NikonsAndVStroms Photography Thread

I am currently disabled/unemployed which gives me the free time for this thread
A lot of my journey through it is here: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=462827&highlight=cipro

I'm working on getting a new computer that can handle design work along with the speech recognition I am using now to type this. The issue is any lag is a huge pain since my mouse is controlled by head movement so 1/2 a second could be a move of 1/2 a degree and then I don't click the right thing.

Photography has basically gotten me through this time and I have gone from a cell phone camera, to a point and shoot, and am now back into the world of DSLR's as they find drugs to help my condition. My issue is when I get into a project I go through the pain and after can pretty much be dead from using the cameras too much.

Here is a basic overview of my recent work (from when I was disabled about 2 years ago to I thin 10/09 I need to update it a bit)

https://jbeckphotography.smugmug.com/Portfolio/Redent-Work/9822574_wHnWy#667377862_LLqMh

I am also getting back into concerts a bit (using a old MF telephoto which is nice due to its lighter weight compared to the monsters we have today):

https://jbeckphotography.smugmug.com/Music/Concert-Work/5375170_KjCRd#329220634_Ayrtv
The first few B&W ones in this gallery are from way back using film and the rest are more recent work.

I am also working on the site now about those cell photos (it was my senior thesis) and while the book is a lot of work this I am hoping to have up soon. And while working with this current computer is like pulling teeth it is good to somewhat get back into web design before I get the new one so I can hit the ground running.

Right on. I'm a photographer by trade (don't let my listed website fool you, it's FOREVER old and I don't use it) and it's always interesting to run into other photo geeks like myself. Seems to be quite a few of us here on ADV.

You've got nice stuff -- keep it up!

I don't have any pictures that I think are great to post, but I do like looking at the posted pictures and reading the comments.

Took the suggestions and did a little cropping and a few minor color changes and I like this one much better.

Nice, it is a little dark in the foreground where a little fill flash could help but the issue there is you would freeze the water so not much to do there except maybe play with the HDR a little. The other part which I would work on in future captures is maybe getting a little more of the rock on the bottom. I like it as a compositional element but cropped it out from this image in the one I sent because I thought it needed a bit more to really stand on it's own there.

HDR'd

Thanks but it was already HDR, Not a big fan of the over cooked look of HDR. I know it's fun and all and I myself love to take it to extremes.

So is there somthing under a grand that would work? or am I just dreaming?

Also is there a good site for advice and where should I be looking to buy a camera. I hate Best Buy but they seem to have good prices.

Thanks for the input. I'm still not sure what I think of those...they have not received any post process. I've been trying to learn a little in gimpshop and a couple of other freebees.....but I have a tendency to over do it.

Here's one I tried to "fix"

Original


gimpshop


faststone

That pic looked just like a small town near where I stayed a few years ago. It was either near Schoodic or Petit Manan. Unfortunately, those pics are on my computer at work.

Nice photos, BTW. I love Maine. Well, except for the skeeters.

So good AF under 1k......

The big thing is this will be a compromise:

The best AF system I can find for you right now is the Olympus E-30, against the top offerings from Nikon/Canon it isn't there but next to the D90/D5000/Rebel T1i from what I can see it will be your best bet.

The E-30 has the AF from the Olympus E-3 which is their top of the line camera and is really fast and in good light should be great. The low light performance (amount of noise in the images) is only a little behind the Nikon/Canon of this level but not by much and you do gain many features.

One of the reasons I really like the E-30 is that it’s basically the top of the line camera but without weather sealing.....it does have a better sensor than the E-3 though. I almost bought one myself instead of my D700 but the ergonomics don’t work with my wrist braces.

As for price camera itself is close to 900 (B&H photo is a good choice if you are not near any photo stores) and you can get the 40-150 for around 100 dollars which is 300mm in 35mm equivalent.

Going down on the AF performance a little bit (fewer points) you get the E-620 with both lenses for about 625 right now.

Now for a little about the Olympus cameras, they have much better Jpeg output than Canon or Nikon so if you don’t want to play around with Raw files much they are a better choice. Also they have a slightly smaller sensor which helps size in two ways, they have camera bodies and lenses have a crop factor of 2x compared to 35mm so a telephoto lens can be much smaller. The image stabilization is based on the sensor itself, so it moves instead of having optics inside of the lens. Combine this makes lenses that are incredibly small, the standard telephoto lens from Olympus is smaller than the 18-55 Canon or Nikon lenses.

Upkeep on the cameras also easier since they have the best dust reduction system. Getting dust on the sensor while changing lenses can be really annoying and now Canon and Nikon have decent systems but are not up to the same standard. It is incredibly rare for an Olympus user to need to clean their sensor.

The real strength of Olympus cameras are their lenses and here there is a big difference. The basic lenses which are called standard grade are pretty much above the equivalent from other manufacturers. But then they also have high-grade lenses which have very fast variable apertures and build quality like the pro-Canon and Nikon lenses but at a much cheaper price. If you want to go crazy they also have F2.0 Zooms but those are pretty much starting up twice your budget.

As you can see I am slightly pro-Olympus and even though I have many higher end cameras my small E-420 comes out with me much of the time. I can basically fill a whole entire camera system into a tiny bag consisting of my 9-18, 14-24, 40-150, and 35 macro basically everything is covered, and they take up the same room/weigh less than my D700 with the 28-75 on it.

The big issue is for a fast telephoto option you will be paying almost as much as your whole budget for the Olympus 50-200, and double it for the Canon or Nikon 70-200 2.8. Canon has some cheaper options than their F2.8 IS (they have a F4 IS and a F2.8 without IS) both are about 1,300, so still very expensive. Sigma has a decent one for all 3 camera brands but it is close to the price of the 50-200 and not as good in quality.

This is not the easiest image, it would take a bunch of layers blended to get the levels right and I probably would B&W it to deal with the vast difference in foreground and background colors. The initial capture was slightly over exposed and I would try and not do a dead center picture of the Strom.

What tools are you using in Gimpshop?

I would find a simple image, and play around with that.

I don't remember how I stacked the layers in that one.

..but here's another one of those 1/2 focused shots that sometimes I like...

You are a little underexposed here and try moving the angle up a little, I'm interested in the shot because my brain see V-Strom and thinks damn I want to run over there and ride off on the thing but it is not the most interesting placement for it. Give it a little more separation and maybe have it be on the lower part of the frame so you have this great texture, then see this abstract blurry landscape in the distance to signify the amazing ride which is going on.

Yeah..that's one of those pics that sometimes I just don't like it...but other times I think it's OK. (no post process in that one)

I started a thread over on stromtrooper about trying to learn a little post process...you are more than welcome to critique all that's posted there too if you like.

Thanks for all the info I think the Olympus sounds like the best bet

Damn I haven't been over in that forum for a long time now.

Fuji S602z (point and shoot) w/ IR filter at midday.


Canon 10D, Sigma 15mm fisheye, selective color in Photoshop.


Canon 10D, Tokina 19-30mm, Tiffen circular polarizer.


Canon 10D, Canon 28-135mm High key experiment following instructions on internet.

Thanks for Looking!

1 &2
I always enjoying what other skilled photographers think/feel about these two images... since they are both in permanent museum collections it i very interesting what others see in them.
# 1 just realized from you commentary that it was scanned in a touch dark from the actual print... the gray area you are think about is near pure white but not pure white... will need to fix that.

Thanks.

# 3 is a fun one... gets everyone different since i go to national parks and dont phtograph the normal attractions