[olavf]

Choc-Ful-A wrote:

I got halfway through a reply about how the various cemeteries in Colma seemed good for photographs when I’ve visited. Then I decided to double check something before I hit “Submit”… And to my surprise, when I looked up Coloma Ca on Google Maps to make sure my “extra o” typo assumption was correct, I learned there IS a Coloma Ca. So I’ll just add that if/when you’re near the SFO airport and would like a good cemetery to explore, check out Colma. 🙂 Sorry to hear Coloma was a bust!

Coloma’s a pretty interesting place if you’re ever up in this neck of the woods – It’s the location of Sutter’s Mill, and attributed as the origin of the CA Gold Rush. It’s visually and historically very cool, but it wasn’t being very photogenic this weekend. I got a couple of shots I’m relatively happy with, but it was a struggle.

The cemetery there was weird though, and impossible to do justice with the camera – it was on a hillside so there were all these different levels, and half the graves had no markers. Just a little bunch of fake flowers and a slight depression in the ground were the earth has settled in over the last ~150 years. Maybe I should look back through the shots for something for this contest though.

We’re planning a trip down SF-way ’round May though, so we’ll probably go back to the Sac City Cemetery this weekend. I got some decent shots there for ‘End of the Day’

[olavf]

I dunno man…. I’m coming up on your heels….

Hey I said “or even 10th!” I definitely see you back there. You are a worthy adversary my friend. So new game – three man no-holds-barred steel cage match it is! Now all we need is a special guest referee.

I picked the wrong week to start calling people out. I really don’t have anything strong this week. I don’t do well with the “subjective” themes. I know a flower is a flower and a rock is a rock, but I can’t leave it to the people to have the same opinion as me on what is ugly. But alas, we shall see who prevails!

LOL thanks. I was genuinely surprised to see myself on that chart the other week. It’ll be fun to see what happens though 😉

I’ve been struggling a bit this week too – moreso even than I did with the flowers set – and I think for the similar reasons, but also I have a hard time classifying ‘cool’ as ugly at the same time, so I’m sure I’m overlooking a few :/

Ironically, also, we went out both yesterday and today, and I’m pretty set for ‘Frankly my Deer’, and possibly a few for as-yet-to-be-scheduled contests, but the cemetery in Coloma was almost a total dud (except for one ‘maybe’) because of both the topology and the number of unmarked graves. Got one pic for this week yesterday at least, but as you say, we’ll see.

[olavf]

I dunno man…. I’m coming up on your heels….

/this could get ugly. Maybe someone should take a picture…

[olavf]

that, I think, is the sort of info I was looking for, at least. 🙂

Our good friend and fellow farktographer lady_nocturne owns a canon 100mm I think. We were thinking about inviting her and her SO along on our photo safari this weekend. Mayhap that will give her some feel for what a ~100mm would be like.

The Sigma 105mm is in her budget, and seems like a pretty solid lens
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002P19XA/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

Otherwise I’ll try and steer her more towards the 50-60mm range. it’s her call though (most of the stuff I do for ‘closeups’ are in the lightbox, so I’ve got a bit more play with standard lenses). My next piece of glass is going to be a telephoto – the other end of the spectrum 😛

[olavf]

the canon 100mm f/2.8 is outstanding. it’s a little outside of your budget, though. there is also the 60mm EF-S lens, which I’ve heard great things about.

I have a Tamron 180mm macro lens that I’m thinking of selling so I can get another copy of the 100mm canon. The 180 can be unwieldy due to its length. It also doesn’t focus nearly as fast as the 100 canon I used to have (that was stolen, dammit).

Sigma makes a 105mm/f2.8 that looked interesting in that area – and it’s just within her budget parameters. What I don’t know is whether I should point her towards something that’s going to be tighter like that (the 105mm has a 23 degree angle of view vs. ~45 degrees for a 50 or 60mm. Or if there’s something that’s good at macro that has a limited range of zoom.

[olavf]

Thanks for the explanation orionid. Definitely something I plan on keeping in mind down the road for myself.

[olavf]

I’m going to chime in, especially since I may want to [strike]steal[/strike] errr…”borrow” the lens on occasion (like for an upcoming farktography contest for example)…

Anyway, I’ve been trying to help her pick a lens, but I really don’t have a good handle on what’s important in a macro lens. I’ve also notised that there’s a lot of lenses out there that say they’re macro, but really don’t seem to be. I kinda get the idea that one would want a short focusing distance, and that as a general rule for all photography having a lower aperture is better, but what tradeoffs are really important? And would it be better to get a larger prime (say that Sigma 105mm) or a 50mm or something that does a modest range?

This Sigma 18-50 seems pretty sweet: http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-18-50mm-Aspherical-Digital-Cameras/dp/B000JDJJ82/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1238729369&sr=1-19 but part of my brain wants to say a tighter shot on macros would be better.

[olavf]

Rules are so overrated.

FWIW I really wanted to post three this week. I waffled up until right before posting time and closed my eyes and picked one 😛

[olavf]

I don’t live there, but head across the sound to Victoria, and especially Butchart Gardens. What I wouldn’t give to go back there with a camera :/

http://www.butchartgardens.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Victoria itself also has the Parliament House (aka “The Birdcage”), The quite impressive Empress Hotel, and they’ve a seaplane port in the harbor…

IIRC, they’ve also one of the largest Chinese communities on the West Coast.

[olavf]

I’ve only had sixes and eights, personally. Every time I travel though, I tend to upload my pics to the laptop every day, or every other day, so space has never been an issue.
/though next major trip I hope to have the home VPN running so they can get dumped straight to the server

[olavf]

Amen to that brother.

At least with the weather going sour last weekend I got a chance to finish setting up my studio in the garage.

That’s right, gotta photography studio in the garage… w00t! *dances*

[olavf]

the f/1.4 is a rock-solid lens. Personally I think it’s worth more than what I paid for it – seems like I have it on the camera a good 60-70% of the time these days.

[olavf]

LOL it’s not gonna be that bad, but we’re trying to figure out if the place is open today or not. Their ‘hotline’ has yesterday’s status still, with a note that due to the weather they may be closed and that I should call before heading up there.

http://www.amadorcountychamber.com/Daffodil%20Hill.htm

[olavf]

Seeing as how the contest date is April 15th, I think something about death and taxes might be wildly appropriate.

[olavf]

Argh!

” … WINTER WEATHER TO RETURN TO INTERIOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA THIS WEEKEND…

A STORM SYSTEM FROM THE GULF OF ALASKA WILL DROP SOUTH ALONG THE WEST COAST AND MOVE THROUGH THE REGION THIS WEEKEND. THIS SYSTEM WILL BRING COOLER TEMPERATURES ALONG WITH GUSTY WINDS. PRECIPITATION MAY START EARLY SATURDAY OVER THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS AND BY LATE SATURDAY MORNING OVER THE WESTERN SLOPES OF THE SIERRA NEVADA.”

There go my plans for this contest :/

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