JWilsonphoto wrote:
Waiting for the light to come around the SW elevation of this hospital. The beautiful blue Texas sky is starting to be laced with white puffies at around 3,500’, perfect! What’s not perfect is the dumpster and piles of dirt in front of the building . They never mention that stuff…..
Luckily your are proficient in Photoshop so that could disappear in a blink of an eye
Thanks for the response to my questions about gear and how much is good enough. The input and insight was very helpful, more than you might know. I am packing for a week of photography up on the North Shore of MN, lake Superior. Have all my gear out and it has my brain wondering & wandering................................
All solid equipment, 6D, 7D, 1DX MKII, and some good f2.8 zooms from 16mm thru 200, plus the 100-400mm series II, even a few primes if desired. All certainly EF vintage. And starting to read about the mirrorless offerings, etc and that is some of where the question comes from. I look what I did with film until converting to digital in 2006ish and I can't ever imagine going back to film. The gear I have now is so much better than that, and prints around the house are as good or better than what I can often buy from "professionals" so how much is enough Seems I need to spend more time getting to the locations I just want to photograph.
In reflection I believe the answer is buried in the shared wisdom; there is no perfect tool, more is always better, and what are your requirements?? For me the answer now is quite simple, I am getting better photo's than I ever thought I would, still enjoying photography when I get the time, and what I have is paid for. Thus my needs/requirements are met for the moment and rather than chasing any more gear I am going to continue to focus my time and energy on smashing the shutter button, working for better compositions, improving the post processing techniques. If there is some extra $$$$ I can squeeze through the "Triple Encryption" process it might just be better spent on post processing and photography seminars/trainings.
Enjoy what's left of the weekend and take care,
Dan
Man that brings back memories, loading 4x5 holders, dust, static flashes, heck, the number of times I had to remind myself which side the film notches went My first foray into large format was with the most economical Sinar model, I think it was about a grand, less lenses. Wasn't long before I figured out why its was "cheap", no micrometer drives on the rise/fall/tilts and swings, just friction locks and minimal scales. When I wasn't shooting through the back of the film emulsion, the images was generally out of focus, it was great. About six months of battling that SInar model was all I could take so I bucked up and dropped $15K on a Sinar P2 system, which was night and day. I still had to load the film correctly, but the camera was a dream to work with. Everything was based on micrometer drives so it was Swiss precision and the images were a joy to behold. Still, holders, dust, light leaks, $4.00 sheets of Polaroid, composing with the image upside down and backward. Shooting was tough enough with normal architectural subjects and product shots, business jet interiors were absolute torture.
I don't miss any of that, or the coolers I had to drag along to keep the film cool. I had a refrigerator in the garage dedicated to film storage. Sure puts things in perspective doesn't it? I wouldn't rate the experience for anything, but I sure love the little memory cards filled with zeros and ones. The other day someone was talking about how much they love their vinyl record collection.....................Yeah, I remember being able to "hear the vinyl"........................ ...Show more →
I still have my old Plaubel 4x5 upstairs. And worse, I still have boxes of Portra and Tri-X out in the freezer!
When I do shoot film it gets scanned and turned into bits. No longer need a darkroom. Yay!
DanNehmer wrote:
Thanks for the response to my questions about gear and how much is good enough. The input and insight was very helpful, more than you might know. I am packing for a week of photography up on the North Shore of MN, lake Superior. Have all my gear out and it has my brain wondering & wandering................................
Dan
have a great trip Dan, watch for possible nothern lights also, wish i could of met up with you, stupid border closures, maybe next fall!
JWilsonphoto wrote:
How many times did you throw yourself out of a “perfectly good airplane” Dan? !!!!
Way too many Jim!!!!!!
Had airborne jump requirements to maintain that patch and MOS...so I beat the grim reaper and Jody on this!
The old chutes were not fun to control...but fun when floating through the clouds!
Thanks brother! Say "Heh" to my buddy!
RD
Danpbphoto wrote: !!!!
Way too many Jim!!!!!!
Had airborne jump requirements to maintain that patch and MOS...so I beat the grim reaper and Jody on this!
The old chutes were not fun to control...but fun when floating through the clouds!
Thanks brother! Say "Heh" to my buddy!
RD
Hey Dan i did some jumping when i was in the Army.
It was voluntarily and if you made the jumps the Army paid for half of the costs and mum and dad for the other half
Did six or seven jumps with the T10R parachute.
First jump was out of a Cessna 206T and the others out of a Do27.
It was pretty cool to do.
Just tired Topaz DeNoise AI. It really makes a difference. The first shot shows how much darkness I could recover using Lightroom tools, the second is taken into Topaz from LR, then to develop. I think this is going to really help with the photos from the end zone to the 20-25 yard line. Here in Texas field lighting falls off after the 25-20 yard line. The lights are parallel to the sidelines with no lighting pointing up the field from the end zones.
ISO 12,800 LR only (I didn't submit this photo due to the darkness):
Boydo turned me on to Topaz DeNoise, it does work well. I did the Topaz AI Sharpen plug in as well, didn't see the advantage to that plug in.
I haven't been unhappy with sharpness, in fact, I seldom, if ever, add sharpness. I have had several really good compositions I wouldn't turn in due to the noise induced when I tried to lighten the dark areas in LR. The photo above was an example.
After working with the above photo, I sent in the revised photo to the sports editor for his archive. I woke up this morning and found this above the fold on the sports front page...timing is everything!
Ray Swindle wrote:
After working with the above photo, I sent in the revised photo to the sports editor for his archive. I woke up this morning and found this above the fold on the sports front page...timing is everything!
Was a very busy week last week, with three different Gulfstream jets. One location had a G-650 and a G-550 that I photographed, then went to the other location and photographed this one. Finally got back home, and photographed a Citation VII. After photographing the three Gulfstream jets, I felt like I was "slumming" in the Citation jet. !!
Just got back from a helicopter shoot at DFW, one site on the north end, the other on the south. The controller was very accommodating, we had a reservation to enter the Class B at 10 am and he gave us 2 minutes over the first site and 90 seconds above the second. Glad we had out ducks lined up, sheesh!
Seems I need to spend more time getting to the locations I just want to photograph.
My first foray into large format was with the most economical Sinar model, I think it was about a grand, less lenses. Wasn't long before I figured out why its was "cheap", no micrometer drives on the rise/fall/tilts and swings, just friction locks and minimal scales. When I wasn't shooting through the back of the film emulsion, the images was generally out of focus, it was great. About six months of
