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Some shots from my recent vacation

post #1 of 33
7/22/08 at 5:33pm
Thread Starter 
I'm fairly new to photography, trying to learn all I can. These are from my trip last week.

Thanks for looking,

Jon
















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post #2 of 33
7/22/08 at 6:39pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Nice photos! Although I do not seem to have an eye (or talent) for photography myself, I like the composition in all your shots, #2 is my favorite. What equipment are you using?
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post #3 of 33
7/22/08 at 6:44pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Nice work! You have a great eye for color.
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post #4 of 33
7/22/08 at 8:31pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Thanks Mylan. I used my recently-acquired Nikon D80 with an 18-70mm zoom lens.

Thanks for the comments, Cameron. Like anything else, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. There is SO much more to photography than grabbing a nice piece of equipment and firing away.

Jon
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post #5 of 33
7/22/08 at 9:52pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Good stuff; shows a desire to experiment which is exactly what you should be doing. (I very much like the fifth picture -- the composition, framing, light, and color are great.) I'm only an amateur/hobbyist but two things I've found personally helpful are:
1) Take pictures in black and white. Some photos look better in color, some don't; but either way, black and white photography forces a person to discern, consider, and appreciate the quality and significance of light. This is why beginning classes in photography tend to limit the students to black and white.
2) Submit your efforts to peers who can offer constructive criticism. You can do this in person or find photo sites on the web, but as you begin to gain a greater understanding about why a given photograph is more or less 'successful' you'll be better able to pre-visualize an image in two dimensions before even taking a picture.
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post #6 of 33
7/24/08 at 12:05am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

I like that photo with a little hosue.
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post #7 of 33
7/24/08 at 7:30am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Excellent compositions Jon. You are using the wide lens well.

One personal suggestion is to back off on the saturation a bit. This is a difficult issue. It is popular to crank up the saturation, so the shots rip your eyes out, but it also makes them look a bit artificial, to me anyway. Keep in mind, these are minor criticisms. The other thing to be careful about is sharpening. Again, this is a personal issue. Particularly when you are shooting nature and environment, if you over sharpen or saturate, it gets that instant Wham of impact, but it also takes away some of the organic nature of the shot. I am the first to admit that the general public probably likes it that way, but that doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Just to reiterate, those are excellent compositions. That is the main skill. This other stuff I am talking about is maybe putting too much power in the computer after the photos are taken.

Sorry to be insulting to someone here, but "Nice photos" followed by "What equipment are you using?" And My head explodes.
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post #8 of 33
7/24/08 at 10:52am
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Thanks for the input, John; I really respect your opinion.


Believe it or not, I had already come to the realization that I pressed to hard on the post-processing pedal. In fact, when I just now opened up the thread, I caught a glance of the orange ropes on the boat shot and thought, “Yikes!”




Quote:
"Nice photos" followed by "What equipment are you using?" And My head explodes.



Hey Tolstoy, good book! What kind of typewriter did you use?


Jon
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post #9 of 33
7/24/08 at 11:50am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

A bit late to the party, but I agree w/ everything John just said although I'm not sure what would be a good compromise in terms of sharpening for such small images.

And yes, very nice compo's in general though there might be a bit more dead space (in the middle) of #4 than I'd prefer, but I'm guessing you might not have much choice there considering where you might've needed to be for that shot.

_Man_
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post #10 of 33
7/24/08 at 12:50pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Yeah, #4 could have been my best shot ever, but I was handcuffed in between two docks. I still love the yellow oars, though.

Jon
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post #11 of 33
7/24/08 at 12:58pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Jon, good stuff you definitely have a good "eye." John makes some good points. I really like #5 too, but does it feel a bit claustrophobic to anyone else? I think I would've preferred a bit more room around the house. This might also help with the "dead space" that is bothering Man. I'd be curious to know what others think. Again though, good stuff!
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post #12 of 33
7/24/08 at 7:41pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnRice

Sorry to be insulting to someone here, but "Nice photos" followed by "What equipment are you using?" And My head explodes.

Ok, so maybe its the liquor talking but yeah, that was kinda insulting, sorry, i'll step aside and let you "pros" talk shop, i'll hang out in the basics or after hours forums.

So, just to hear your head explode...nice photos John, what equipment are you using?

Hey Tolstoy, good book! What kind of typewriter did you use?
Ok, point taken, can your head explode too?
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post #13 of 33
7/24/08 at 8:18pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

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post #14 of 33
7/24/08 at 9:23pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Mylan,

This reply may be shorter than it needs to be to be fully articulate (I'm stuck using a clunky computer at the moment), but try not to take it personally. It is just that the equipment question is one of the most commonly asked questions and it is often also one of the least important questions to ask. It is that gulf that is prone to produce "head exploding." And it is a natural question to ask because many photographers tend to be equipment nuts or gear hounds. All I think anyone is really saying is that there are better questions to ask .

David
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post #15 of 33
7/25/08 at 6:18am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Mylan, I really don't want you to take my comment personally. The problem I have is that I have heard and seen it probably thousands of times. In one sense, the equipment is just hammers and nails. Plus, I can guarantee DaVinci NEVER heard "Hey Leo, great painting. What brushes do you use?" They Never say to Martin Scorsese, "Hey Marty, great movie, what cameras did you use"?

There is something about photography that makes it seem OK. But, this is a very old topic for me.
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post #16 of 33
7/25/08 at 5:42pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

I made the Tolstoy remark because I think it's pretty witty and it makes one think from, perhaps, a slightly different perspective. I certainly meant no offense or intended to convey a sense of superiority. That's one thing I've come to depise, in fact, hanging around HTF: "Yeah, the Joe Six Packs want their HTIBs and their Boses and their full screens..."

I'm quite the beginner myself, in fact, photography-wise.

I am certain Mylan meant no offense whatsoever and was, in fact, being kind in his remarks. The equipment question was nothing more than idle curiosity / making conversation.

And while I understand John's reaction, my head is nowhere near ready to explode.

Not over this, anyway.

Jon
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post #17 of 33
7/26/08 at 6:35am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Actually, my head is nowhere near exploding either.

I've just heard that kind of statement far too many times.

Just to help some folks put themselves in my shoes. Imagine that after 30 or so years of engrossing yourself in photography, $50,000 in education and so on, you ended up typically hearing "Great photo. What camera do you use?" "Wow, your lighting is excellent. What lights do you use?" So on, so on. Yeah, it makes my skin crawl, but it is not the fault of any one person and it is the common reaction, so in the end, it is really my problem. Hence my change of career, painful as the decision has been.
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post #18 of 33
7/26/08 at 7:10am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

After thinking about it, and with a clear head, I can see how my equipment question could come across to a professional photgrapher. I am sure it is something you get all the time and John's examples about Davinci were right on the money, however, I still felt it was rude and uncalled for. I realize it is the photographer's talent that makes a shot great or terrrible and no amount of "equipment" can compensate for an idiot behind the lenses.
I assumed you used a good DSLR with a zoom/wide angle but the question was aimed at gaining knowledge of how much zoom, what lense, what conditions did you shot under, yes, most of it would have fallen on a dumbass's ears but I do like to glean knowledge from time to time on subjects that interest me. This is a home theater forum and members here obsess over every detail of what speaker, what receiver, and the inevidable question, Did you calibrate it with a Radio Shack SPL meter even down to speaker wire and HDMI cables so at the time my question seemed logical.
Jon, I apologize for ruining you thread, I should have PM'ed my concerns as not to disrupt from it, but then again, JR could have made his comments private to you as well and this whole thing could have been avoided. I am a big boy and usually do not get offfended that easily but with other stressors bearing down on me at the moment, it was the capper to an absolutely sh*tty week.
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post #19 of 33
7/26/08 at 7:15am
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

No apology necessary.

[police voice] Let's move on folks, nothing to see here. [/police voice]

Jon
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post #20 of 33
7/26/08 at 7:23am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon_Are
No apology necessary.

[police voice] Let's move on folks, nothing to see here. [/police voice]

Jon
Yep, lets.
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post #21 of 33
7/26/08 at 9:12pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

I'm just fulfilling my post as unofficial HTF Photo Thread killer.
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post #22 of 33
7/27/08 at 12:13pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnRice
I'm just fulfilling my post as unofficial HTF Photo Thread killer.



Well, let's keep this thread going. There are some really good shots here worthy of discussion. I think my favorite is actually the first one and it is hard to believe a shot like that came from someone fairly new to photography. I was also wondering if anyone read my earlier comments about the fourth shot and if they agreed, disagreed or had any other comment.
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post #23 of 33
7/28/08 at 9:42am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

I just returned from a week-long trip, so I'll try to get this back on topic. I love the composition of your shots, Jon. I do agree that #4 is a little tight, but understand there are times when you are limited by the area and cannot "zoom with your feet". Where were the outdoor photos taken?

I am currently sorting through 1,200 photos from last week's trip to coastal Maine and Boston. Once I have a few favorites, I'll post them in a new thread. Unfortunately, it was dreary and rainy in Acadia, so I didn't have much good light to work with and I'm a little disappointed in my landscape shots from there as a result.
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post #24 of 33
7/28/08 at 11:52am
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
There are some really good shots here worthy of discussion. I think my favorite is actually the first one and it is hard to believe a shot like that came from someone fairly new to photography. I was also wondering if anyone read my earlier comments about the fourth shot and if they agreed, disagreed or had any other comment.

Thanks, David. The first is my favorite as well, though I have a soft spot for the yellow-oared boat shot. As I mentioned, a couple of docks made a full boat-shot impossible.

Quote:
Where were the outdoor photos taken?

Peggy's Cove, which is a small fishing village in Nova Scotia. We cruised there out of NYC.

Quote:
I am currently sorting through 1,200 photos from last week's trip to coastal Maine and Boston.

My family made fun of me for taking 300 shots.

Jon
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post #25 of 33
7/28/08 at 12:46pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
Peggy's Cove, which is a small fishing village in Nova Scotia. We cruised there out of NYC.

Thanks. I loved Nova Scotia when we visited several years ago. Did you get to Cape Breton on the northern part of the peninsula? The scenery is magnificent there.

Quote:
My family made fun of me for taking 300 shots.

Since switching to digital and not having to pay to develop film, I will sometimes experiment with multiple takes of the same shot at different exposure settings or slightly different compositions. Also, we went whale watching twice, and I used the continuous drive feature of my dSLR when a whale would surface. You'd be surprised how many shots you end up with when firing away at 6.5 frames per second. So, I have a couple hundred whale photos to sort through to find a few gems.
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post #26 of 33
7/28/08 at 2:03pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Nope, didn't go to Cape Breton. We only had six hours to see Halifax and Peggy's cove.

Quote:
I will sometimes experiment with multiple takes of the same shot at different exposure settings or slightly different compositions.

Yep, that's what got me in trouble for holding up the group. I got comments such as, "Got enough pictures of that yellow house yet?", "Hey, Jon, maybe we'll see another yellow house and you can take another hundred pictures!" (see photo #5).

Jon
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post #27 of 33
7/28/08 at 2:35pm

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

I just realized that in my comments about the tight framing I said it was #4 when it was actually #5 (the one with the house).

Yeah, it is hard to take what I would call meaningful photos when traveling with family and friends. They seldom understand just how much time it takes. So it tends to require a lot of patience on their part. Fortunately, my wife is great about it. It works out best when hiking is involved since she loves to hike. I can stop and take all the time I want and she can hike around.

(Although she wasn't a big fan when I took my gear on our honeymoon many years ago. her idea of a romantic honeymoon was not to carry my tripod across Vienna. I don't know why. I mean how often do you get to Europe? I haven't been back since. Of course her point and it is valid-- how often do you have a honeymoon?. I was probably still smarting from a few years earlier when I was living in Vienna for a semester and my SLR broke the second week of the trip. I eventually got a point and shoot for the last month or so, but it is just not the same.)
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post #28 of 33
7/29/08 at 4:46am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
Nope, didn't go to Cape Breton. We only had six hours to see Halifax and Peggy's cove.

That's too bad. I thought Cape Breton was more scenic than Acadia National Park in Maine (which is pretty special, too). We didn't get to the Halifax area, though.

Quote:
Yeah, it is hard to take what I would call meaningful photos when traveling with family and friends. They seldom understand just how much time it takes. So it tends to require a lot of patience on their part. Fortunately, my wife is great about it. It works out best when hiking is involved since she loves to hike. I can stop and take all the time I want and she can hike around.

My wife is very patient, too, which makes it a lot easier for me to take my time. She'll even play the role of "photographer's assistant" and hold a lens for me while I'm changing them. We hike a lot on vacation, too, so she's enjoying herself outdoors, which is probably part of the reason she's so tolerant.
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post #29 of 33
7/29/08 at 8:07am

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

OK, here is some critique. I don't see anything to possibly do differently on the first two. I especially like the first one. It is very The Third Man. The second shot has a backward "9" going on, which is a good basic compositional tool.

As far as the rowboats, I have to completely disagree with the other comments. I feel having the entire close boat in the shot would ruin it. It works so much better with it running out of the shot. You might have tried shooting lower, just to see if reducing the visual space from foreground to background was an improvement. There is a lot of crawling around in the dirt with this kind of photography. Actually, there is an abstract backward "9" here as well. Am I seeing a trend?

I also absolutely do NOT think the yellow house is too close to the edge of the shot. I don't see it working better anywhere else. You might have tried moving a bit to the right, but keeping the house in the same place, to move the rock formation a bit out of the center of the shot. Just an idea, because I don't know how it would have changed other aspects of the composition.
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post #30 of 33
7/29/08 at 8:14am
Thread Starter 

Re: Some shots from my recent vacation

Quote:
I just realized that in my comments about the tight framing I said it was #4 when it was actually #5 (the one with the house).

Hmm..never looked at that one as being too tight; might have to re-consider (although I didn't do much of a crop, don't think there's much more to work with). I'm actually pretty happy with that one how it is (maybe a little less saturation, though).

Looking forward to seeing your Maine shots, Scott.

Jon
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