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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:10 pm

Yeats wrote:
I've come around several times to admire these shots, so figured I'd mention it. :)


Thanks! Makes me feel like my shooting is progressing.
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Mar 06, 2014 10:59 am

TheEmrys wrote:
Funny, I am loving what mft are doing. Its such an elegant solution and the glass is excellent. The thought of going to a 600mm equivalent with a relatively tiny lens is tempting as well.


Yeah, the good part of m4/3 is the lens selections and size. There are more lens offerings out there than I can afford to purchase! I am leaning towards the new lower-end Olympus, but I have never been a fan of their menu system. I am used to Panasonic's fairly simple setup. The GH3/GH4 has more features than I need, and the Panasonic GX7 is a reasonable choice, but I am unsure if I like the form factor. I mostly would like a m4/3 that handles a large dynamic range well, and will take long bulb exposures for nighttime photography.
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:29 am

The EM10 looks like quite a nice performer. I would probably move towards the EM1 myself, as that 5 axis IS has me drooling. But, the EM10 really looks like the best compromise out there. Terrific body.

If I were to go mft, I'd probably look at this:
EM1 ($1400) or EM10 ($700)
Oly Zuiko 12-40/2.8 PRO ($1000) or 14-42 EZ ($349) - great little pancake lens!
Zuiko 17/2.8 ($300)
Panny Lumix 35-100/2.8 ($1300)
Panny Lumix 100-300 ($500)

I'd have to spend an awful lot to get where I would want to be.

Although, a guy offered to trade me his a7r for my a99. SOOoooooo tempted.
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:59 am

I had a great time with my son at the park to day. It was a bit over 60 degrees, so I grabbed the stroller and my a99 with my Sony 50/1.4 and had some fun.

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Orion is not impressed with this offering of a leaf. Did a fun "creative" mode where only a pre-selected strip is in focus, making the rest of the image OOF.
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Watching some tennis players.
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And a soft-key one. I kind of like the understated colors. Some will call it washed out, while I like it as a change from what can be over-saturated PP (that I am occasionally guilty of).
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Yeats
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sat Mar 08, 2014 1:26 pm

Given that you're in Colorado, perhaps Orion was expecting being offered a different kind of "leaf"... :wink:
 
Airmantharp
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:54 pm

Grabbed the 6D an 50/1.4 for a quick walk through the woods:

Image
 
PenGun
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Mar 10, 2014 3:03 am

Been resting for a while. Trying to heal stuff. I have several things a bit tweaked. ;)

Anyway, got bored, decided to wander into the bush a bit, it's been raining hard and there is some nice water:

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I call it Water Raptor. ;)
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Yeats
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:37 pm

Cool! Any kind of PP to enhance the raptor?
 
PenGun
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:46 pm

Yeats wrote:
Cool! Any kind of PP to enhance the raptor?


I take everything from RAW so there is the usual tweaking to get it how I want it.

There is nothing added, nothing taken away. ;)
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Yeats
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:37 pm

PenGun wrote:
Yeats wrote:
Cool! Any kind of PP to enhance the raptor?


I take everything from RAW so there is the usual tweaking to get it how I want it.

There is nothing added, nothing taken away. ;)


Yeah, I figured you shot RAW, just wondered if a little burning was done to emphasize the "Water Raptor".

Cool little piece of magic you caught there. :D
 
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:02 am

Yeats wrote:
PenGun wrote:
Yeats wrote:
Cool! Any kind of PP to enhance the raptor?


I take everything from RAW so there is the usual tweaking to get it how I want it.

There is nothing added, nothing taken away. ;)


Yeah, I figured you shot RAW, just wondered if a little burning was done to emphasize the "Water Raptor".

Cool little piece of magic you caught there. :D

Nope, just got lucky. I took quite a few, here's a little Dragon playing in the water:

Image
Fuji X-E1 Leica Elmar 135 4 XF60mm 2.4 Macro | Zeiss FE 35mm 2.8
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Yeats
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:08 pm

I can see the dragon, I can also see what kind of looks like Falkor the Luckdragon from The Neverending Story.
 
Yeats
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:51 pm

.....
Last edited by Yeats on Fri Mar 21, 2014 10:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:05 pm

My water picture:
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_DSC0822 by emerson.robert, on Flickr

I'm currently in North Carolina, near Lake Chatuge on a service trip with my church. It's a gorgeous area, and I'm having a lot of success with the a7.

Some other fun ones (lots of landscapes with a Sigma 21-35mm, for sale at $70 if anyone is interested. Star shots with the Vivitar. Most other things with the kit lens):

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Orion Nebula - I exposed just a bit too long and got some trails
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And link to time lapse of the stars since I can't embed that:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89587683@N06/13075583455/

There are plenty more on my Flickr page.
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lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Mar 21, 2014 1:47 pm

I feel like I'm taking over, but I've just had a lot of chances to get out over the past 2 weeks. The weather here finally seems to be settling down. While I was away, our daffodils bloomed, and when I got back they were covered in 5 inches of snow. That's all melted now, and it's sunny and about 70F. We're supposed to have a bit of snow on Tuesday, but no accumulation, and I think that'll be the end of it.

Pictures from a walk around yesterday. All with the a7 and 55mm.

This was probably my favorite (stopped down to around f4 and the bokeh isn't as busy)
Image
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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Mar 21, 2014 7:01 pm

Flowers already? Lucky. Everything here in Colorado is.. well, still dead/dormant.

Tried out the a7 and 55/1.8 combo today. I love it. So small and so very, very nice.

Here is a lovely bag in my tree in the backyard. Stupid windstorms. Sun in shot to see if I had any flare.

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DSC00014 by TylerDillon, on Flickr

My dead apple tree that shall soon be wood chips for my smoker

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DSC00011 by TylerDillon, on Flickr

Dead vines on some spare lumber for our broken down fence (hopefully new fence this spring)

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DSC00017 by TylerDillon, on Flickr

An old clothesline stand

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DSC00019 by TylerDillon, on Flickr

One more of that dumb apple tree.

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DSC00028 by TylerDillon, on Flickr
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lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:24 pm

Went out for a hike with some friends today. Only brought the Sigma 21-35mm with me, which was kind of a mistake. I forgot this hike was mostly river with small waterfalls and not mountain landscapes. Either way, the Sigma will be going on sale. I really like it's bokeh, but it's just a large heavy lens that doesn't fit into my collection. It doesn't really provide much of a reach advantage over my kit 28-70mm, it's a bit heavier, and with adapter, a bit larger.

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Image

Image
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lonleyppl
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Fri Apr 04, 2014 10:38 pm

Just got a Zeiss Sonnar 135/2.8. It's incredible. The MFD is pretty long, so I definitely missed focus by swaying back and forth on a few shots, but other than that, I found it excellent.

Even with the T* coating, there is a little bit of CA, but not nearly as bad as any of my other lenses. It's also extremely well built, and fairly small, so it balances well on my a7.

Colors, bokeh and sharpness are excellent. It may be a little soft in the corners on some of my brick shots, but I blame that more on my inability to focus than the lens, I bought a cheap adapter, so infinity is a bit off.

Every shot in this album is with the Sonnar. The rabbit was taken at ISO 6400, and then bumped up a stop in Image Data Converter. For most of the others I only adjusted white balance and exposure (I need to trust my meter a bit more...).

Also, bonus points to anyone who can identify the bird in the second photo. Click on the first picture for the entire set.

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Image
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SecretSquirrel
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Zoo outing...

Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:45 pm

My youngest niece had her birthday party at the Ft Worth Zoo. I got to wander around afterwards with the camera. The light varied wildly, though it tended towards very flat due to gray overcast. I haven't post processed these at all. Some of them, I would probably adjust the saturation and color balance to adjust for the light, but overall, I got a high rate of return on the shots I took.

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Zoos are wonderful places to have a camera... :)

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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:37 am

Looks like a great zoo! I miss being close to the San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park. Such an amazing place to go. The Denver Zoo... is cute. Nice color on the lizard. On the water, I am not sure if I would like it taken with a faster or slower shutter. Waterfalls always befuddle me that way. I usually end up going both ways and liking them for different reasons. Fun day!
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SecretSquirrel
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:34 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
Looks like a great zoo! I miss being close to the San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park. Such an amazing place to go. The Denver Zoo... is cute. Nice color on the lizard. On the water, I am not sure if I would like it taken with a faster or slower shutter. Waterfalls always befuddle me that way. I usually end up going both ways and liking them for different reasons. Fun day!


I actually took a series of the waterfall at different shutter speeds. I'm not a huge fan of "fuzzy" water pictures myself, but I went from 1/1250s down to 1/15s. Here are the two ends of the spectrum.

1/1250s
Image


1/15s
Image


Like I said, I'm not a fan of fuzzy water. I think the high speed image is a neat stoppage of time, but I came to the conclusion that the one I originally posted captured the "feel" of the water the best. Personal taste, etc, etc...

I was extremely happy with the lizard. That was indoors, behind glass. At full resolution, there is a bit of noise in the background but nothing you would really see in a normal print or at screen resolution. Dropping the ISO would have required a lower F stop and requisite drop in DOF and it was hard enough to get the focus right to begin with. I was just waiting for the birthday party to start and they had several display cases in the hallway. That is where the turtle came from as well.

--SS

BTW, everything I uploaded is here: http://www.kovarindustries.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=90
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Apr 24, 2014 1:57 pm

Very cool. I like both of these water pics. Guess I'm not a tweener. But the lizard is definitely a fun one. Good color separation and detail. Its always fun when a challenging shot yields good results!
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PenGun
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu Apr 24, 2014 2:42 pm

Waterfalls are fun. I usually take a pile of shots and vary the speed and chose which one I like:

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Some Skunk Cabbage too, I often put up both B&W and Colour because I can't decide which I like better:

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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:39 pm

Had some fun hiking the Red Feathers Lakes area with some friends. Here are a few shots.

My favorite tree in the world. I respect the tenacity of this tree.

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My friend climbed the rock.

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And a 1:1 crop
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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Wed Apr 30, 2014 1:05 am

My son decided to get up at 5am today..... so, I figured why not snag a sunrise pick with all the clouds? This was a bit later on. Loving the dynamic range. I actually increased the blacks because I liked the contrast.

Image
Sony a7II 55/1.8 Minolta 100/2, 17-35D, Tamron 28-75/2.8
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:37 am

TheEmrys wrote:
My son decided to get up at 5am today..... so, I figured why not snag a sunrise pick with all the clouds? This was a bit later on. Loving the dynamic range. I actually increased the blacks because I liked the contrast.


Makes me think of an example raytracing scene...

--SS
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu May 01, 2014 10:25 am

SecretSquirrel wrote:
TheEmrys wrote:
My son decided to get up at 5am today..... so, I figured why not snag a sunrise pick with all the clouds? This was a bit later on. Loving the dynamic range. I actually increased the blacks because I liked the contrast.


Makes me think of an example raytracing scene...

--SS


Thanks! I was actually thinking of raytracing as I was taking the picture and doing my PP. The colors and DR at the time made me feel like the view was a bit surreal. Too bad the dog's nose marks are all over the glass.....
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SecretSquirrel
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu May 01, 2014 7:53 pm

TheEmrys wrote:
SecretSquirrel wrote:
TheEmrys wrote:
My son decided to get up at 5am today..... so, I figured why not snag a sunrise pick with all the clouds? This was a bit later on. Loving the dynamic range. I actually increased the blacks because I liked the contrast.


Makes me think of an example raytracing scene...

--SS


Thanks! I was actually thinking of raytracing as I was taking the picture and doing my PP. The colors and DR at the time made me feel like the view was a bit surreal. Too bad the dog's nose marks are all over the glass.....


Well you hit the nail on the head, at least in my opinion. I didn't even notice the nose prints until you mentioned them. Then I smiled. I have a pair of cocker spaniels that love to sit at our front windows and tell the world that they are there. I gave up trying to keep the windows clean long ago.

--SS
 
TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu May 01, 2014 9:07 pm

This is my first time ever picturing something, picturing what it could be, and then actually making it happen to where someone else could see what I was going for.

This is a pretty good day! :D
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TheEmrys
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Re: General photography thread [img heavy]

Thu May 01, 2014 9:12 pm

Image

This was more of an exercise in looking at things weird that I happened into. This is my own reflection while watching Netflix on my Kindle. I used a CZ 50/1.4 in C/Y mount focused at 10'. The actual distance was roughly 8" from the Kindle for both my head and my camera, but at a 45 degree angle to each other. I don't know what happened, but it took 10' to get into focus. I may try some other lenses and see how it turns out.
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