[kashari]

Yeah, #2 is really nice, and I like #6 as well, though you have too much room in the picture.

Geddit?

Much room…muShroom.

Jeez, I kill myself….

😀

The last one also grabbed my eye, it’s got a nice feel to it, very peaceful. The others are really nice too, good job!

[kashari]

I found some of those mushrooms that look like the video game ones, red top with white splotches. It was tiny and cute. I can’t wait to see all these. Might go get some lichen pictures just to round it out some (lots of lichen to choose from up here).

I look forward to seeing those, I’ve never seen any IRL.

[kashari]

I think you’ll maybe have better luck up North than I did, they’ve had colder nights lately.

I guess maybe I did. I got some outstanding shots with the AD macro (lichen and mosses, in particular).

Now I have to whittle the selection of 15 or so down to three (well, two are near certain to have been chosen already, but the third choice will be a challenge.)

And there’s always that chance of total failure at the polls anyway, lol.

(p.s., a couple of the ‘really good but not as good as them other ones’ are in the gallery posted tonight.)

Were the leaves changing yet? We were up by Snowbowl and there was just a bit of yellow in the Aspens.

Nevermind, I see you posted some in the Gallery, nice!

[kashari]

Hmm… having a hard time differentiating this from the “Travel Brochure” theme in the hopper. I get the difference – with that being more famous landmarks and this one just that you went somewhere and took pics… But if your destination isn’t really apparent then isn’t that kinda missing the point of traveling there? I dunno. Hopefully that made sense to someone else. I’m going to sleep now. Hoping for some clarity in the morning.

I’m also having a hard time deciding on this one. Should they be scenic types of shots like landscapes, skylines, etc., or could it be things you see while you’re there, i.e., some critter in a zoo?

[kashari]

I’m hoping for good storms this afternoon into tonight, and possibly more tomorrow.

The monsoon may be over, but it’s been a weird year.

I wish I was as brave as you, but I’m scared to death of thunderstorms and am usually cringing in my house chanting ‘please stop, please stop!’. 😆

I love watching the lighting when it’s far away, but not when it’s snapping around town. During those last storms, I stepped out of my front door and right at the same time, there was a strike REALLY REALLY close somewhere, scared the heck out of me! Then it was back to hiding inside while hoping that hail didn’t break every skylight and window in my house.

[kashari]

Awesome caradoc, congrats!

[kashari]

I have been wanting a macro lens for some time. So when PeriRies suggested we rent a macro lens for our vacation, I jumped at the idea. I looked at the 60 mm and 85 mm. Ultimately I decided to go with the Nikkor 60 mm AF-S lens. As I expected, I fell in love with the lens and am now figuring out ways to round up the cash to buy one.

Below are a couple of the macro shots I got with it. There are others in a set on Flickr.

The point of all this is to ask if anyone has used both the 60 mm and the 85 mm. If so, do you have a preference for one over the other? Are the non-Nikkor brands (Sigma and Tamron) comparable in quality? Before I buy, I will probably rent the 85 mm just to make sure.

Nice shots, zincprincess, love the butterfly one!

I rented the 60mm and really liked the image quality, but felt I really had to get all up in whatever I was shooting. The 105mm Micro was outside of my budget, so the 85mm was my choice and I’m VERY pleased with it. But I think you’re right on renting first, I like having that option.

[kashari]

Glad you mentioned that, kashari–I’ll have to dig for it, but there was the most beautiful translucent toadstool a couple months ago that I captured–I might need it for this contest!!

(In other news, I’ll be up near Flagstaff tomorrow, for ‘Autumn’, ‘Travel Photography’, and whatever else I can get–lichens will probably be among them. *Must remember to bring the Darlot for macro…*)

We had a big grouping of white toadstools, when they opened it was like a little UFO colony had landed. The gnomes & fairies will be sad tonight that their special places were destroyed by the rotten little humans! 😥

Then there are big groups of small brown ones, I’ve never seen so many, it’s really weird.

I think you’ll maybe have better luck up North than I did, they’ve had colder nights lately.

[kashari]

We’ve had an explosion of toadstools in our complex’s yard after they’ve been watering the winter grass. I got a few pictures of them over the last couple of days while watching them grow/change. Yesterday some young boys busted up a couple of the bigger ones while I was out there, so I bitched them out a bit. But, I actually got some nice shots of the underbellies. Then today some other rugrats ran their dang bicycles over the other ones. STAY OFF MY LAWN YA LITTLE BRATS!!! 😈

[kashari]

Thanks CauseISaidSo!

[kashari]

Thanks you guys! I finally had good timing on a contest, otherwise I would’ve had nothing for this one. I’d gone up to Sedona last weekend where my sister owns a glass gallery, so that’s where the art glass pics came from. Then I spotted the Piranha on a tour of my niece’s new house, it was sitting on a shelf in her little boy’s room. (His dad had it since he was a kid…) 😆

Then the funnier thing is, last night, I emailed a copy of the Piranha to the rest of the family and got a reply from another niece saying she had one just like it! And she’s such a ‘girly-girl’, that’s the last thing I’d imagine her having in her house. 😆

oh yeah, besides seeing her house, I was hoping to catch some fall colors for the Autumn contest. So we went up to Flagstaff, but there was NOTHING happening yet. There was still some snow up at Snowbowl from the big storms earlier in the week. I was bummed big time since I’ve never seen good fall colors since I live in the desert.

[kashari]

Congrats to Kashari this week!

Thanks Elsinore!

[kashari]

My only worthwhile b-side. I love this shot of my mother in law’s cat but decided to save this one for another contest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38736385@N02/5079

The family is going to the aquarium tomorrow. It will be too late for this contest, but any advice on shooting in such an environment would be appreciated.

I LOVE the cat pic, very nice!

As for the aquarium shooting, I’ve read that you should stand at an angle and if you have a polarizing filter it should help with the reflections.

[kashari]

Did you have it in manual focus, too?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I tried that and I tried to focus on the brightest star.

[kashari]

I was up in Cottonwood AZ for a few days and the night skies are awesome up there. I was going to try my first star trails type of thing, but couldn’t get my D60 to fire. It’s probably something really stupid that I was missing, as I usually try to make things more difficult than they should be. I have a remote and was going to do the Time/Bulb exposure, but kept getting an error message saying it was too dark. IIRC, I was in manual mode. I looked up all sorts of tips about shooting the stars but didn’t see this addressed, so that’s why I think I was being a dork and missing the obvious. Any ideas?

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