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smileyK

are you liking this snowy weather? it is bad where you are?

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But I suppose the problem is consumer lenses much more expensive Nikon glass has better seals and closer tolerances.

 

Nikon!?! haha... I used to get teased so much because I used Canon!

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Nikon!?! haha... I used to get teased so much because I used Canon!

 

There is not much difference in the two although I must say Canon has a better exposure system but Nikon's are tough and they have to be with me, mine has been everywhere, frozen Sweden and the Rub- Al- Khali and even down down pot holes. Nikon lenses are supposed to be the best but on my budget I don't know hence Sigma and Tamron.

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There is not much difference in the two although I must say Canon has a better exposure system but Nikon's are tough and they have to be with me, mine has been everywhere, frozen Sweden and the Rub- Al- Khali and even down down pot holes. Nikon lenses are supposed to be the best but on my budget I don't know hence Sigma and Tamron.

 

Tough is good!! I think both have their own appeal to whichever type of photography you're doing, or even down to each person doing that particular type of photography to some degree. I guess part of it is just what you get used to using as well. I know at the time I got my first bits of kit I believed that Canon handled low light situations better than Nikon, although, I'm reliably told that Nikon now surpasses Canon in this area.

 

I hated the kit lens that came with my first purchase, so got a 50mm 1.8 after another gig photographer had suggested it. I used that exclusively for years for indoor gigs. Outdoors I used a Sigma as there was no way I could afford the Canon alternative. In the last couple of years I managed to get hold of a Canon 24-70 1.8 and that was a nice lens. Now, I have nothing as I sold it all so I couldn't be tempted back into the gig photography game!

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My first DSLR is the one I have now Nikon's first consumer digital the D70, a true infra red camera this thing even records images in absolute dark and I have tested it, heat turned to light, there is an image, but it sucks with blue skies, too much infra red gets past the low pass filter and makes blue look kind of green.

 

But Nikon it is because I was given it by one who recognised I may be able to get out of the mood I was in if I could focus on my old art once again after ten years away due to marriage and so Nikon it is although in the past it was with film, Canon's and Pentax's, an Om-1n in Canon and later Pentax MX and Me also the first autofocus, the MEF.

 

I used to do zone system photography in mono and work on the curves of the film I used to use, lifex gun camera Ilford HP5, I used to roll my own from a bulk loader containing about 500 feet, where the film could pushed to do odd things outside of it's designed best operating range. The Pentax Me was my snappy camera for colour and the Mx was my creative camera for mono. Those things were tiny for SLR's a 40mm pancake lens fitted they were pocketable and I got my Pentax stuff second hand because even at that time they were obsolete then, they being mid 70's cameras.

 

But I always was weird in my youth, old things built to last I like.

 

But the D70 some 7000 actuations and there is a bit of weirdness I can control for now, but I am aware it is dying but I use my DSLR in the exact same way I used to use my film SLR's, that is what programming the camera has I ignore and do what I always used to do with a camera, treating it exactly the same as if I was shooting film on cameras from thirty years or more in vintage.

 

Next DSLR if I can find one in reasonable condition is the D70s, Nikon's apology for creating the D70, the D80 I understand is not a patch on the earlier models for my kind of photography and my friend whom I taught photography to has just bought a £15000 full frame Nikon and has gone pro, but she still rings me up with what to do with some weird situations for I have a lot or theory behind me and experience. And I have another I am to teach photography to in exchange for lessons on dress making.

 

The 50 mm prime is the lens I want to get next, zooms have massive limitations, but what is good about Nikon is that all lenses from roughly 1952 can be used on my modernish camera, yeah fine I might have to external meter and work with hyperfocal distance but with such a lens and the latitude of exposure with digital, photoshop CS5 should be able to sort a lot of issues out as I always photograph in RAW files.

 

And so I realise what I have said here will bore the backside of those who read, but hey, this is an ASD forum where those with special interests can talk the hind leg off a donkey when asked about their special subject.

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I still have my two OM1 and a knacked OM30 (I think the electrics have gone) plus a few OM lenses which I won't ever get rid of. I went digital about 5 years ago but you can't beat the latitude of film. I went to see an exhibition of the late Ansel Adams recently and just shows what can be done in black and white. Because it was a murky day photographing in the snow, I converted mine all to greyscale - not true black and white but my images looked much better than in colour.

 

Oh and I've got to try and find a way to upload one to the forum tonight...clearly SmileyK has managed it.

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It's on the thaw up here but by all accounts torrential rain is on the way. It snowed all yesterday, so much so that my son went away on his school bus at 9 and by 11.10 he was back in the house because they decided to close early...bit of a waste of time going in really!

 

Job for today...clearing the trampoline of snow so the munchkins can have a bounce :bounce: .

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I still have my two OM1 and a knacked OM30 (I think the electrics have gone) plus a few OM lenses which I won't ever get rid of. I went digital about 5 years ago but you can't beat the latitude of film. I went to see an exhibition of the late Ansel Adams recently and just shows what can be done in black and white. Because it was a murky day photographing in the snow, I converted mine all to greyscale - not true black and white but my images looked much better than in colour.

 

Oh and I've got to try and find a way to upload one to the forum tonight...clearly SmileyK has managed it.

 

Mono is my favoured medium and the zone system I found actually taught me about other stuff nothing to do with photography and more to do with psychology, but I always was a mood photographer, my aim was to put mood into my images the idea being to evoke a feeling in the viewer so an image is not just a picture, it is an emotional experience.

 

But years of zone system experimentation made me focus on tone and texture, I can readily convert colour to mono in my mind to see what in black and white a scene would look like as I still don't press the button unless I am sure what I have is what I want even with the throw away nature of digital- old habits die hard and my Mac could do without groaning under the weight of a few hundred RAW files that I will be deleting in disgust, I can do without the negativity never mind my computer and so I work on a ten percent ideology, if ten percent of what I have took are good then I am happy, it was not a wasted day as I am very exacting with my light paintings.

 

Colour, I do do colour but what I tend to do with it, my most successful images is saturate, blur and flare as I am going for an almost sickly perhaps drug induced view of reality, a dream or a nightmare of which viewers have said there is a creepy feel to them repelling but at the same time compelling and that to me is victory I have assaulted the viewers feelings, not out of malice you understand, but it is me to cause people to to think, challenge the norm and the often boring mundane.

 

Being a kind of depressive, I look at myself as an artist photographer and I am not scared to heavily digital alter as to me my photography is an art and I am painting with light, what imagery I take are just elements to be made better.

 

But greyscale if you have photoshop, try converting using the channel mixer as what that can bring out is stuff that you didn't even know was there and one can get true blacks and true whites, but ideally you want to avoid them as they can kill the image, what you need is black and white with texture to keep the eye in the picture- zone system theory.

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Not even my winter tyres could cope with the soft snow, it was simply too much to handle on a slope going uphill on my dad's drive. He tried pushing me up but failed so I had to park elsewhere. Ironically they were coping better when it was compacted icy snow.

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ok here goes for trying to post something....

 

clicked on tree icon....how do I post a URL? They are in My Documents folder....

 

You'd need to upload it to somewhere first. I guess the simplest way would be if you had a facebook account or something and linked them from there, as I guess you don't have a domain?

Edited by oakers

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When you guys started with your technical camera talk I got lost... very lost! Although I did photography for many years I had no real technical knowledge and really only ever used digital... shameful I know!! I pretty much shot my stuff intuitively.

 

I also felt that if I walked away with at least 10 good shots per band per show / festival I'd be happy. If I got more I'd be very happy :) sometimes my good was probably someone else's great, but there's no harm in trying to be the best you can be is there!! :)

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When you guys started with your technical camera talk I got lost... very lost! Although I did photography for many years I had no real technical knowledge and really only ever used digital... shameful I know!! I pretty much shot my stuff intuitively.

 

I also felt that if I walked away with at least 10 good shots per band per show / festival I'd be happy. If I got more I'd be very happy :) sometimes my good was probably someone else's great, but there's no harm in trying to be the best you can be is there!! :)

 

That's the best way !

 

Technical stuff only really comes in in experimental photography and difficult conditions where autofocus and other electronic stuff can't cope and there are conditions where that happens, especially with experimental stuff.

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That's the best way !

 

Technical stuff only really comes in in experimental photography and difficult conditions where autofocus and other electronic stuff can't cope and there are conditions where that happens, especially with experimental stuff.

 

I guess so... it's funny as I'd get people asking me how I got a shot and I'd know, to a point, but not always how to explain it. I'd also stand there wondering why they weren't able to this if they so desired with all their so called technical know-how, experience and classes they'd been to!

 

 

I was a huge fan of shooting on aperture priority, but I guess that came down to starting out in dingy little clubs with little to no light and not understanding how to push the camera to its limits. I learned to love my 50mm 1.8 and would move in ways I didn't know were possible for me to get shots, where others would be stood rooted to the spot. As I learned a little more I still stuck to the way I knew best, and did so until the day I put the camera down. The only real time I changed the way I shot was when I was working on off stage promo type stuff with my brother but then I cheated and had him work on the settings with me, and me just set the shots / focus up.

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Yes the much under rated 'standard' 50mm lens, what I want next and as fast as I can afford which will mean saving when I get a job that is as the F1.4 is what I am after. But aperture priority is what I use most also as I use a lot of depth of field to create that everything in focus from foreground to background depth you can't get with your eyes as your eyes are selective autofocus.

 

My friend who is pro and does band/club/ event photography hasn't much of a clue when it comes to the relationship between shutter and aperture, but she just bungs the thing on auto and shoots away using guess what, a fast Nikon 50mm I think cost her a couple of grand. But being on auto she is free to focus on the job, and she is very good at getting stuff I never even see, but then I don't photograph people which I think is a continuum of the aspie people thing and face blindness.

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Yes the much under rated 'standard' 50mm lens, what I want next and as fast as I can afford which will mean saving when I get a job that is as the F1.4 is what I am after. But aperture priority is what I use most also as I use a lot of depth of field to create that everything in focus from foreground to background depth you can't get with your eyes as your eyes are selective autofocus.

 

My friend who is pro and does band/club/ event photography hasn't much of a clue when it comes to the relationship between shutter and aperture, but she just bungs the thing on auto and shoots away using guess what, a fast Nikon 50mm I think cost her a couple of grand. But being on auto she is free to focus on the job, and she is very good at getting stuff I never even see, but then I don't photograph people which I think is a continuum of the aspie people thing and face blindness.

 

If I was to start over with the photography I'd still make sure I had a 50mm but I guess, like you I'd go for the 1.4 the next time. A friend of mine excitedly told me they'd got the 50mm after my advice but then went on to tell me they got the 1.4 version... the glare he got, well let's just say he quickly said 'but I don't notice much difference!' ;) He was just starting out with the photography lark as he was more used to being photographed, being in a band.

 

I love using depth of field... I think it makes for far more interesting photos than everything all being the same focus wise. I think it can be taken too far, but then again, so can everything can't it!?

 

Ahh see, now there's the intuition again perhaps? I could never understand why, when mostly only being given 3 songs to shoot in, people would want to be messing around with different settings. I used to alter focal point but otherwise I'd move to get my shot and wait for the light. That served me well over the years, I must say :) I know someone who has the expensive kit, and all the talk, but her shots?! meh... she gets some good stuff but I found out she can shoot upwards of 700+ shots in 3 songs... I was astonished. She literally just holds her finger on the trigger and goes for it. No feeling, no heart... but then when she posts her good shots people fall over themselves complimenting her... and she's like, oh yes, I want to portray the feeling and the emotion and that's what compels me to do this. Feeling and emotion my butt!!

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If I was to start over with the photography I'd still make sure I had a 50mm but I guess, like you I'd go for the 1.4 the next time. A friend of mine excitedly told me they'd got the 50mm after my advice but then went on to tell me they got the 1.4 version... the glare he got, well let's just say he quickly said 'but I don't notice much difference!' ;) He was just starting out with the photography lark as he was more used to being photographed, being in a band.

 

I love using depth of field... I think it makes for far more interesting photos than everything all being the same focus wise. I think it can be taken too far, but then again, so can everything can't it!?

 

Ahh see, now there's the intuition again perhaps? I could never understand why, when mostly only being given 3 songs to shoot in, people would want to be messing around with different settings. I used to alter focal point but otherwise I'd move to get my shot and wait for the light. That served me well over the years, I must say :) I know someone who has the expensive kit, and all the talk, but her shots?! meh... she gets some good stuff but I found out she can shoot upwards of 700+ shots in 3 songs... I was astonished. She literally just holds her finger on the trigger and goes for it. No feeling, no heart... but then when she posts her good shots people fall over themselves complimenting her... and she's like, oh yes, I want to portray the feeling and the emotion and that's what compels me to do this. Feeling and emotion my butt!!

 

With Nikon, there is even a f1.2, the sharpest and fastest but is of the older design and so it's manual only, but it's not so much the speed of the lens that people like it is how sharp it is at F2.

 

Anyone can hold a button down to get it all, but if one is going to do that why not just get a 3 CCD video camera and do screen captures. But operating a camera like that wears it out fast then photography becomes expensive and one has to get the shots to pay for the equipment or you are onto a loss straight away and kudos will only go so far when one finds they can't afford to do it anymore because it is costing an arm and a leg.

 

Me I have always done photography the cheapest way possible and so it is obsolete camera but I know how to use them and really my kind of photography does not require that much automation as my style is tripod work and carefully considered shots, really no different than what I used to do with film. Oh and talking of that I was in a field once lying down for a low angle shot and was concentrating that much I felt a shadow over me and turned round to get a soggy tongue of a cow across my ear.

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With Nikon, there is even a f1.2, the sharpest and fastest but is of the older design and so it's manual only, but it's not so much the speed of the lens that people like it is how sharp it is at F2.

 

Anyone can hold a button down to get it all, but if one is going to do that why not just get a 3 CCD video camera and do screen captures. But operating a camera like that wears it out fast then photography becomes expensive and one has to get the shots to pay for the equipment or you are onto a loss straight away and kudos will only go so far when one finds they can't afford to do it anymore because it is costing an arm and a leg.

 

Me I have always done photography the cheapest way possible and so it is obsolete camera but I know how to use them and really my kind of photography does not require that much automation as my style is tripod work and carefully considered shots, really no different than what I used to do with film. Oh and talking of that I was in a field once lying down for a low angle shot and was concentrating that much I felt a shadow over me and turned round to get a soggy tongue of a cow across my ear.

 

F1.2? ahhhh how nice would that be!! haha... gigs would be a dream working with those capabilities :)

 

Well, this is it entirely... why would you do that when you are supposedly trying to show how good you are, but in reality you're fooling everyone, including yourself, when you walk away with literally hundreds / thousands of shots that are absolutely useless. I get that when you're learning you take more, but once you've been doing whichever photography you choose, you would think that the number of keepers would be on the rise, rather than stay static.

 

I think with the digital era people are a bit more blase about how they use their cameras, and some seem to forget that every shutter click is one click closer to your camera's demise. Either that, or people just don't care and are willing to spend silly amounts of money because they are somewhat reckless with the way they shoot.

 

Just an opinion of course!! ;) Me, I couldn't afford to keep replacing bodies, so I learnt pretty quick how to make the number of keepers rise, for the most part. Of course, when conditions are against you it's still pretty difficult.

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Went out with my 35mm f1.4 today. Made a pleasant change to my 100mm that is usually taped to my body. Although film/slides etc have their place, digital is a good place to start for a beginner as you're not wasting money on developing dud shots on film. But yes, one should think carefully before each shot - not just the technicalities but what makes a good composition. Modern cameras have up to 150,000 shutter actuations and shutters can be replaced.

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Went out with my 35mm f1.4 today. Made a pleasant change to my 100mm that is usually taped to my body. Although film/slides etc have their place, digital is a good place to start for a beginner as you're not wasting money on developing dud shots on film. But yes, one should think carefully before each shot - not just the technicalities but what makes a good composition. Modern cameras have up to 150,000 shutter actuations and shutters can be replaced.

 

I guess you are right Robert, in that digital is less expensive in one sense... as you can take your photos and it doesn't cost, except in time for editing and replacing / repairing equipment, which you'd still have with film anyway.

 

The point you make about composition is a good one... because, whilst it may be possible to take a technically good photo it may be that it is visually uninteresting because the composition is off, at least I think so anyway.

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I have grids set up on my camera for such things as the rule of thirds and if I forget, I can sort a lot in photoshop anyway, but there is another's like the rule of 3's, leading lines, contrast and foreground interest to lead the eye into the back ground and try not to get any over exposed whites and blacks.

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I have grids set up on my camera for such things as the rule of thirds and if I forget, I can sort a lot in photoshop anyway, but there is another's like the rule of 3's, leading lines, contrast and foreground interest to lead the eye into the back ground and try not to get any over exposed whites and blacks.

 

Too many rules really... I never studied photography, nor read that much about it I will be honest. I did know about the rule of thirds and tried to work within that but that was about the only thing I followed... well that and not over exposing whites and blacks.

 

As mentioned previously I was really pretty useless with the technical side of things... I'm just glad it worked in my favour that I could intuitively shoot.

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Maybe we should start a flickr group?

Good idea, as for certain it will raise the profile of ASD in the UK and perhaps even this website.

 

Why not!? It'd be cool to see what other people find interesting to photograph and how creative they are, and what they see in things that we might have missed. And, if it raises peoples' awareness of the site / ASD then all the better!

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Too many rules really... I never studied photography, nor read that much about it I will be honest. I did know about the rule of thirds and tried to work within that but that was about the only thing I followed... well that and not over exposing whites and blacks.

 

As mentioned previously I was really pretty useless with the technical side of things... I'm just glad it worked in my favour that I could intuitively shoot.

 

Rules they were at the start, but rules adhered to, to make a better image soon become part of the photographic process to the point walking around without a camera one sees an image and wishes they had their camera with them to capture that image as an image you saw without a camera will never be there again as conditions always change and despite one trying what one sees later is never the same.

 

Intuitive it has become with my photographic process, but I am wholly aware what photographic theory is behind that intuition, for one always has to start somewhere and the less bold will seek rules to start with.

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I really enjoyed the snow this year, I miss it, it's really beautiful.

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