Extremely amateur photography

[AcesandEights]

Wow, it's amazing how good the cameras on our cell phones are getting. You're tellin' me! Some of these cell phone cams are very good,but some are excellent! On our trip this Summer my wife took a bunch of pics on her iphone...half of them are indistinguishable from shots taken on our new digital camera unless you really blow the image up and some of her pics are flat out better than mine

[LouCipherr]

Technology is wonderful (and frustrating) thing, isn't it?

[krakenslayer]

Phone cameras are getting ridiculously good, but where they will always lag behind a good digital camera is low light performance (narrow lenses, tiny apertures and minuscule sensors do not collect much light), and creative control. If you want to take a pin-sharp photo in broad delight with everything in focus and no "bokeh", there are phone cameras that will do the job and give a high-end SLR a run for its money, but if you want to shoot in twilight and/or with narrow depth of field and/or take a long exposure shot, there is no contest.

[Tricky]

Here's one I took on my way home from work tonight, the sun was setting in just the right place so had to grab it. Its a memorial to those who died flying bombing missions with 158 squadron RAF in WW2, the wind turbines in the background are built on the old runway and each one is named after one of the Halifax bombers that flew from there. The memorial itself has all the names written on it. imag06461.jpg

[AcesandEights]

Here's one I took on my way home from work tonight Tricky, so cool! Great capture, my friend, and thank you for the story behind it the image! I have a new drive home from work and have been thinking all week that I need to start allowing time to stop and grab some shots of the picturesque journey.

[LouCipherr]

A photo of a weed called a "Joe-Pye Weed" - taken on top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina: Turkey vulture! And here is a photo of one of Dj's past Mustangs - he really liked this photo a lot and said it belonged in a brochure for the car. Not sure if I think it's that good, but whatevah.

[AcesandEights]

A photo of a weed called a "Joe-Pye Weed" Joe-buy-weed, you say? Turkey vulture! That, is badass! Lighting is really good, considering that it's such a tight angled shot from below. Damned ugly heads on those things. It's lookin' right at me...

[LouCipherr]

Joe-buy-weed, you say? *looks around for Joe, needs to ask him a question* That, is badass! Lighting is really good, considering that it's such a tight angled shot from below. Damned ugly heads on those things. It's lookin' right at me... Yeah, turkey vultures are CREEPY! We have TONS of these things in our neighborhood as we live very close to the water and they seem to love the coast. I have a few pictures of one snacking on a squished squirrel in the street right in front of my house, but I refrained from posting them as they are really gross (most of the pics are of the vulture tearing pieces off the flat squirrel) and I figured most probably wouldn't wanna see that. The vultures around here (we have some black vultures, too) are HUGE! That one in the picture had at least a 4 foot wing span. *shudders* That was a hard photo to take - the thing was way up at the top of a tree across the street from my house. It turned out well considering the circumstances.

[DjfunkmasterG]

And here is a photo of one of Dj's past Mustangs - he really liked this photo a lot and said it belonged in a brochure for the car. Not sure if I think it's that good, but whatevah. LOU.... That was my CAMARO LMAO you don't have pictures of the new Mustangs... LMAO

[LouCipherr]

LOU.... That was my CAMARO you don't have pictures of the new Mustangs... I was wondering why in the back of my mind I was thinking "goddamn, that's an ugly car!" Well, first off, if you notice, I put "past mustangs" because I had A) mustangs on the brain (since that's all you buy, sans the Camaro & the Challenger), and B) I knew it was one of your older cars. Where "new" mustangs came from I have no idea. Second, I'm not well versed on my American Shitboxes so you'll have to forgive me. I had a senior moment. Sue me. Still a nice pic, so

[DjfunkmasterG]

I was wondering why in the back of my mind I was thinking "goddamn, that's an ugly car!" Well, first off, if you notice, I put "past mustangs" because I had A) mustangs on the brain (since that's all you buy, sans the Camaro & the Challenger), and B) I knew it was one of your older cars. Where "new" mustangs came from I have no idea. Second, I'm not well versed on my American Shitboxes so you'll have to forgive me. I had a senior moment. Sue me. Still a nice pic, so American shitbox? Didn't your cavalier outlast your BMW? 150,000 miles veres 110,000 (BMW), might wanna re-think that American shitbox line of thinking.

[krakenslayer]

http://www.mflenses.com/asahi-pentax...ns-review.html Just bought a second hand one of these (and an adaptor for the Canon EOS fitting) off eBay for £30. The lens arrived a couple of days ago, I'm still waiting on the adaptor. Not autofocus, but apparently the image quality blows even the modern day "nifty fifties" (one of which I already own) out of the water and the build quality is like a fucking tank. Vintage lenses - particularly those based on now-obsolete mount formats - seem to be a great source of quality glass for the photo enthusiast on a budget, provided you do your research on whether the lens/body combination is viable, exactly what features will/won't work and what adaptors you need for a specific combo to retain the most functionality. This one has a manual f-stop switch on the side and, along with the adaptor I've ordered, it supports focus confirm (i.e. it lights up the autofocus points in the viewfinder at the points the image is in sharpest focus) so I should be good to go. I'm actually hoping that shooting "manual" like this will force me to learn a little more discipline. When the adaptor comes I'll take some shots (or maybe some video) and post them here. I might do a comparison video between this and the Canon 50mm 1.8.

[LouCipherr]

Someone has no room to talk. And BTW: you were wrong on several accounts with your "facts" but we're not going to go there. ...back to our regularly scheduled program..... http://www.mflenses.com/asahi-pentax...ns-review.html Just bought a second hand one of these (and an adaptor for the Canon EOS fitting) off eBay for £30. Oooh, that's a nice lens there, kraken. Some of the best lenses are manual focus from many years ago. I've thought about picking up some older manual focus primes for my K-x, but so far the only prime I have is a 35mm f/2.4. It's a sweet little lens that has wonderful bokeh and is sharp as a tack as far as focus is concerned. Post some pics once you get it and start playing with it.

[AcesandEights]

Hiking up Vesuvius (Summer 2012) This was a fun, but oh so brutally hot, wet day (over 100 degress Farenheit!). We hit both Vesuvius in the morning and the oven that is Pompeii in the afternoon. It was a shame, as the haziness really detracted from my ability to get clear scenic shots and panoramics. So this is not that photographically impressive an entry in the annals of my 2012 Italian trip, but I wanted to include them for the sake of continuity. The Group Chugs up Vesuvius by DNA Cowboy, on Flickr Overlook from the side of Vesuvius by DNA Cowboy, on Flickr Pretty by DNA Cowboy, on Flickr Napoli from Vesuvius by DNA Cowboy, on Flickr La Santa Madre ci protegga. by DNA Cowboy, on Flickr Ciao! by DNA Cowboy, on Flickr

[LouCipherr]

Nice pics, Aces! So this is not that photographically impressive No idea what you're talking about - several of those are photographically impressive. "Napoli from Vesuvius" and "Pretty" for example.