Photo-a-day: NR edition (March/April)

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Photo-a-day: NR edition (March/April)

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gravity84

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So I'm gonna go ahead and do the unthinkable: I'm going to start an actual photography thread in a photo gear forum. Please don't treat this as a photo dump where you dump all your latest snapshots, also don't treat this as a photo gear photo dump. This is for art and for honing each other's skills as an artist. That said please comment on people's photos regarding composition, framing, post work, etc. This is not the place to say things like: "ZOMG this would look MUCH BETTER if it was shot with an FX camera !!1!1!!" or "WTFBBQ I cant believe you actually shot something in black and white!" A few rules.

1. This is *A* photo a day thread. Please don't post more than one (1) photo a day.
2. Please refrain from posting gear photos unless you actualy want criticism about your product photography skills.
3. Please post CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. A picture may suck, but just saying so without saying why and how it could be improved helps no one and just makes YOU look like a jack@55. Likewise a picture may be awesome but just saying so without saying why doesn't help others see what you (and perhaps more people) may like about some compositional element or what have you.
4. If a photo is not workplace safe, please post that it is with a NWS, NSFW, etc.
5. Feel free to include thoughts you may have had when you were taking the shot, things you wanted to include, things that you liked, things you wish you could have changed. This helps others with constructive crit.

Posted 4 years ago #
gravity84

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So I guess I'll get it started.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattmendoza/3388723318/
This is a landscape of a city park near my apartment. I liked how the trail started in the lower left and leads the eye across the composition but I do wish that it started more in the corner made a stronger diagonal.

Posted 4 years ago #
tai

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Lovely!

I'll throw in my picture from a storm here in Manhattan on Sunday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28970333@N06/3404272982/

Edit: I had to swap out the link as I went to edit the pic to see how a straightened horizon looked, and removed an old version which deleted it off flickr. Perhaps I shouldn't use iPhoto syncing for flickr.

Posted 4 years ago #
[NR] admin

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Let me see if we can embed the pictures in the actual comments instead of posting links. Give me some time to research and test.

Posted 4 years ago #
connect

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i have a photo-a-day website here http://www.joeypiccola.dyndns.org. I've been updating it for about 2 years. enjoy...

Posted 4 years ago #
Willis

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This isn't my best, but its the photo that started the craze for me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8980397@N05/3402954071/

I took this with a D40 and it's kit lens on the day I purchased my first DSLR. I was so amazed by the camera's ability to make a very ordinary\familier location to me (the back ally behind my favorite bar) look so interesting.

Posted 4 years ago #
monty11

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Here's one from a trip to central Finland

tai, I would try to straighten the shot a bit and maybe crop out some of that burnt area leaving that strain of lightning reaching the left edge of the photo. WB is a bit too cold for me, but that could just be me :)

Posted 4 years ago #
adamz

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Willis,
try gridding Your photo, as it's a little messy (no vertical straight lines) - I love the colors on one hand, but I'm not sure about the back of the SUV, although the lines from pick up trunk looks good - try some cropping (maybe square)

as for Your other shots I love the mountains - great!!!! (LINK)

Gravity84,
love this photo and especially the saturation and contrast between blue sky and green hills - try to level the horizon, as I think that it's little bit tilted. You can also try different cropping - 16:9 proportions maybe.

OTOH, nice photostream - love a lot of Your pics, especially the lizard ones and the beetle (LINK)

Tai,
excellent timing!!!, and great colors - You can try to dodge the lightning to create more dramatize look, also levelize the horizon

as with other I browsed through Your flickr album, and found the cat photo (LINK) - really nice

Posted 4 years ago #
tai

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A new day, a new photo. Well, this is a bird from last fall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28970333@N06/3034897549/in/photostream

Posted 4 years ago #
Willis

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Adamz,

Yeah, I said it wasn't my best, The Truck is there doubling as a tripod. That particular ally is pretty dark, and the kit lens I was using at the time was pretty slow, so the exposure was to long for hand held. Thanks for the feed back.

I can't take credit for the other photos in my photostream. They are all lifted from various places on the internet. I was messing around with flickr a few years ago and uploaded the photos just to test it out. I cracked up when I logged in and they were still there. I need to go in and delete them. I'll have to post one of my better ones tonight.

Posted 4 years ago #
gravity84

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@tai: yesterday's: Nice capture! I think it's a little bit overexposed but I really dig how you used the ultrawide angle lens distortion to add drama to the shot. Like the lightning is skewing the view.

today's: The bird is in great focus and is exposed very well. I don't mind that the background is blown out, it gives an ethereal quality, and it's hard to get a well exposed shot of a bird in a tree in broad daylight without using fill flash. I do wish the branch wasn't in the way, but you can't exactly tell the bird to move.

@willis: I know you mentioned this isn't your best but I'll crit anyway. The exposure looks fine, but you probably could have done without setting it on the truck if you bumped the ISO higher. You probably know all this by now, but just in case, I thought I'd mention it.

@monty11: Very cool, nice selective focus and the bokeh is very pleasing. Next time, it would be kind of cool to see if you could make the ice crystals glow by side lighting with an orange/red light or something.

Posted 4 years ago #
JMCS

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http://jmcs.deviantart.com/art/Almost-Spring-II-116254620- about 3 weeks ago.

Posted 4 years ago #
tai

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@gravity, I agree on the exposure for yesterday's shot. My later shots were better exposed, but unfortunately the lighting stopped very soon after, and I couldn't get anything else quite so dramatic. I'll have to work on commanding the loyalty of birds ;)

Posted 4 years ago #
monty11

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New day (at least here) and a new photo:
Just learning to use the Lensbaby but I quite liked this one.

Posted 4 years ago #
tai

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@monty I always love tilts/swings and really want a Nikon PC-E. I'd love to hear your impressions on the quality of the lensbaby as it seems much much cheaper

Posted 4 years ago #
monty11

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OT: Well to see what a Lensbaby can do, just visit their online gallery or find some user's gallery.
I'm still learning the ropes. I am having trouble focusing properly as the D40x has a keyhole instead of a viewfinder.

Posted 4 years ago #
gravity84

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattmendoza/3368892165/

At the time I didn't like the brush getting in the way of the shot, but now I like the feeling that it gives off, a hidden danger, if you will. I tried to frame the snake with the tail in the corner and let the lines of the body lead the eye naturally around the composition. And of course I really wanted to capture and freeze the tongue.

Posted 4 years ago #
Willis

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OK, here's a different one. I took this in north-west Texas just after I'd left New Mexico on a road trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8980397@N05/3405670055/

By the way, does anyone know a place to get a definitive discription on exactly how a PC-E lens works? I generally like what I see with them, but don't quite 'get it' yet. I'm very curious about this.

Gravity: Nice Shot! How did you avoid camera shake while running away in terror LOL.

Posted 4 years ago #
gravity84

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@Willis: I was actually a manageable distance away, but that shot was not cropped and was taken with my 55-200mm VR. The snake was actually pretty chill after I kept my distance.

Perspective control aka tilt/shift lenses work by shifting the focal plane. They are essentially doing what large format cameras can do because of their movements. Basically, if you have a lens in focus, you have what is called a plane of focus or focal plane. The focal plane is always parallel to the lens and therefore, because of the way most cameras work, is parallel to the sensor/film. With a PC(TS) lens you can change the angle the lens makes with the sensor/film and therefore change the angle of the focal plane. By doing so you can have various areas at various distances in perfect focus, you can also cause converging lines to be parallel. Large format cameras have these movements built in to the front as well as the back so their focal planes are even more controllable. An aside, lensbabies are essentially tiny large format bellows that you can move and control the focal plane and perspective of.

Edit: As always take KR with a grain of salt, but he has an article on it that is pretty much correct and easy to understand if you need more. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/movements.htm

Posted 4 years ago #
MATIO_SK

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well here is a photo I took last Saturday at a local club here in Bratislava, Slovakia:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matio_svk/3395746894/

Posted 4 years ago #
tai

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Another day, another photo.

My bunny was feeling left out, so here's a portrait of Thor with a lovely old Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 AIS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28970333@N06/3406930874/

Posted 4 years ago #
gravity84

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@MATIO_SK: You might want to put a NWS tag on things like that. It is wot workplace safe. Great action capture and framing though.

@tai: Nice portrait, reminds me of my girlfriend's rabbit. I like the texture of the fur brought out by your choice of doing this in black and white, I do wish there was a bit more of the face though.

Posted 4 years ago #
gravity84

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one for the day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattmendoza/3340899492/

This is an exercise in juxtaposition, placing elements of each archetectural and horticultural style in different sides of the photo I thought I'd get a bit of a complementary clashing, if you will. This is called "East and West" with the eastern stylings of the chinese pavilion in the foreground with "asian styled" (I'm asian, and I hate that term but I can't think of a better one) plant life against the delineation of palm trees and the catholic church steeple in the back.

Posted 4 years ago #
monty11

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A nice contrast. Is it me or the shot leaning to the right a bit? There's really nothing wrong with the word Asian styled ... it is just like saying European styled.

Mine for the day:
An event held at a manor built by Czar Peter I after he had taken Estonia from the Swedes/Danes (memory fails me there). It is a huge complex and last September a great light show was organised there. In addition to different floodlights, they lit 6000 candles on the manor grounds.

Posted 4 years ago #
tai

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A new day and photo.

This one I took of Hillary Clinton in January at an EMILY's list event shortly before inauguration. The lighting was terribly challenging, especially since that lens isn't very fast (300mm f/4.5 EDIF AIS). At ISO 800 I had to hand-hold 1/80sec, which got me about 1 of every 4 pictures acceptably sharp.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28970333@N06/3207957080/in/photostream/

There were some great speakers that day, click through for Hilda Solis, Bev Perdue, Janet Napolitano, Kay Hagan, and a couple more of Clinton.

Posted 4 years ago #