Some shots from my recent vacation (1 Viewer)

I'm fairly new to photography, trying to learn all I can. These are from my trip last week.

Thanks for looking,

Jon

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?

Nice work! You have a great eye for color.

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

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.

I like that photo with a little hosue.

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.

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!”

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_

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

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!

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

No apology necessary.

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

Jon

Yep, lets.