Who here is into Photography?

[Kansaseq]

Beautiful mare, Seminole. Is she a Foxtrotter?

 

[Pupsnpullets]

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I took a look at your blog. The last picture, nice Bokeh effect and still on the hummingbird. What F-Stop & shutter speed you use?

Thank you for checking out my blog! It isn't much yet but I'm working on it. To answer your question I used f5.6, 1/500s, ISO 400 and the focal length 300mm. I was using my old Sigma lens which doesn't have a manual focus and the autofocus would "hunt" all the time. It drove me crazy so I've had to retire it. I bought a new Nikkor 75-300mm recently and although it's not super fast (couldn't afford that) it does have a very quick focus and a manual focus over ride. Can't wait to see another hummingbird

 

[seminolewind]

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Hey! Good eye! She's actually a Tennessee Walker. The mule is now 5 years old and she has just been broke and is learning where her gait is!

 

[Pupsnpullets]

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Hey! Good eye! She's actually a Tennessee Walker. The mule is now 5 years old and she has just been broke and is learning where her gait is!

They're an adorable couple. I just love those long ears on the babe. What are you going to use her for?

 

[seminolewind]

Well, I've had her for 5 years and it was a surprise baby. We just love her alot. She's a very calm mule, anyone can ride. There's a very nice lady I met who is establishing a relationship with her, and if things work out she will be going to an awesome home. "Buttercup", since she is new at being ridden needs alot of ride time, and there's just not enough of me to keep them both ridden. It's easier to get rid of a nasty animal. She is precious and it breaks my heart, but it's the best for all. She will have a person all to herself.

This photo was taken with my instructor's cell phone. And the humidity is high and my hair has frizzed.

 

[Gelky]

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That's nice. I always wondered what speed I would need to capture a hummingbird. That is nice to know.

My Sigma 70 - 200 EX DG Apo Macro HSM II which I recently acquired works nicely. It does occasionally would "hunt" but fortunately, it does not happen often. The HSM system is pretty snappy. I would love to have the Nikon 70 - 200 VR II, but wouldn't we all.

 

[Penturner]

I love photography, but no longer get nearly enough time to practice. I am one of the rare that actually does know all the stuff about how cameras work. what focal length is and how it effects the photo. depth of field. tons of stuff about composure and how to enrich colors, contrast and all that neat stuff. I will say that knowing that stuff is not enough. you have to practice as well. But when you do both they work together to give you a very accurate idea of what any photo will look like before you actually push the button. Tha is the different between a good photographer and just getting a good picture once in a while.

My Digital is the one I use most of the time now. It is a Fujipix S5000 that I paid about $300 for a few years ago. I chose it because it has macro capability. can function full Auto all the way to fully manual. and basically matches the features of my 35mm as closely as I could get them. I found out later that it is the same camera my Uncle who is a professional photographer bought for taking family photos and vacations. Very nice camera and does do Macro very well. It also has a 16X Optical and a 2.2X Digital zoom. this is critical for my favorite method of taking photos. It comes up just a tad short in the zoom capabilities compared to my Canon with a 70-210 zoom lens. but with a little bit more effort I can still make it work. I learned Photography with my 35mm and Digital is still just a bit out of sync with my intuition. Film and digital simply do not record the same.

So here is my vary favorite way to take photos, cannon AE-1 with a 70-21mm lens. Good quality lens that cost as much as the camera. i will then stand as much as 100 feet from my subject (Usually people but works even for still life, flowers etc. This techniques requires practicing and mastering breathing etc to steady the camera because I do not use a tripod, uni-pod or usually have anything to rest the camera on. bright sunny days work best as the long lens reduces light brightness considerably. Anyway I then zoom in until my subject fills the view finder. Usually just a person face or a single blossom on a flower etc. to get an insect to fill the view finder I would have to get much closer. say 25 feet or so and use a tripod etc. For the most part I use this for photographing people though. the long zoom caused the depth of field to shrink down to nothing often not more than 1 or 2 feet and causes the subject to contrast with any other objects in the photo. Since the long lens is really hard to get light through it slows down the shutter speed and causes the color in the photo to be electric. the Photo above of the Ice on the evergreen is a good example of the effect often the color is even more saturated even. it is a wonderful consistent and reliable way to get a photo with a lot of those extra looks to it.

The general rule is to step back. way back. Zoom in and keep everything as slow as you can but not slower the 1/60th of a second or you need a tripod. still you have to be good at holding a camera rock steady and catch your subject at a moment they will not move. But you get plenty of chances cause nobody even knows a camera is anywhere around. I am sure other zoom lenses would work but don't over do it. Photos start getting grainy and loosing sharp detail after a while.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

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Great information. You're so right about the breathing part, too. Who knew Zen breathing was a part of photography?

 

[seminolewind]

Penturner, thanks for all the info. I agree, control of breathing can improve your pics dramatically.

 

[seminolewind]

I have a question, does storing digital photos on the computer degrade the quality? If you then send the digital photos to Photobucket, does that degrade the quality?
Are there best and worst ways to store digital pictures?