I hope that all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving. Among the many things that I am thankful for is being able to have access to the great photographers and their knowledge on MA2A. Thanks for all of the inspiration and help that you give to those of us who are beginners in our journey as photographers.
I went to go nominate a friend of mine for Best Local DJ, and for grins and giggles, clicked on the adjoining category marked Best Local Photographer, and found my name there twice, once misspelled (they added the U). Totally unexpected to see my name listed there
My guess is that this is a nominate daily now, then vote as often as possible on the next round. Thanks for the votes of confidence on the last go around!
And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'll be working tonight and tomorrow, so dinner will be whatever comes out of the freezer and goes into the work microwave. I'm thankful for everyone who has guided me on my photographic journeys
Are you thinking a 50 or like an 85 for portraiture? They aren't normal or cheap usually, but an 85/1.4 is a wonderful lens for the effect that you are looking for. When I was in college I worked at a camera store (why didn't I see this career coming and because top sales people got very good promo pricing deals, I bought a Minolta SRT 101 with a 50mm/1.2 Zuiko lens. Sheila voted that we buy food or pay rent instead, but I thought that was very short sighted Anyway, the 50/1.2 was a fantastic lens for shallow DOF and it just looked cool....Show more →
Hi Jim, kinda, sorta, maybe. Well an f1.2 anything never was / is / will be anything like “cheap”! Back down here on planet Nick – I have my eye on Mr Canon’s “nifty fifty” - the mighty 50mm f1.8 STM. By all accounts it’s rather good optically, and serviceable within the constraints of a mainly plastic lens. It’s also cheap – or as cheap as an OEM lens is likely to get. I’ve had the previous MK II version before, and enjoyed it very much. The only reason I don’t have it now is because I broke it. That was entirely my fault and was an act of gross stupidity on my part – I seriously doubt even an L lens would have survived!
Now on my 80D, a 50mm is going to give a FOV something like an 80mm equivalent, and with f1.8 and a nice close focus distance, I’m hoping to expand my options beyond the “sharp front to back” look that typifies my work presently. My existing three lens + extender outfit gives me a truly fantastic range of capabilities, but shallow DOF is not one of them. Here is as near to an example of what I have in my head as I can find.
Sounds like a good plan Nick. It buoys may spirits to know that I am not the only one capable of "gross stupidity" on occasion and I'm honored to share club membership with a good friend such as yourself. Earlier this year I stood frozen as I watched a new 5DSR with a 200-400 tumble out the rental car door as I opened it. Seems that I had broken the promise I made to myself after similar (but much less expensive) incidents, to pack my gear up and not toss it on a seat before launching off to another location. Neither survived the impact with an El Centro hard packed dirt road. "Stuff" does in fact happen.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Sounds like a good plan Nick. It buoys may spirits to know that I am not the only one capable of "gross stupidity" on occasion and I'm honored to share club membership with a good friend such as yourself. Earlier this year I stood frozen as I watched a new 5DSR with a 200-400 tumble out the rental car door as I opened it. Seems that I had broken the promise I made to myself after similar (but much less expensive) incidents, to pack my gear up and not toss it on a seat before launching off to another location. Neither survived the impact with an El Centro hard packed dirt road. "Stuff" does in fact happen....Show more →
Yup! Chandler and I were enjoying a great trip together and I just made up my mind that I wasn't going to let that incident ruin the mood. It was pretty ugly though, he just looked at me waiting to see how I was going to react. I calmly put the wreck back in my LowePro Long Lens case and zipped it up, pulled out another SR and stuck the100-400 on it then continued to shoot away. I was gritting my teeth inside though.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Yup! Chandler and I were enjoying a great trip together and I just made up my mind that I wasn't going to let that incident ruin the mood. It was pretty ugly though, he just looked at me waiting to see how I was going to react. I calmly put the wreck back in my LowePro Long Lens case and zipped it up, pulled out another SR and stuck the100-400 on it then continued to shoot away. I was gritting my teeth inside though.
Ah, so many lessons to learn .... including "stuff happens". I murdered my old nifty fifty in several stages. First I got all retentive about putting a filter on it. I compounded that by adding a ridged lens hood to stop the reflections in the filter. That set the trap. One day I had the lens mounted and the camera slung around my neck. I then swung around without holding onto the camera. The thing was out about two feet going at a good lick ... and smack into a steel hand rail. The lens took the hit and broke clean in two. The lens hood provided much needed extra leverage - not. Just for the record the plastic lens mount did not brake or buckle in any way. After my experience I find it hard to accept the tales one hears about plastic lens mounts being weak. Les durable yes - weak - I don't think so.
OUCH. I did a stupid thing as well, had a manual focus lens that was on loan, traveled the world unscathed till it got to me.... had gone to the store to pick up a few groceries, and the camera and lens slipped out of my hands and hit the concrete floor, filter on lens shattered and the lens took most of the brunt. Lots of cussing mentally, went home, called APS to see if they had parts to fix it, packed it up, and sent it and the D700 FedEx that night. Also picked up a spare of the lens in case it wasn't repairable. Thankfully the lens was repairable, and it continued its journey around the world afterwards..
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Sounds like a good plan Nick. It buoys may spirits to know that I am not the only one capable of "gross stupidity" on occasion and I'm honored to share club membership with a good friend such as yourself. Earlier this year I stood frozen as I watched a new 5DSR with a 200-400 tumble out the rental car door as I opened it. Seems that I had broken the promise I made to myself after similar (but much less expensive) incidents, to pack my gear up and not toss it on a seat before launching off to another location. Neither survived the impact with an El Centro hard packed dirt road. "Stuff" does in fact happen....Show more →
Hey, I took a picture of plane! Actually several of them, at the final air race of the season the other day. This little thing is an Eagle 150; I've never seen one before. It is one of five in the US; most of them are in Australia/Pacific region. They're trainers. This guy owns two of them.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Earlier this year I stood frozen as I watched a new 5DSR with a 200-400 tumble out the rental car door as I opened it. Seems that I had broken the promise I made to myself after similar (but much less expensive) incidents, to pack my gear up and not toss it on a seat before launching off to another location. Neither survived the impact with an El Centro hard packed dirt road. "Stuff" does in fact happen.
---------------------------------------------
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Yup! Chandler and I were enjoying a great trip together and I just made up my mind that I wasn't going to let that incident ruin the mood. It was pretty ugly though, he just looked at me waiting to see how I was going to react. I calmly put the wreck back in my LowePro Long Lens case and zipped it up, pulled out another SR and stuck the 100-400 on it then continued to shoot away. I was gritting my teeth inside though.
And speaking of great light, we had it here today. We were invited to the Cowboys game, In JJ's Suite no-less, but I had promised to do family portraits for a long time family friend. Remember years ago when I did the shot of a husband and wife holding hands as he was losing his long time battle with multiple myeloma ? Turned out to be the last time they would hold hands.............in this life. Anyway, these portraits were for that family. So, Sheila went off to the game with another good friend and kept our commitment Kind of nice because it's usually Sheila keeping our promises while I go shoot.
Worked out fine because I've been wanting to shoot a specific image for Toyota that required several things in the universe to align, sky, electronic signage, quality of light, and it all happened on the way home from the portrait shoot..........
JWilsonphoto wrote:
And speaking of great light, we had it here today. We were invited to the Cowboys game, In JJ's Suite no-less, but I had promised to do family portraits for a long time family friend. Remember years ago when I did the shot of a husband and wife holding hands as he was losing his long time battle with multiple myeloma ? Turned out to be the last time they would hold hands.............in this life. Anyway, these portraits were for that family. So, Sheila went off to the game with another good friend and kept our commitment Kind of nice because it's usually Sheila keeping our promises while I go shoot.
Worked out fine because I've been wanting to shoot a specific image for Toyota that required several things in the universe to align, sky, electronic signage, quality of light, and it all happened on the way home from the portrait shoot.............Show more →
Jim, that is wonderful – thanks for posting it. I imagine that, without the horrors of jpeg processing, the changing tones washing across the front of that building must look stunning. The planning / visualisation has played a big part in the success of this image - but for me what makes it is that you’ve managed to make an urban landscape look uncluttered. Thanks for the free lesson.
and because top sales people got very good promo pricing deals, I bought a Minolta SRT 101 with a 50mm/1.2 Zuiko lens. Sheila voted that we buy food or pay rent instead, but I thought that was very short sighted 
! 
