p.1 #1 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
I decided to try out my now ancient lenses on the D300. It's a strange feeling going back to fully manual everything. The glass still works though! :-)
p.1 #3 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
I'm just not having any luck with FM today. :-( I can't edit my submission at all! I keep getting this error:
Error while executing query: INSERT INTO t_medits(id,mid,TopicID,editor,PosterID,PostIcon,PosterIP,DateEdited,Emoticon,Subject,Message) SELECT null,ID,TopicID,editor,PosterID,PostIcon,PosterIP,DateEdited,Emoticon,Subject,Message FROM t_messages WHERE ID=9859403
MySQL server has gone away
Nevermind... It finally worked. Below is my original post, now replaced by bokeh, the friendliest dog-friend in the world.
I decided to try out my now ancient lenses on the D300. It's a strange feeling going back to fully manual everything. The glass still works though! :-)
Original submission, pulled in favor of friendlier dog-friend:
p.1 #4 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
I think niblit is a better photograph, but bokeh fits the theme better, and is technically only slightly inferior, if at all. What do y'all think, if anything?
p.1 #5 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
Oh! "previous versions" is a cool feature I hadn't noticed before, which makes most of my thrashing above superfluous. Oh well. Live & Learn... Kinda like I think I've learned that I shoot better with a fully manual camera and lens than with a fully auto Japanese smart camera. :-P
p.1 #7 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
Thanks for the comment, Yakim. Could you be more specific about what is and isn't good about it... and what I need to do to finally win one of these things?
I'm starting to see that Vipermike's MO is to have a black background and a very hot spotlight on his subjects, and then to expose for the highlights. Some other perennial winners seem to be HDR and IR. It appears that the key to winning is 1) a naked chick, and 2) super high contrast with smooth gradients. Am I missing something here?
Thanks!
p.1 #8 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
One really cool thing about using my old Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 on my D300 is that I have a semi-telephoto "portrait" lens here! Do y'all know if there is any way to make the D300 display a prism-like thing so I can at least tell when I've got the focus correct? It's really hard to gauge by eye without any assists.
p.1 #9 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
ckeilah wrote:
Thanks for the comment, Yakim. Could you be more specific about what is and isn't good about it...
It's an O.K. pic. The main problem is that it doesn't stand out and here it is not enough.
ckeilah wrote:
and what I need to do to finally win one of these things?
You need to be a very good photographer, with novel ideas and with the ability to make them viable in a beautiful way in a short period of time. It's extremely difficult.
ckeilah wrote:
I'm starting to see that Vipermike's MO is to have a black background and a very hot spotlight on his subjects, and then to expose for the highlights. Some other perennial winners seem to be HDR and IR. It appears that the key to winning is 1) a naked chick, and 2) super high contrast with smooth gradients. Am I missing something here?
Thanks!
IMHO you are missing all the above. Vipermike and a few others are simply gifted photographers. Everything else is trivial. This is why it's so difficult.
As a personal note I'd like to add that while I don't think I can ever reach Mike's level (or Endre's level, or Klaus' level, or Dave's level etc.) I do think that by participating I am becoming a better photographer. Yes, it's frustrating to participate for so long and to win so few WA's but I comfort myself that in the long run, I do win.
p.1 #10 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
I like the picture too, but also agree with Yakim in that it takes something special to win the WA. You have to set yourself apart from the "normal" photos for that week. Mike and the other top winners usually don't even need the special lighting and other technical icing that they include. It is mainly the subject matter and telling a story relevant and emotional for the current week's theme. Like Yakim says, it is extremely difficult and some weeks you just don't feel inspired. I have felt the lack of inspiration quite a bit lately but I want to make a submission every week just to push myself. I don't really care if I'm embarrased by a poor entry. It's personal growth that I'm after. It sounds like you are after exactly the same thing, but you must also have patience young grasshopper. Persistence is one of the hallmarks of very successful people no matter what their specialty is in life. You obviously have a passion for photography so don't let lackluster performance be a discouragement. Make it quite the opposite. Turn it into a kick in the pants to do your best and keep trying. Stepping off of the soapbox now
p.1 #11 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
Thanks y'all! I guess I'm not used to comparing my work to true artists like yourselves, so it's kind of discouraging to be so far behind everyone else. Of course, that's exactly why I am here, to feel the pressure so that I push myself to catch up, and to learn from my betters. I do feel somewhat adrift lately though; like I've lost my muse or something... Anyway, thanks for reminding me that this is ART. I've been getting bogged down in the technology and craft and forgetting that the end goal is to make art. Of course, then I feel discouraged again, and fear that maybe I'm just a technician, and will forever be stuck, never attaining the rank of True Artist.
Funny you call me "grasshopper". I like that show, and could definitely use some time in the "monastery" studying under the masters! ;-)
Ooops! It looks like "friendship" week is already over. Time to try something completely different....
p.1 #13 · #463 friendship is in the brown eye of a brown dog in a brown world
Thanks! Me too. It was the light that inspired me to shoot the dog. ;-) I was also testing out using an old manual lens on the relatively new DSLR. I really like the bokeh of that old 50mm f/1.8, and the focus ring is a joy compared to the clunky rings on today's AF lenses (if they even have a ring at all). This photo looks like a stock photo that a pet store might buy. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm kinda bummed that I'm not going to win, but I can see how it's just a picture of a dog, and doesn't exude "friendship". I think I might have a winner for this week's assignment though! :-D
