Who here is into Photography ?

[moonman]

These are all amazing - really amazing pictures here!

Thank You all very, very much for sharing!

I thoroughly enjoyed viewing them all very much!

WOW!

 

These are some captures from my side now:

 

Into the eveningsun, somewhere in Lisbon:

 

 

A spider's web somewhere at Jardim Botanico da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon:

 

 

The island of Sao Miguel, Azores:

 

 

Waiting for the rain to go by again - and hopefully making way for the sun at Flores, Azores:

 

 

Three more shots from Flores, Azores:

 

 

That one offers a view at the island of Corvo, which is almost comletely covered by some real huge cloud here on a bright hot summer day.

 

 

One shot from a rather traditional barn now near Altaussee, Austria on another bright sunny day - this time in autumn though!

 

Clouds from a rather overcasted sky in autumn reflecting at the surface of lake Altausseer See, Austria:

 

 

Snowfall, winter, Vienna, Austria:

 

 

Stairways - Apple store at night, Hong Kong:

 

An obviously proud dog owner, Hong Kong (and no, it's not me!)

 

 

And one last capture now - this time from a busy street somehwere in Seoul at night:

 

Hope You enjoy these captures from my side here as much as i have enjoyed viewing Yours!

Cheers!

[Taph]

Thanks for kind comments, and for posting such great shots.

 

Oban

 

Along side loch

 

Spean Bridge

[John Lovell]

Wow... just discovered this thread and some really beautiful and amazing photography from all.

 

Would love to see this thread stay open.. could look at these all day long. Also a nice way to appreciate the other talents of forum (friends) members

[Ryan Mason]

@Danny, I have only have my 50mm Nikkor 1.8 AFS a couple of weeks so I haven't had much of a chance to play, but nice to know it can perform that way.  It will give me something to aim for as a guide.  The beach and night shots I posted were all taken with the 50mm a few weeks back.  I am headed out on an air to air shoot in Florida in a couple of weeks where I'll be attempting to get 4 helicopters in formation using a 5th as the photo ship with my 70-200 so this will really test my skills.  This will be the first time this aviation unit has had 4 birds in the air at the same time for a photo so I am hoping to do them proud and end up with some nice poster images for them as well as a front page quality shot for the magazine I'm shooting for.

[momo737]

Hi Ryan!

The 50mm is a fantastic, inexpensive, super sharp lens and is amazing in low light situations.

So the 50mm is definitely a keeper. Well good luck with your shooting project and don't forget to post a few in here.

Thanks again

[Maurice_King]

Getting that soft blur in the background is one of the easiest tricks in the book, just shoot with your lens wide open. 

Partially correct Bruce but if the Lens your using does not have good characteristics then you'll get some pretty nasty artifacts appearing.

But yes if you have a lens with a particularly shallow DoF this will work to your advantage in some situations. 

In this respect the greater the number of vanes in you aperture ring the better, although sometimes less is more,  

 

Ryan my Nikkor 50 f/1.4 literally stays on my D200 all the time and it goes everywhere with me, clear sharp ultra-fast focus with a hyperfocal distance that defies logic for a lens of it's type.

 

A simple and much underated Lens IMHO.

[alexf]

I post photos to my website, my blog and nikoncafe.com every day so I figured, being a photographer I might post a couple here. I have done so on occasion but always aviation-related.

For people that know me I usually do architecture, bird photography, insects and aviation photography with the occasional car show, landscape, aerials and street photography. No weddings or portraits for me.

 

This is the Everglades NP at 300ft

 

 

Islands at the tip of Florida

 

Port of Miami

 

Bal Harbour, FL

 

Fisher Island, Miami Beach on the foreground, the Virginia Key VOR on the left, Miami on the background (this one shot from a Super Cub)

 

Have fun,

 

Alex

[Ryanm]

Awesome photos guys!

[Ryan Mason]

Hi Ryan!

The 50mm is a fantastic, inexpensive, super sharp lens and is amazing in low light situations.

So the 50mm is definitely a keeper. Well good luck with your shooting project and don't forget to post a few in here.

Thanks again

 

 

Agreed mate, although, like Mozz was talking about, I'd love to move up to a 1.4 If I can ever find one pop up at a decent price on Craigslist here (which is where I got my 50mm).  I'll for sure post some pics.  I have so many that I can't post due to contractual obligations unfortunately.  I was somewhat naive when I started out and signed a few contracts that prevented me from being able to share my own photo's from a few awesome projects.  I've since learned a few things from some industry mentors and will never make that rookie mistake again!.  After talking with the editor yesterday from the magazine I am shooting this next project for, I am in the running for the cover if I get a good enough shot, so the pressure is ON!

[Ted155]

Thanks for sharing all these wonderful images with us. Loved them all.

I have heaps of Nikon gear but can't us it anymore unfortunately.

[Maurice_King]

Ryan my advice for what it's worth is don't shoot like a man possessed as this will inevitably lead to the shot you want being missed, but in saying that always be ready and when you "Think" you have the shot keep shooting because just like Police chases we know things can change VERY fast so you need to be on the spot and ready. My D200 has been dropped out of cars and god knows where else and it just keeps on ticking. I have replaced a few bits here and there but it is well used and has NEVER let me down, it has been drowned  along with me and most of my gear with a big wave on the coast and I just strolled up to a tap and rinsed it off and kept shooting (Sydney Triathalon) .

 

One piece of advice I'll give to anyone regardless of their Body and lens choice is Filter's are expendable !!! Lens objectives are NOT , so at a minimum put a UV or Skylight filter on your Lens and ALWAYS kep the Cap on unless you are actively shooting. this has saved me many dollars in the past, buggered a few filters but never damaged a Lens.

 

I believe Alex will back me up here with regard to filter's being sacrificial.

 

Now as for contractual obligations there are some things that can cause concern BUT you own the copyright for any image you create right from the moment you activate the shutter and the image is stored on your Memory Card and no-one can say where you can or cannot post that image, providing it is not subject the subject of some legal investigation or other clause within the Photography contract that precludes you posting. I had a big mud slinging match with a fellow here in Oz , and he wanted to prevent me from posting images at one point ,  at which point the adjudicator pointed out that the images were captured in a public place and thus was fair game.  

It IS a bloody mine field as you know but it helps when yo know that your in the right.  

[Ryan Mason]

Thanks Mozz, good advice, I switch between UV and polarizing filters depending on what I am shooting.  As far as the copyright thing, I was careless in checking the contract over as it was mainly video so I didn't pay too much mind to the stills portion.  I've done research and realized the same thing as you said, however.  I am caught between a rock and a hard place for a couple of reasons.  The images were obtained as part of a project for para public operations.  Meaning that I was being flown by helicopters owned by city/county and federal agencies to benefit a non profit association, so there are multiple layers where I have complications. In addition to that, a lot of the permissions to pull off this project which took me to multiple states and agencies, were organized by friends of mine and I'd rather not be able to share a picture than lose a friendship or professional connection in the process.  So it's somewhat more convoluted than the average copyright issue, but I take it as a learning experience and something to be smarter about from this point onwards.

[Mark Abdey]

Great thread, with some fantastic images.

[Taph]

Some more images from Me.

 

Abel Tasman Coast Track

 

That is my taxi waiting

 

Back in UK. Corfe Castle

 

Leeds Castle in Kent

 

The twin 12th-century towers of the ruined church stand amid the remains of an important Roman 'Saxon Shore' fort and a Saxon monastery.

 

Enjoy

[nzpx56]

Great photos here.

 

This is a link to some of mine on Flickr:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82891436@N03/

 

I have a Canon EOS60D and mostly use a Tamrom 18-270mm lens, sometimes a Canon 50mm prime.

 

Cheers

[Maurice_King]

Oh IF you ever post images on any Photo Critique sites like FlikR any the like make sure they are low resolution so that they are virtually impossible to reproduce in print or in other media. And protect your images with something like Digimarc- Reason I took a magazine to court for copyright breech and could prove they were my images due to my use of Digimarc watermark embedding, I never got a cent but they were $40,000 out of pocket, it's nice to have a win of sorts occasionally. I cannot say more for legal reasons - but will say that you even as Amateur Photographer's MUST protect your selves and your images from piracy. Oh and on the subject of image security how many of you have them backed up in a Logical sequence in at least 3 places.  I am not talking about Cloud services as I will NEVER use and online cloud because I have no control over it - and I mean NO CONTROL ie anyone else could hack and steal images so my advice DON'T.

 

Now if you want to have a secure place  run a Photo library software on your PC if you must but I have found that just multiple folders logically named is fine, and you back the entire lot up to your backup drive that is switched on for the purpose and then off until needed again. I do not favor USB enternal drives as they can potentially get corrupted (I have had one fail during a backup and lost ALL images on it )  so now I use an eSATA and internal backup drive. 

[alexf]

Agree with Maurice. I do not have almost any images on Flicker (crappy site I used years ago). Mine are displayed in Smugmug and in my blog on the "Photo of the Day" feature (one photo every day without fail for 6+ years - ok I think I only missed 2 days in all that time).

 

My images online are all 800px (low res). I keep originals in RAW format  backed up in several hard drives (including external eSATA).

 

To my knowledge only one image was once used somewhere else without attribution. That one was lifted from Wikipedia. I post a few images in Wikipedia, under CC License, when they serve to illustrate an article that is missing a good image. I wrote the newspaper that did it (it was a major newspaper), and they apologized within the hour and added my name under proper credits in their online article. It is possible that other images were stolen without my knowledge but all low-res.

[rockliffe]

There are some great pics here. Last November I was commissioned to shoot a wedding out in Hong Kong, here are a few more pics from my 'personal' gallery...

 

 

 

 

 

[Taph]

Great shots, Howard the one on the MTR is cracking

[rockliffe]

Great shots, Howard the one on the MTR is cracking

 

Thanks Taph, appreciated. I want to see more of your lanscapes though!

[Mark Abdey]

Great work Howard... love the old gent asleep on his bag.

 

These are a few from a while back when the Somerset Levels flooded.. This is an RSPB reserve, with no affected homes in this area, and there was a great beauty to it, however it was a disaster for some poor people.

 

 

 

 

 

[Maurice_King]

Beautiful B&W shots there Mark , I honestly believe many Photographer's underestimate Black & White , For me it convey's a sence of rawness earthy feel and relly allows the composition and subject tell the story without the presence of colour to sully or confuse the eye. 

[Taph]

Beautiful shots Mark

 

 

Te Anau

 

Craters of the Moon, near Taupo NZ

 

 

 

 

And for something different

[Maurice_King]

Go ahead try the door  we DARE ya   

[Mark Abdey]

Beautiful B&W shots there Mark , I honestly believe many Photographer's underestimate Black & White , For me it convey's a sence of rawness earthy feel and relly allows the composition and subject tell the story without the presence of colour to sully or confuse the eye. 

 

 

Thank you Maurice... I could not agree more more and love B&W for precisely those reasons. There has been a trend in films recently with B&W as well as dedicated B&W digital cameras, both still and video. The latter may be a bit of a gimmick, but there does seem to be a lot of interest in the medium at the moment, which is great as far as I'm concerned.

 

Beautiful shots Mark

 

And for something different

 

 

Thank you Taph.

 

Great landscape in your pics.. I'd love to go there someday.

 

"Danger Keep Out" ... Yeah, I would not need telling twice

[rockliffe]

Great work Howard... love the old gent asleep on his bag.

 

These are a few from a while back when the Somerset Levels flooded.. This is an RSPB reserve, with no affected homes in this area, and there was a great beauty to it, however it was a disaster for some poor people.

 

 

Thanks Mark, I love these pics of your's, beautiful, as are your songs.

[alexf]

I am, and always was, big into B&W.

 

Here are two examples of mine:

 

 

I have a whole gallery of B&W: http://www.alexfeldsteinphotography.com/Expression

[azkid]

Here's one I took of the "Blood Moon"

 

[azkid]

The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

 

We've got a lot of great photos here..........from all over the world.

 

Excellent work by all!

[Sub7th]

Some nice shots in here.
I work as a professional part time and I'll echo what Maurice said about the UV filter. I have one on all of my lenses and they have already saved me on a number of occasions.
I once had a kid walk up with muddy fingers and stick one right on my 50 1.4 while i was shooting him. I saw a couple of jaws drop in terror, I laughed. Unscrewed the filter, washed it in the sink, dried it off and I was back in business. Even if the dirt had scratched the filter I was only out $20.
The nice thing about UV's is you can pretty much just leave your cap off while you're shooting without having to worry about your lens.

Man I would love to shoot aviation, jealous of some of you guys.

[Maurice_King]

If you want to shoot Aviation , do what I do Volunteer at an Airshow plenty of opportunities there. 

 

 

 

The Old Cheese Ball

 

Sunrise over Avalon Airshow.

 

 

Remember what I said about the intensity of B&W sometimes 

 

 

 

Industrious creatures Bees are . 

[azkid]

WOW...........I love that bee shot

[moonman]

Again - all the grand shots here!

A fantastic thread really!

Thak You all very much again for sharing Your wonderful pictures here!

[RODI]

 

Macroglossum stellatarum, known as the hummingbird hawk-moth or sometimes the hummingmoth (in German: Taubenschwaenzchen)

at flowers of a fuchsia

[Ryan Mason]

If any of you are on Facebook, there are some really great aviation photography groups on there like "Airshow Aviation Photography"  & "International Aviation Photographers"  as well as pages for most of the popular magazines.  I have done work for both Vertical and Rotorcraft Pro magazines (helicopter) but there are plenty of fixed wing mags that have a Facebook presence. There is even a great page that I post all my ones that didn't work out called "your Crap Aviation Photos" which is a great laugh when you see some of the obstructions etc that come up when taking shots.  I was actually having a good back and forth with a very well renowned aviation photographer yesterday about a picture I posted that was fixed wing that had some issues, we in turn then started talking about his first helicopter air to air shoot and were comparing notes as getting that perfect rotor blur on a helicopter is somewhat of an art form as each helicopter model's rotor spins at different speeds, hence you may not get the same blue with one that you do another and have to switch up your shutter speed.

[Taph]

Alex your wild life shots are stunning, thanks for posting the link. Mark if you get the chance to visit NZ do so, my wife and I were luck had the opportunity and spent three month tramping round both north and south island. (Tramping is Hiking/backpacking in New Zealand speak.)

[Ryan Mason]

I finally got around to loading up a Flikr page with some of my aviation shots versus posting here with direct uploads.  If you'd like to take a gander you can find it here:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/airborneproductions/

[alexf]

Very nice set of helos Ryan!

I am teaching myself video filming and editing. As a still photographer, I had never done any video. I made a 3-minute video walking on the beach (yeas, I know, it's tough in Florida).

 

The shakiness is from wearing a GoPro on a headband while walking and carrying a Nikon for the still photos.

 

http://youtu.be/Xx_kzvCvMVE

 

Any comment/criticisms appreciated.

 

Alex

[Ryan Mason]

Hi Alex,

 

Great vid for a first try, there are a few things that might help you going forward.  GoPro makes a chest mount for the Hero line. That would stop the "head bobble" effect. The other thing I would recommend from my own experience in Florida using a gopro is that you look for a UV filter kit, for some reason, Florida footage at ground level always appears to have a "dirty" sky effect.  I've tested it airborne there and don't have the same issues, but have a very similar looking video I shot a few weeks back in St. Pete Beach.  If you want to move forward into using your still camera for video (I use my D600 for video now instead of the bulky video cameras)  There are tonnes of stabilization platforms out there, ranging from relatively cheap $400-500 mark to absurd $7-12K.  I am slowly buying the parts for a handheld stabilization rig like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eagle-eye-3-Axis-Brushless-Gimbal-Camera-Mount-Stabilizer-5D2-DSLR-Run-Movie-/251488655675?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8de4593b

 

There are other options out there if you have cash to burn, which I do not, but I have seen some great results with the one similar to the link above which is why I am going that route.  Balancing it will be a challenge as I want it to be able to balance my camera body and a 70-200 IS lens, but there are a lot of resources for help with this kind of rig.

 

As far as editing, do you have a mac? if so Final Cut Pro is relatively easy to use and get great results from. If not, windows based, Camtasia would be your easiest beginner to advanced editor, very easy to use interface, low learning curve.

[alexf]

Nice points. My still cameras (Nikon D80, D300, and D700) do no have video, nor am I interested in it. The reason for the GoPro is mainly to do aerial filming, while learning for my PPL (eventually with 2 or 3 cameras. I want to learn just spending for one. No big rigs for me but the chest mount might be interesting.

 

I use Windows 7. Bought VideoPad and WavePad from NCH Software (from a country somewhere far from these shores that you may have heard about). Excellent software at a good price. Sounds like ORBx in many ways.

 

NCH does have Mac versions too.