be 4-5.6. You can stop down anywhere to f/22 if you'd like, but you cant go any bigger than f/5.6. This results in images with more in focus and less of the beautiful blurry bokeh.

This particular model also looks old, which means the auto focus is probably pretty slow. At first this won't matter, but as you'r trying to capture kids running around, etc. you'll notice that you can't focus fast enough to even take a shot. There are newer models of this that have better autofocus technology running around $450 (LINK HERE)
 

ceeboe

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Wow, you're awesome for jumping into this thread, guitar! I'm just dabbling, mainly with my iPhone at this point. Do you have any recommendations for phone photography equipment? Eventually I'll make the jump and invest in a nicer camera, but there is kind of a niche of phone photographers out there that I've stumbled upon.

Thanks for the kind words.

You can definitely check out all the add on lens attachments if you so wish. They range from fisheye to zoom so all sorts of styles you could play with. There are even some light attachments if you wish, but all depending on what you want to carry with you.

Sony made a neat zoom lens that uses a separate app to take photos that may be of interest. Check it out here.

The biggest thing for will be software to edit the photos you take on your phone, and there are so many! I personally use an app called Snapseed. I would start there and then play with others you may like. RNI Films just came out with a new app that I'm liking so far, but require some in app purchases as well.

Also, take a look at this book 'The Best Camera...'. This is written by a talented photographer who started the iphone photo craze. He was doing it before anyone else, an wrote a book about it.
 

Angie

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First, I hope I'm not coming across as a know it all - so my advance apologies. Secondly, I'm actually teaching a Through the Looking Glass class at LHF Photo Day - so for any further advice about all types of lenses, definitely stop out.


Glass is the biggest and most import investment that anyone can spend money on. You can have a fancy camera with bad glass and it will be a bad photo. You can have an old camera with great glass and have a great photo. Tamron is a good brand to consider, but still do your research.

Some notes: 70-300mm is a do it all telephoto zoom lens. Depending on how serious you are or want to be, I can see this lens being replaced eventually, with little return on investment.

F4-5.6 aperture: This may work for you depending on what you want to shoot. If you're expecting soft, blurry bokeh - this is not the right lens. What the aperture means is as you zoom from 70-300 mm your minimum aperture setting has to be 4-5.6. You can stop down anywhere to f/22 if you'd like, but you cant go any bigger than f/5.6. This results in images with more in focus and less of the beautiful blurry bokeh.

This particular model also looks old, which means the auto focus is probably pretty slow. At first this won't matter, but as you'r trying to capture kids running around, etc. you'll notice that you can't focus fast enough to even take a shot. There are newer models of this that have better autofocus technology running around $450 (LINK HERE)

Thank you; that's actually exactly the type of info I was wanting. I'm having a struggle between getting a good lens and getting a cheap lens. I'd LOVE to get something with a universal 2.8 f-stop, but I know I'm a super-beginner and that's more of an investment than is worthwhile right now. I do ideally want to shoot the kids with this (as well as up-close photography), so that's exactly the type of information I need to know. :) I do favor a lower F-stop look, as well.

I may hold off for a while on a lens until I can find something I really like.