[Curious]

i am really glad to hear you folks (whom i respect) say that your zooms are soft. i have a tamron 75-300 (it’s actually a film lens in the Minolta Maxxum AF series) and from the time i bought it the results at full zoom have usually been under whelming. ok perhaps but certainly not razor sharp.

It does best with plenty of light though and my AF tends to search with it. But with it has given me some really great results

put me in the plenty of light part. my AF hunts occasionally and not just at full zoom. best results with this lens seem to be with manual focus. took this one yesterday and it’s more than ok but not perfect.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57055068@N00/3778141020/

1/300 at F11 so it’s not a DOF thing. or i don’t think it is. might be slightly off focus, a bit of camera movement of soft lens. opinions welcomed.

[Curious]

i have two. they suck even in the large size. i’m afraid to see them at 640 pixels.

[strike]but they are personal and will have a caption.
they still won’t get votes.
but i will enjoy sharing them.[/strike]

having now seen them at 640 they won’t be entered. bad photos doesn’t begin to adequately describe the suckage.

time to work on next week 🙂

[Curious]

who has a monkey i can borrow?

[Curious]

i’m old. i may not get too far.

i’m guessing that the background will be a big factor in voting for these.

or perhaps the foreground if one can arrange for a large axe or gun to be in the picture.

and speaking of that how about a ruling on that idea. would an assistant’s hand or arm with hand and an axe be ok?

an if so i get 1/2 of all votes for entries that utilize the idea. IP royalties and all.

[Curious]

done and done

[Curious]

ok a couple of more things

first, i am NOT holding myself out as a great, or sometimes even good, photographer. linking my profile was vain but also to show what mediocre performance is like. i shot more for fun than anything else and seldom take the time to do fancy setups or use even a third of the equipment i own.

second, there are those here who really spend some time on their shots. they have good skills, a good eye and good equipment and it shows.

third and last but by no means least don’t get lazy. you will see the results of that in a lot of my stuff. i just shot it and hoped. bad idea. want good or great results? beyond practice learn from it. internalize the results, good and bad. be the finished shot. in essence be ansel adams. try to see the finished shot as it will be presented. what works at 3000 pixels doesn’t necessarily work at 640 pixels. and vice versa of course. this is a direct correlation to point two. great photos seldom just happen.

/rant

[Curious]

also that the rule of thirds is stupid

my sister, the retired high school photo teacher, and i have fought over that one for ages. while i agree about top left eye travel western reading practices, etc, etc my personal aesthetic favors something else. so i shoot what i find pleasing and let the viewer decide.

clouddancer i have one win and 4 second place finishes. the 2nd in Hallowe’en follows the rule of thirds. it is the only one that does. the 2nd in Keep Out was a combination being able to get the right angle, careful composition and good luck. the one win and other second place were shots that fit the theme and the voters liked. both were snapshots taken of Katrina damage and two of probably a hundred taken that day with two cameras.

if you want to see them here’s my FSM profile. please note that of all my entries the vast majority finished well out of the running. those entries that finished 199th i like as much as the ones that finished in the top ten. and i thought they had potential when i posted them. also note how many votes and final placement. tied for 71st place is an entry with eleven votes and two entries with only one vote each. so using vote counts as a test of your skill just doesn’t work. and comments in the contest thread about “great picture” don’t usually tell what they liked about it.

my point here is pretty much a repeat of others. learn the “rules” but don’t feel you have to be bound by them. shoot a ton of stuff. then a ton more. use the zoom and or move to change composition. get down on your knees or stomach. climb up on a chair or wall. ask lots of questions about shots you like. and those you don’t. if instead of being able to have the sun over your right shoulder it’s coming from the upper right in front of you use fill flash. try other tricks and techniques you read about but feel free to adapt them to your particular situation.

above all else HAVE FUN. this is a hobby. you will get happier with your results if you don’t get all OCD about it.

and BTW if you aren’t using rechargeable batteries invest in an overnight charger and a couple of sets of batteries. while i do keep a quick charger in my car the overnight ones seem to do better. if you are a wal-mart shopper they have ray-o-vac batteries (set of eight) and an overnight charger for under $20. i’ve also used everyready rechargeable batteries for several years. all will eventually die but overall are cheaper than disposables.

[Curious]

interesting read, thanks for sharing.

[Curious]

thanks schnee and NoBigDeal. i have re shot one and will upload and enter it. along with a “real” one. both of which will tank but that’s OK since i now do this more for my enjoyment than anything else.

[Curious]

well there is that but i don’t want to upset the folks here by being off theme.

keep in mind how anal i used to get about adhering to the theme/description.

[Curious]

i’m leaning real hard toward the pun aspect for one entry. anyone have a problem with that?

[Curious]

i was wondering if what i had in mind was going to be shinny enough but given the entries it would have been fine.

of course i put off the actual photography until wednesday afternoon then had both a flat on my truck and a dead battery in the car so no time for pictures 🙁

[Curious]

as you can see from the dates above it took us far too long to have another crossover contest.

however the results were great. said it in the PSAEF and i’ll repeat it here: thanks to laz-long for nudging us and Choc-Ful-A for his early input and Elsinore for shepherding the whole thing through.

i really enjoyed this. as if you couldn’t tell

[Curious]

Maybe collaborate on a theme next time too? Our theme > their theme kind of thing.

http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=2431449 “band literal” farktography contest Nov23, 2006

http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=2412884 “literal interpretation of a band’s name” photoshop contest Nov 22, 2006 see my first post for what we did and why.

[Curious]

Also, in case anyone finds themselves camera shopping online, some people’s definitions of continuous shooting may differ. Mine is that as long as the button is held, and disk space is available, the camera keeps snapping.

film will for sure but i’m wondering if even high end digital cameras do that. the copy/paste below is for the nikon D3

Shooting modes ? Single frame
? Continuous Low [CL]: 1 – 9 fps
? Continuous High [CH]: 9 fps (9 – 11 fps with DX format)
? Liveview [LV]
? Self-Timer (programmable)
? Mirror-up mode

Continuous buffer ? JPEG Large/Normal: 64 shots (at 9 fps)
? RAW: no data yet

if that pro camera only does 64 images before the buffer is full ……….

[Author]

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