taffy12

Just kind of playing around/practicing. I liked how these came out:

Ravi09, those are amazing!!

Here's a picture from today - what's left of my Valentine's chocolate on the last day of February:

The kitty is still neat - always amazes me how the eye follows the focus - maybe it just means what it smells is more important than what it is seeing.

 

I really like the metal grates/water. The lighting, the ripples - man, that is a nice catch.

 

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you so much!

Testing out the sigma 30mm f1.4.

 

 

Those are stunning! I especially love the one with the candle!

I'm so sorry I've been away for a bit! I've been meaning to address your kind words and advice, but I just haven't had the time! Beautiful pictures lately, everyone! The aerial shot of the Cayman's in particular is fantastic...

Hope this helps.

 

Dave

Thank you so much, Dave, for taking the time to offer so much information and advice!! I really appreciate it!

Taffy12:

 

Bridal bouquet? (Had to ask, looks like my wife's sitting on the mantle)

 

I think your off and running. The Baby's Breath looks pretty neat, IMO.

Thanks! No bridal bouquet though - just dead flowers.

Now to share some new photos, taken yesterday. I still have a ton to learn but I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of the basics!

On this one, I can see that the focus us on the tip of her nose rather than the eyes - so now I know what to do next time! And she's a little blue thanks to the light from a computer screen:

I think I'm most proud of this one. It's a little soft, but I love the lines:

Still not sharp (despite using the manual autofocus point selection...though the low light and high ISO contribute, right?), but here's a few more. I'm not sure how I ended up with it, but I kind of like all the blurriness and such - contributes to the mood, I think.

And are these too big, by the way? Should I try to post them smaller?

Just a note. Take your autofocus off of Wide area (default) and try using the central AF point setting and one-shot (not servo mode) to focus specifically and then re-compose. Wide area relies on the camera to make the decision when there are a lot of possible focus points and in a situation where depth of field is somewhat or very shallow (50mm f/1.8!), the difference of less than an inch in the focus point can take your subject from tack sharp to soft.

 

Wide area and AI-servo are great for some situations where the subject is moving erratically (lightning fast children), but I find that putting myself in control of the focus point results in far more sharply-focused shots.

 

Dave

Thanks for for the advice. I'll definitely try that out.

In the meantime, here's a few photos I took yesterday. The first is a friend's cat. It's a little blurry, not quite in focus...but I kind of like it anyway. After that is the amazing cake said friend made for a baby shower.

It's nice to have a photogenic pet...helps when you don't have an opportunity to go anywhere exploring with your new camera!

That said, I'm slightly discouraged and intimidated by my new Canon t2i. I've worked with a DSLR before, took a class in college where everything we did was 100% manual...but I'm having trouble getting all the different settings to work with each other on this camera. I know that will come with practice and experience...but even using auto focus and the program mode, I'm hardly getting any decent photos, and even the decent ones aren't really sharp... The below picture is about the best I've gotten, taken using the program mode and my 50mm f/1.8 lens, which is supposed to be really sharp, is it not?

Whoo, my first contribution! I went out and gave my brand new Canon t2i a test drive. What did I learn? That I have a LOT to learn! But these are three of my best. They aren't much - I envy the amazing bird photos some of you have posted - but they're a start!

Whew! It's taken me days to work my way through this entire thread, but I've enjoyed every moment of it! What phenomenal photographs, everyone! Some of those wildlife pictures just blow my mind! And such gorgeous landscapes, too! I'm envious of those of you who live in all these scenic places teeming with interesting birds and animals to shoot - and of those of you who really have eye for this kind of thing! I'm so excited to get my new camera in and start playing with it, seeing what I can do, what I can find! Can't wait to see what else y'all post!

Just wondering - has anyone ever heard about any accidents occurring as people were stepping from the ship to the tender and vice versa? Surely someone in the history of cruising has somehow slipped and fallen into the ocean... I've tendered several times and usually I feel very secure stepping between the two vessels, feel that even if I somehow slipped the people holding onto my arms would keep me up, but there has been a time or two when the water was rough enough to make the step a little difficult...

Apparently I was posting too many photos - I had to split them into two posts!

These next two are of Glory at night:

And to throw in some shots of people, here's my youngest sis (she was, I believe, ten when this was taken) enjoying the view of our wake:

That same year, both of my sisters were caught crying as we watched Glory sail away with her next batch of passengers the day we disembarked.

What a great thread - I've very much enjoyed looking through all of your fabulous pictures! There's no way I could choose just one of mine to post, so here are a few (hope you don't mind a good handful of pictures...when you take about 2500 photos per cruise, you have a lot to choose from!).

This is my very favorite, taken of a Disney ship (I think we decided it was Magic...) sailing alongside us at sunset one night.

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Leaving Port Canaveral on Glory. I love the classic shot of people waving goodbye to those stuck on land...whether they know them or not!

Glory docked in Port Canaveral. I think the angle and lighting in this shot are just perfect!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question or not, so bear with me. I'm looking for some fiction novels set on modern cruise ships...and I hate those cheap, trashy, Harlequin-type romances, so none of that, please. I don't even know if such a book exists, but if you have any ideas, please let me know!

Also, while I'm at it, can anyone recommend any good novels about foreign travel in general? Fiction, preferably European locales, though anywhere is fine... I'm looking for stories about people traveling to or moving to foreign countries rather than books that simple use, say, London as a setting for an ordinary ole story. Thanks!