The Photography Thread

[Richard.John]

Where's the monolith?

They're superbly pin sharp by the way. Where did you take them?

Thanks for the comments, guys.

I took a trip to Tama Zoo which is in Tokyo. All taken with a Canon 70-200 f/4 IS and the Canon 1.4 extender.

The photos sparked my interest in Chimps and Bonobos. It seems that the average chimp's body strength is about five times that of a human so if you get into a rumble with one, you are ****ed unless you can make it to a river as they hate water. The also enjoy ripping of the testicles and fingers of their victims.

babs,

Nice pics but your Flickr links don't seem to work. So how are you getting on with the D40?

[babs]

Yeah, oops, I muffed the links up. I've created an interim set on my club's account until I find the cash to upgrade my own to pro...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cornwalltsd/sets/72157600186318960/

I love the camera, it's just going to take a lot of playing with to get used to, especially the priority modes as I learn what settings I need in what situatuions.

That said, I'm really enjoying messing around. I love the immediacy compared to a compact.

[MartyG]

I went to the Stilton Cheese rolling contest this morning, in Stilton. I learnt 3 things:

1) The Stilton Cheese rolling contents is really boring
2) It rains a lot there
3) Warwick Davis is shorter in real life than he looks on the TV



Oh, and all my pics from the adventure were rubbish - couldn't be arsed waiting around for two hours for them to start actually rolling cheese.

[Ish]

[Richard.John]

That said, I'm really enjoying messing around. I love the immediacy compared to a compact.

I find them easier to use, too. People always mention how hard it must be to use a SLR but I reply that it's 2007 so all you have to do is look through the VF and press the shutter to activate AF and away you go.

[MartyG]

Went out this afternoon too, but it's been a really grey day - I went to an open garden thingy in a village, overlooking Rutland water, but the only pic I really liked from them was a shot of a bull.



Got a nice one of a steam engine from the Nene Valley Railway though:



So, not a totally wasted day, in fact the open gardens were really nice, that's some expensive property there with those kind of views:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martypg/VariousStuff/photo#5061850210048293570

[Ish]

I like the train. Its well composed and the steam looks great.

A last couple from me. Its been a busy weekend. I've taken a lot of photos and processed some of my backlog today and made a start on better organising my library. It wasn't so bad to be haphazard when I had a couple of hundred pics but I've got over 5000 in my Apeture library now - moved a *LOT* of them to the discard pile today!

Anyway. The photos.









Just want to add. I've been playing around with PhotoShop a bit today and discovered the "High Pass Sharpen" technique. Its quite neat at making macros feel more "3 dimensional" without lowering the overall image quality overly. Worth giving a go next time you're sharpening.

Basically just duplicate your layer and set its blending mode to overlay. Then apply a high pass filter to it (on most images I've been using a radius of between 10 and 20), then set the opacity to around 50%. As ever with PS there's infinite scope for variation.

[Ish]

That said, I'm really enjoying messing around. I love the immediacy compared to a compact.

Trust me you're going to love having a DSLR. It will quickly come to seem like the best few hundred quid you ever spent

[MartyG]

Definitely, I've now taken over 9000 shots with my D50. Out of all of these, there are about 220 that I've uploaded that I think are printable, maybe even sellable, on flickr. You can shoot hundreds of shots a day and perhaps get one excellent shot - there's usually something I'm not totally happy with, but digital just gives you such freedom to experiment. There's no way I could have afforded this with film.

The shots I took today were with the 17-70mm Sigma lens I bought earlier this year, and I've been pretty happy with the quality so far, better than my first outing anyway.

Nice shots Ish - I already saw your dandylion shot on flickr, really like that one.

[Ish]

Yeah thanks for the feedback Marty - its appreciated as I was crawling round on my belly in the wet grass trying to get that one!

I'e been eyeing up some urban decay style shots today. Non macro (for a change!). Mostly round where I live. Trouble is there's half a chance I'll get mugged while taking them... I may have to ask a mate to come with me.

I must admit I put more on Flickr than I'm "completely happy" with. I use it as a backup space as well as a place to share.

[MartyG]

I tend to keep flickr mostly fluff free. I took this today also that I nearly put on flickr; I'm not totally convinced with it, but enough to put it on picasa.


I liked the way the smoke moved to the left giving a natural frame.

[Ginger Tosser]

Went to a local hall today to pass the time (Blakesley Hall), daughter got her face painted (first pic). Also didn't know female morris dancers existed, until now.





The lady hiding seemed a little camera shy, strange for someone with red and purple hair!

[Ish]

I don't know about gender but I thought all morris dancers had to have beards.

Good job on the second more "formal" shot. Did you ask them to pose for you?

I'd like to take more portraits and people shots but I'm quite nervous about it.

[Ginger Tosser]

They were posing for shots with friends taking pictures. I said i'd send them the images though (cos i'm nice like that!!)

[Richard.John]

I am the same with people shots. That's why I use a long lens for candids so they don't even realise that "You've been framed"