I got out and used my camera today...

[sparky-elpaso]

Beautiful! :)

 

Sparky, that should be an ideal time for travel.

I'm just not ready yet for the cooler temps and the big bad "S" word. (snow)

 

Don't miss S*** - just the trees turning pretty colors.

 

We do get snow every couple of years - this is last November. And it stayed cold enough for the snow to last 2 days.

 

 

The locals weren't too happy about it, though.

 

 

But our mountains looked pretty.

 

[pierces]

Surprise baking of cherry-almond donuts fro breakfast were snap-worthy!

 

 

Dave

[wernew2cruising]

Old College Tri in Denton, Texas this morning. This is the overall winner. Congrats!

 

Edited September 5, 2010 by wernew2cruising

[jimjamxx]

Looked up and saw this. Sun slanting thru the blinds in the Clubhouse. Not has good as I thought it would turn out. Oh well:

 

 

 

 

JimmyJames

[dileep]

[mnbruce]

The fair ends tomorrow, which brings the unofficial end of summer in Minnesota.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2010 by mnbruce

[Debathome]

Really nice!

 

Our fair ends today as well. We are just heading down for the Air Show if the weather holds. Fingers crossed.

[dodger501]

Attendance record, what a crush of humanity!

 

 

 

My gallery is here

[TheRoff]

dodger501 and mnbruce; Wow really nice fair captures. Great composition and color.

 

didger501; What HDR software do you use? I am about to buy Photomatix (to get rid of the free version water mark). I have been totally unimpressed with the job CS5 does with HDR.

 

Larry

[highflyingrealtor]

Attendance record, what a crush of humanity!

We actually missed the fair this year for the first time in many. Kind of ironic that I spent the week in the hospital with panceantitis instead of being a fair go'er. :eek: It could have been that wild anticipation for cheese curds I get every year! We'll make up for it next. Nice pic's.

[mnbruce]

Nice images Dodger!

 

 

We actually missed the fair this year for the first time in many. Kind of ironic that I spent the week in the hospital with panceantitis instead of being a fair go'er. :eek: It could have been that wild anticipation for cheese curds I get every year! We'll make up for it next. Nice pic's.

 

Sorry to hear about your health issue highflyingrealtor. For the first time ever my wife did not want any cheese curds the night we went, which I thought was odd. Well,the next day she displays some regret with that decision, so I jumped in the car and headed to the fair to get her some,and it also gave me the oportunity to get some more photos.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2010 by mnbruce

[Debathome]

Fab photos!! Love the colour and excitement.

 

I went another route with our fair and photographed some in black and white. There was also an air show at the time. I only have a Nikon P80. No fancy lens or anything so mine aren't quite so spectacular.

 

Highflying, hopefully there will be many more cheese curd years to come. I hope you are feeling stronger.

 

 

 

 

[sparky-elpaso]

Fab photos!! Love the colour and excitement.

 

I went another route with our fair and photographed some in black and white. There was also an air show at the time. I only have a Nikon P80. No fancy lens or anything so mine aren't quite so spectacular.

 

Highflying, hopefully there will be many more cheese curd years to come. I hope you are feeling stronger.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice air show shots! And I love the sepia in the ferris wheel pic.

[zackiedawg]

I'm a bit jealous of all the fair and airshow shots - don't really have any fairs in my area, and our airshow was lost years ago. Lovely shots - at least I can live vicariously!

 

While out in the wetlands Saturday, I had a red-shouldered hawk give me a lovely pose - he was sitting high on a tree trunk stump, in heavy backlighting - so I needed to go +1.3EV to get him...but he sat so lovely that he almost looks like a diorama with a stuffed bird on top!:

 

 

Just to prove he was real, and moving, here he is in a different position, and a wasp buzzing by him:

 

 

And here he flew off from the stump after his series of poses, giving me a chance to get an in-flight shot:

 

[Debathome]

Thank you guys. :)

 

The Hawk photos are amazing!!

How perfect a pose especially on that wonderful stump. Really impressive.

[ion-man]

Impressive indeed! Isecond or third (or however far down the line I am) the suggestion for including exposure parameters so that relative newbies like myself can have a better appreciation for the technical aspects of the shots.

The nighttime fair pics by mnbruce, as well the Mt.Rainier and other outdoor shots by dileep, coupled with the aerial show grabs of sparky-elpaso and zackiedawg's winged feat of flight, are truly inspirational. Reading Pierces blog might ensure that one day I'll get there, keep it up folks!

[mnbruce]

 

I went another route with our fair and photographed some in black and white. There was also an air show at the time. I only have a Nikon P80. No fancy lens or anything so mine aren't quite so spectacular.

 

 

 

 

Really nice photos! The B+W is really nice.

[zackiedawg]

Impressive indeed! Isecond or third (or however far down the line I am) the suggestion for including exposure parameters so that relative newbies like myself can have a better appreciation for the technical aspects of the shots.

 

Indeed - a good idea, and I oft forget to include that here! For my hawk shots, here's a bit of exposure info:

 

I often swap between P (program) mode, and S (Tv - shutter) or A (Av - Aperture) priority modes, depending on my needs. Many 'pros' find Program mode to somehow be less professional, but I disagree, finding it to offer just as much control, just with a different style of shooting (namely, adjusting the exposure by shifting the selection, using spot or center-weight meter to roam around for the proper exposure then lock it with the AEL button, and adjusting EV as needed to control shutter and brightness. I say, whatever works best for you! In these cases I was in P mode...using a 300mm F4 APO prime lens, with fairly wide apertures due to the harsh backlighting. In order to avoid overexposing the skies too much, I kept the aperture back to F6.3 to 7.1 - rather than wide open at F4...keeping the shutter speed at 1/1250 to freeze any motion. That would have resulted in a fairly heavy underexposure, with the hawk nearly in silhouette, so by dialing up the EV to +1.3, I got the exposure on the hawk where I needed it, while keeping the sky from being blown highlights. Once he launched in flight, I was AEL locked at 1/1250 shutter and F7.1 and had just dialed back the EV to +1, as the hawk was moving just out of the strongest backlight.

 

Aperture is fairly dependent on the lens being used too - some long lenses you may not want to go to F6.3, as it might be a little soft on details - a faster prime lens that starts at F2.8 or F4 is actually stopped down a bit at F6.3 and can usually deliver excellent sharpness at that aperture. Bright backgrounds with a very dark subject are a nasty challenge for photographers - usually you need to strike the balance between a nicely exposed background and a silhouetted subject, or a nicely exposed subject and a blown out background. Finding the middle ground I find easier when you settle on a shutter and aperture that exposes well, then adjusting the EV as needed to just tweak the exposure up or down a bit to get the exposure balanced more towards highlights or shadows as needed.

 

Hope that's all not too confusing!

[dodger501]

Impressive indeed! Isecond or third (or however far down the line I am) the suggestion for including exposure parameters so that relative newbies like myself can have a better appreciation for the technical aspects of the shots.

The nighttime fair pics by mnbruce, as well the Mt.Rainier and other outdoor shots by dileep, coupled with the aerial show grabs of sparky-elpaso and zackiedawg's winged feat of flight, are truly inspirational. Reading Pierces blog might ensure that one day I'll get there, keep it up folks!

 

For my HDR shots, it is aperture priority - always. f/8 or f/11. I turn auto ISO off so I don't have exposure values all over the place, keep it low - 200, 400. I normally use a tripod but it was not practical at the Fair so all of mine were hand-held. Photomatix helped align everything, my hand is pretty steady.

 

For non-HDR dusk or night-time, it used to be a lot harder to find the right combination of shutter, aperture, EV, etc. With the Nikon D3 and D700, I can push the ISO up real high and get good shots. I go Manual mode. 1/125 shutter, f5, auto ISO, I can now have faith the sensor will perform just as I need it. Sometimes a little Noiseware in Photoshop needed. but only a little.

[dodger501]

dodger501 and mnbruce; Wow really nice fair captures. Great composition and color.

 

didger501; What HDR software do you use? I am about to buy Photomatix (to get rid of the free version water mark). I have been totally unimpressed with the job CS5 does with HDR.

 

Larry

 

Photomatix, yes. And some Topaz Detail on top of it but I reduce the opacity of the Topaz layer by half, usually. Daytime/landscape shots I use Topaz Adjust.

Nik Efex is coming out with a product to compete with Photomatix.

[JWJs]

I'm a bit jealous of all the fair and airshow shots - don't really have any fairs in my area, and our airshow was lost years ago. Lovely shots - at least I can live vicariously!

 

While out in the wetlands Saturday, I had a red-shouldered hawk give me a lovely pose - he was sitting high on a tree trunk stump, in heavy backlighting - so I needed to go +1.3EV to get him...but he sat so lovely that he almost looks like a diorama with a stuffed bird on top!:

 

 

Just to prove he was real, and moving, here he is in a different position, and a wasp buzzing by him:

 

 

And here he flew off from the stump after his series of poses, giving me a chance to get an in-flight shot:

 

 

zackiedawg ~ absolutely awesome pictures of the Red-Shouldered Hawk! Wicked cool in-flight pic!!! :):) We have Red-Tailed Hawks in our neck of the woods. And thanks for all the info on your camera settings! I'm still using auto.:(

[ion-man]

Thanks for the feedback on camera exposure settings.I've been reading up on a few tutorials etc from dslr camera websites so I am not as lost as I was a few weeks ago. I am still amazed at what goes into producing these fantastic images, but that makes me appreciate them even more, as I am sure everyone that comes to this thread on a daily basis does as well.

[zackiedawg]

Thanks for the feedback on camera exposure settings.I've been reading up on a few tutorials etc from dslr camera websites so I am not as lost as I was a few weeks ago. I am still amazed at what goes into producing these fantastic images, but that makes me appreciate them even more, as I am sure everyone that comes to this thread on a daily basis does as well.

 

The good news is...it's all learnable, and becomes second nature pretty quickly. I pretty much was a snapshooter with no photographic knowledge in 2004...I hunted around photo sites, got advice, critique on my photos, started learning settings, etc...and by 2008 I found manually controlling a DSLR to be almost subconscious.

 

It sounds like a lot of adjustments with some fancy knowledge or something, but it's all just intuitive, and pretty much happens in milliseconds. Of course, DSLRs lend themselves more to this type of user control because they typically have far more direct-access buttons, controls, and dials allowing multiple settings changes quickly and without moving your eye from the viewfinder. P&S cameras take a little more time and concentration - either they don't provide manual controls (but that doesn't mean you can't still make your own settings!!) or they do, and they're buried in menus which require a little time to look at them and set them.

 

A lot of DSLR shooters who have become proficient with their cameras have no problem taking one shot of a nice nature scene at F10, shutter 1/200, ISO200, EV0, wide metering mode, single AF and multi-focus points, then seeing some wildlife and switching to F4, 1/1250, ISO200, EV-.3, center-weight metering, continuous AF, and spot focus...and all of that done in about 2 seconds...even better with some DSLRs that allow you to save custom 'banks' of settings for different types of shooting. And most of those things become more natural than you could imagine - you'll be surprised how you often don't have to think about those settings - they just come to you. Everyone asking for camera settings is on the right path too - it's a wonderful way to learn about photography.

[dileep]

St Basil's Cathedral

 

The Kremlin

[SEJSmiles]

I just found this thread and I know it is gonna be one of my faves. I am a daily shooter...I shoot my food, my dog, my family, my house...you name it and I take pics of it.

This thread can be bad for you though...After reading this thread I now wanna buy the Topaz plugins...thanks guys! lol

 

So here's goes with my first entries into this awesome thread.

I took this pic of the nightly light show on the Hong Kong Skyline from the deck of the Azamara Quest earlier this year. I didn't have a tripod onboard with me, so I steadied myself by leaning on the railing.

 

and here's the Quest's pool deck that same night after the lightshow