[ravnostic]

Yes, +NBD–that’s exactly it. So wrong! But…if she’d paid me, and expected that result, she’d feel cheated if I didn’t deliver. It really is about the client and the expectations. I think, if I gave examples of both and a prospect said “I like these”, I’d turn down the job. I’m not an expert, but I’m trying to get there. But to purposefully take bad photos? Eesh…I don’t think I’d want to.

Not saying my shots were perfect, but at least they were within the ballpark.

I never use the OC flash except for fill. Obviously, the speedlight is my next purchase (come September, unless I spend it helping the folks with the doctor bills for my dad.)

And yeah, CISS second curtain!! That was it! (NBD said same). I’ll need practice. I think I’ll have to go clubbing (for like the first time in 20 years. Last night Christina showed me a great way to hold the strap to steady the cam while you take photos of dancing people, sans tripod.

//ah, the things I am still learning from you people!! And also those who’ve I met in person, via G+!!

[ravnostic]

Hilltop, schmilltop! Bring on the bolts! (sez the guy who still hasn’t popped his lightning trigger cherry). 🙂

Here’s a few; one from the vaults I’d overlooked, one from recently near sunset when the lighting was good, and one from when I was out last night trying to catch a Perseid (which I did), but we were sidetracked by a very distant cell. The color on that last is natural; between the dust through much atmosphere from a haboob two days prior (see caradoc‘s shot), and light pollution, the silver and orange managed to make a spiffy amber glow (or at least I thought so)

[ravnostic]

But, CISS; it’s still the goal to figure out prior to, what exactly the client wants, and it’s that lesson I took to heart. A wedding photog friend and I went out last night and she edumacated me on getting a speedlight and setting it to flash just before the shutter closes (I forget the name); that would have helped me capture deeper DOF images. She uses it for certain wedding situations.

[ravnostic]

It’s ironic that after you posted that I went out last night with a friend to try to get the Perseids (just she and I, she definitely brightened my night), and in the midst of 6-7 hours of conversation (which was all I told her I could hope for), I actually caught a nice one! Also got a nice shot of very-distant lightning that cropped and processed wonderfully; really made me feel better to have a couple nice images. I may even have more, but I got too much going on today to go through them all. In about an hour, Venus will be occulted by the crescent moon, and I’m going to try to catch it.

[ravnostic]

Rav:
The funny thing about our creative passions is we think they will be there for us when we are down, or need a diversion. So we pick up our cameras and head out, and our heads are still in our problems. We wind up frustrated and now have the worry we’ve “lost it” on top of the real problems we went out with. Trust me, I KNOW how it feels. I’ve spent the last year battling those metaphorical demons. The one piece of advice I can give, because I sure can’t help with the big one, is to only shoot when you feel like shooting. Don’t try to make this thing you love distract you from the problems, because it can’t do that. Read a book, watch a movie, play a video game, take a long walk without the camera, (or a long drive since you live in the vehicular world) do anything but try to force the photography to work. You might break it trying to squeeze that square peg in the round hole.
…

I don’t know if this helps, but I assure you the passion that makes you a great photog isn’t dead, you haven’t lost the vision, it is only clouded by the big problems. When you feel it, it will be back and most likely better than before.

ennui; I don’t know how you knew what to say, but you’ve simultaneously made me cry harder than I ever had for three whole days, yet made me feel better about myself than I have in weeks. Thank you. So very much. I’m going to post that quote on it’s own over on G+. I think it should be shared. Hell, I think it should be printed and posted on the fridge of every artist who feels like they’ve lost their mojo.

[ravnostic]

I got a nice shot coming into work, even set the camera to take a jpg so I could upload it at work from the SD card. Turns out Microchip doesn’t have SD card readers. WTF? Will post after breakfast with the folks tomorrow. Nice shot, caradoc

[ravnostic]

Shoot darks, as well. 10-15 of them at least. Averaged together, they subtract off all your hot pixels and a lot of the thermal noise. Your shots will be much, much cleaner.

This. I didn’t get any Persies last night from the garagetop at work on my breaks–way to much light pollution, and pollution in general. In an effort to prevent a total fail, I went for the moon, Venus, And Jupiter. Pretty much failed, there, too. But I can use it to show what darks do for noise, so maybe it can at least be instructive. Best 36 of 68 ‘lights’, stacked against 12 ‘darks’, 5 second exposures, ISO 3200 Canon T2i f/7 (I should have opened further, but with the kit lens, things are sharper at 7 than 3.5) I stacked Raws converted to Tiffs at 1/2 resolution prior to stacking.

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/11/p1stack1.jpg

More or less the same crop, from a single Tiff:

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/11/p1light001.jpg

//off to my sucky night shift job now…

[ravnostic]

I can convert it to f/2 with about 4-5 moonwidths view, loosing a ton (well, 1/2) the focal length (not a bad thing) but I’d STILL have to lug it around, and it would have to have a webcam attached to a computer to do viewing (you replace the 2ndary with it). Resolution would suffer–a lot.

[ravnostic]

//better than I can do. I seriously need to sell my telescope and buy schomething with a wider field of view. I’m limited by the atmosphere to a blurry shot of the central core, and I’m sick of it. That and the fact I live in the absolutely highest light-polluted area in all of the 4 corners US region, and lugging around 130lbs of telescope to anywhere darker is a pain in the farking ass.

[ravnostic]

Also, isn’t it annoying when you come up with an idea for a theme, then discard it and then come up with a way to make it work after the theme has gone live? On Monday I was watching some Spy show, actually it was Alias, and they were defusing a bomb, complete with the “OMG which wire do I cut?!” scenes. I thought: “Ahah! That would be awesome.” Some modeling clay, a kitchen timer, some wires, cheap, easy and would probably do well in the voting. Shoot it with a pair of wire snippers, long exposure and shaking to convey the stress. Cool, right?

//Yeah, let me know how that works out for you;

http://www.fark.com/comments/6816673/73675783#c73675783

…didn’t quite work out for me, though I thought at the time it would be awesome, too. 😕

//did better with the phuqin’ picture of the lazy cat.

[ravnostic]

As I mentioned over on G+; that bolt is just wild–almost spastic (and it does kinda look kokopellish)

[ravnostic]

Nice! I got one on my first break at work that I like: https://plus.google.com/u/0/107857888121727893520/posts/BPX7N2ebfwa

[ravnostic]

Welcome to the group! Feel free to use the forums to ask questions; if you like an image and want to know the details of how it was taken for example, or ‘how do I stuff’; someone (if not several) will always jump in to help you continue becoming a better and better photographer. The people here have taught me 90% of what I know and they’re a great bunch of folks besides.

[ravnostic]

Early bees; I’m working in photolithography today which means I’ll be starting earlier; right after I post for the contest I gotta head to work. :@(

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains1.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains2.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains3.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains4.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains5.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains7.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains8.jpg

http://fossilspringsaz.com/pics/2012/aug/08/chains9.jpg

[ravnostic]

I think this is the least debated contest evar.

Damn it was had to narrow things down to three.

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