Some of my other photography

[WarGawd]

Told another member who liked my Envoy Near Water pic that I'd post some other examples of stuff I've done. Each of these had some other purpose for testing monitor and printer calibrations, noise filters, cross processing etc etc and definitely don't adhere to any rules about retouching. So here they are:

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This last one was over a year in the planning, waiting for the right light, time off work and access to the owners property - when I showed it to him, he and his wife both loved it so much they immediately bought my gallery quality 13 x 19 print of it that I'd taken to show them:

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Enjoy, opinions welccome

 

[freddyboy61]

Those are some awesome shots, you have a very keen eye for composure, and I'd guess, some neat photo editing tools.

 

[fletch09]

WOW
really great shots.

 

[Canadian Mike]

Really nice photos! Do you have an online gallery? What's your camera?

 

[WarGawd]

Those are some awesome shots, you have a very keen eye for composure, and I'd guess, some neat photo editing tools.

Thanx - even more complimentary than what you said, is the fact that you got inspired enough to make your 17th post in a year. Much appreciated.

Really nice photos! Do you have an online gallery? What's your camera?

Thx Mike, (and everyone else too). I don't have a gallery anywhere online yet - I really only started to get semi serious about it in Fall 2010, and for the most part I had been building up to generating a portfolio for display in a local gallery. The space is booked 2 yrs in advance - in the meantime I was exploring options through contacts at city hall to get them hung there for a while, and submittming some for consideration as the cover on some local area phone books. Then the gallery closed, and I realized I was quickly reaching the limits of my camera at the time - a pretty cheap Fuji S2000HD 10Mp bridge camera (was only $289 brand new in '07 when I bought it - even the camera in my Nokia N8 cellphone today is superior in many ways).

So I sold that camera, not wanting to invest in too many more $35-$50 prints that I felt could be even better if I had decent equipment - the Envoy near water pic was done with my new Nikon D7000 partly for the photo contest, and partly to evaluate the camera ( I had 2 weeks after buying it to return it and get my 2nd choice Canon 60D). And yes I do have a pretty extensive suite of tools, but Photoshop CS5, Photomatix Pro and Nik Silver Efex probably represent 90+ % of what I used for these.

Glad you all liked them, never quite sure if they will have the same impact for someone else as they seem to for me on my monitor.

Cheers

 

[WarGawd]

Really nice photos! Do you have an online gallery? What's your camera?

That one of yours on Fuelly looks pretty rich & vibrant too... nice one!

 

[gmcman]

This last one was over a year in the planning, waiting for the right light, time off work and access to the owners property - when I showed it to him, he and his wife both loved it so much they immediately bought my gallery quality 13 x 19 print of it that I'd taken to show them:

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Enjoy, opinions welccome

Is that someone's home, or a beer factory....

Does it have a moat?

Wow.....even has a big alarm clock.

Awesome pic, definately worth the wait.

 

[Canadian Mike]

That one of yours on Fuelly looks pretty rich & vibrant too... nice one!

Yeah, that photo was taken last October with a Canon PowerShot. I also use a Canon Rebel. Photography is just a hobby for me though.
Your "sig" led me to Fuelly, thanks.

 

[WarGawd]

Your "sig" led me to Fuelly, thanks.

Speaking of which I wanted to ask - you actually sat there and entered 170+ fuel ups, and had the records for it? wow!

 

[Canadian Mike]

Speaking of which I wanted to ask - you actually sat there and entered 170+ fuel ups, and had the records for it? wow!

I've been keeping track for several years on most of my vehicles. Importing Excel file into Fuelly took no time.

 

[lknhomeaudio]

Love the first one!!

 

[Numbnutz]

Those are some amazing shots. Nice work.

 

[NewfieEnvoy]

Some really nice shots. You have a great eye for composition. I'm not a huge fan of HDR but you've kept it to a level that I find interesting but not annoying. I find HDR is a very personal thing, ya love it or hate it. Your last shot is incredible Can't stop staring at it.

 

[WarGawd]

Some really nice shots. You have a great eye for composition. I'm not a huge fan of HDR but you've kept it to a level that I find interesting but not annoying. I find HDR is a very personal thing, ya love it or hate it. Your last shot is incredible Can't stop staring at it.

HDR is what got me started - and the ones that were overly pushed were too much for me too, but the ones that had a "limit" to how hard they were pushed really appealed to me. So I started wondering how they were done, but it took me a while before I eventually stumbled across even the correct search terminology, and discovered my old bridge camera was capable of auto-exposure bracketing. Not too shabby considering you have to get into the fairly high end Nikons before they can do it (I'm sure it's a simple firmware change, but still).

So the swamp one was actually my very first attempt, and you can see a general progression as I got better at doing it and better at accomplishing what I wanted with the tools. The one you like is the second latest one I completed, the rail drawbridge over the canal came after that - I pushed that one very hard just as an experiment to see how it translated to print, and some of what I would consider to be over done in that one (the halo around the raised bridge) doesn't actually translate into print.

That last shot is actually my desktop background on my main PC and my laptop - for all the others that I can never seem to see again for the first time without noticing the flaws and spots where I could have done better, that one keeps me staring at it too

 

[WarGawd]

Black Friday sales gave me a great chance to swing some deals and trade some lenses for better ones. Went out tonite to do some long exposure stuff, tried some star trails (too cloudy) and some Xmas night scene bracketing for HDR. On a dark dead end road, the cloud cover cleared long enough to nab this shot. It's cropped from a much larger file, and yet just LOOK at the detail in the craters. I'm sooooo happy with this:

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Techie details:

Spoiler

Nikon D7000, 70-300mm FX lens @ 300mm, ISO 100, 1/40s, f5.6
959 x 1033 crop (6% !!) from original 4928 x 3264 file @ 100% (1:1)
Minor contrast correction in Photoshop, but I'm positive I can do even better

 

[NewfieEnvoy]

I see your shooting a D7000, that's a really nice camera. I've got a D90 myself but been looking at the 7000. Me and a friend go out shooting all the time and I use to get him on the go about using an entry level DSLR He was using a D5100, which is a great camera I just like to get his goat. Anyway I got to him, he went out and bought a 7000 and now I'm the one getting razed with my dated technology :-(

 

[Black_tb]

Just curious I know it's not the best but just picked up my wife a Fujifilm finepix sl300 14 meg pixel camera anybody have reviews on it she just wanted a decent camera for when the baby comes

 

[Black_tb]

Sorry for thread hijacking this :-(

 

[WarGawd]

I see your shooting a D7000, that's a really nice camera. I've got a D90 myself but been looking at the 7000. Me and a friend go out shooting all the time and I use to get him on the go about using an entry level DSLR He was using a D5100, which is a great camera I just like to get his goat. Anyway I got to him, he went out and bought a 7000 and now I'm the one getting razed with my dated technology :-(

It's an endless game trying to pick the right time & price to upgrade. The D7000 took literally months of research to hone in on, and then when I actually got to the store to buy it, I agonized for 3 more hours (and tortured the staff) trying to decide between it and the Canon 60D. I always try to make my technology buys right in the knee of the curve on a price/performance scale. I see they just announced the D5200 that now has the same AF, built-in focus motor and metering system as the 7000, and the 24MP sensor of the D3200, as well as the articulating screen of the 60D (available early Jan in Canada). It will be about what I paid for the 7000. I suspect the D7100 will be out soon enough, probable upgrade paths for that include a sensor bump, articulating screen, maybe the 51-point AF from the D800, and (hopefully) expanded bracketing capability. My guess is that will only be a couple hundred bucks more, jussssst enough to make it a hard decision for those who don't have money to burn.

So, you may want to wait just a bit more - if you think all of my months of legwork can help you out, PM me.

FWIW, I should add this. It's not always about the camera or the equipment. A cheap reasonably functional camera that you have with you will always take better pictures than the big heavy DSLR that stays at home. Knowing that all the shots on this page were achieved with my lowly Fuji S2000HD, I very seriously considered the Nikon P510 for it's replacement - in camera HDR, in camera panoramics, in camera 3D shots, MUCH bigger zoom range, wider aperture, CMOS vs CCD sensor, 7fps burst rate (faster than a D7000!!), 120fps high speed shooting etc etc etc. Check out more about how those two compare here, and then you can use that site to look at others:

Fujifilm S2000HD vs Nikon P510 - Our Analysis
Specifications - Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD vs Nikon Coolpix P510

Your last shot is incredible Can't stop staring at it.

BTW, that comment keeps resonating in my head, and the more I think about it, the more I think that's about the best compliment anybody could ever give. Thx again

 

[NewfieEnvoy]

BTW, that comment keeps resonating in my head, and the more I think about it, the more I think that's about the best compliment anybody could ever give. Thx again

Your welcome. I appreciate photography and like to take pictures, but I'm the farthest thing from creative so I don't have an eye for composition myself. However, I know what I like. I may not always be able to put a finger on why one photo looks better than another but you just get that gut feeling if something is pleasing to look at.

I'm a Nikon guy myself, Canon vs Nikon who cares. It's more personal preference for me, touch & feel, menu structure, placement of buttons, etc. Everyone has their choice. I had a D50 for years and when it was time to upgrade I was looking at the D5000 which was new out at the time but it was a smaller body and just didn't fit in my hand the way I liked. I've been super happy with my D90 for several years now and don't have a need to upgrade yet for the amount I'm shooting. However, I am a techie so drooling over new technology is a major hobby

 

[WarGawd]

Sorry for thread hijacking this :-(

No worries, somehow I missed this when you posted it - I would have been happy to recommend Snapsort for all kinds of comparison info on that camera - my old camera was a Fujifilm S2000 HD, and I thought it was a pretty decent performer. I suspect the SL300 would serve most people fairly well as a general family camera. The only thing I'd caution is buying too heavily into that 30x zoom - it's probably almost impossible to hand hold the camera steady enough to get a good shot at that zoom level in all but the very brightest light. But hey - get a tripod or monopod and it'll be okay.

 

[WarGawd]

Thought it was time to put up another couple shots that I did while experimenting in December:

A 26-minute star trail shot at 2 in the morning:

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A couple more star trails facing away from light pollution sources (6 minutes & 18 minutes respectively):

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A 30 second exposure using a white balance trick to turn night skies blue (again, like 2am)

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And another as the clouds rolled in hiding the full moon:

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Lastly, the crappy 10 second exposure with a 300mm lens, in which you can just start to make out the details of the Orion Nebula, and which explains my absence the last 8 weeks or so as I researched and bought a telescope and tracking mount:

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For comparison, here's an idea what that can look like with the right equipment: Messier42HS

Cheers all

 

[WarGawd]

Thanx hrddrv, marshall, infamouz -

Since there's a few people still finding their way here I may as well add a comment on something I just discovered. I was playing with the other frames I took before and after the Orion Nebula shot I noticed some objects that appeared to be single point sources - IE not trailing along with the stars. A little further checking proved them to be geo-synchronous satellites (so they stay in fixed position above earth and my camera, that's why no trail). There's one in this shot at about the 10 o'clock position from the nebula, that lonely solitary dot that looks like a small moon with the barely noticable shadow on the bottom side...I thought that was cool

 

[WarGawd]

Your welcome. I appreciate photography and like to take pictures, but I'm the farthest thing from creative so I don't have an eye for composition myself. However, I know what I like. I may not always be able to put a finger on why one photo looks better than another but you just get that gut feeling if something is pleasing to look at.

I'm a Nikon guy myself, Canon vs Nikon who cares. It's more personal preference for me, touch & feel, menu structure, placement of buttons, etc. Everyone has their choice. I had a D50 for years and when it was time to upgrade I was looking at the D5000 which was new out at the time but it was a smaller body and just didn't fit in my hand the way I liked. I've been super happy with my D90 for several years now and don't have a need to upgrade yet for the amount I'm shooting. However, I am a techie so drooling over new technology is a major hobby

And now that I've spotted you lurking this thread again today, I'll have a treat for you in a day or two - shots of the new telescope and mount. Pretty much guaranteed to fuel that fire! hehhehe

 

[WarGawd]

Weather has been making it easier to get out at night, conditions are clear more often. I've gotten better at getting focus/exposure settings and at post processing after.

Here is a much better version of the Orion Nebula, same camera lens as above:

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And one of my best star trail pics to date, with a bonus meteor captured in the shot:

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Enjoy

 

[Mark20]

Cool!

Several years ago at night I was looking up to grab the van's tailgate to close it and caught a meteor shooting across the sky. Considering the light pollution from Philly I thought that was good.

 

[WarGawd]

Cool!

Several years ago at night I was looking up to grab the van's tailgate to close it and caught a meteor shooting across the sky. Considering the light pollution from Philly I thought that was good.

Thanx Mark -

You'll probably like this one too - got a couple hours clear weather Wed nite before all this crap rolled in. I had this shot in mind for a while to do with a full moon rise, but this was a great chance to check framing and focus etc. This is a couple hours of star trails by some chimney ruins on the road from Smiths Falls to Perth - the brighter one going up to the right at ~40deg at the right is Saturn. For reference here's the Google map and street view

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Enjoy

 

[Mark20]

Very nice!

Did you use a fill flash to get the barn and chimney or was that just background light and a long exposure?

 

[WarGawd]

Very nice!

Did you use a fill flash to get the barn and chimney or was that just background light and a long exposure?

The chimney one was done with no flash, but it's a stack of 240 seperate shorter exposures and there was an occasional vehicle passing by on the highway that contributed a little extra foreground light. I took my first crack at doing a timelapse video with that sequence, and it's more obvious there.

The barn one is similarly a stack of 100 separate frames, but in that case I did try playing with my flash and with lightpainting with a spotlight. The frames with flash had to be tossed, (damn near blinded myself with full power from a Nikon SB-910, and overexposed those pics) but the one lightpainted frame with the spotlight added enough to be useful. Later I had to use Photoshop to mask out the overexposed barn and foreground from the flash shots, just to get their contribution back to fill in the gaps left by the missing frames and complete the star trails.

Cheers & Thx

 

[marshall@pcm]

Orion's Nebula looks good!

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

[Very Cool!

 

[WarGawd]

Orion's Nebula looks good!

Save some love for the next one I post - I'm sure it will put that to shame - I finally got the money together for the t-rings and other accessories I've needed to put my camera on my telescope and mount, should be getting those this week:

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[marshall@pcm]

Sweet! What scope is that?

 

[WarGawd]

Sweet! What scope is that?

I can't really guess how detailed of an answer you want, but I suspect just naming the maker isn't quite what you're after. It's a Thomas M. Back Signature Series Carbon Fiber. TMB was the designer, he's somewhat of a legend in the industry who passed away in 2007. I believe these were limited production runs of 100/yr for 4 years. The SS version came with the extremely highly regarded FeatherTouch focuser (~$400 upgrade), and certain early purchasers also got a 2" Williams Optics carbon fiber diagonal worth another $150+, as shown in the first pic. I literally jumped on this absolutely pristine condition one the minute I spotted it for sale.

 

[WarGawd]

Did this Sun nite in conjuntion with my entry for photo contest #18, where the camera that took this stack of pics can be seen finishing a shot in the background.

Tons of stuff going on in this one, planes, satelllites, moon center frame, and I'll have to look but I think the Panstarrs comet is in here too. Also there were beavers in the water beside the platform I had the tripod on, smacking the water with their tails every so often, and you can see the water ripples from them swimming around disturbing the star reflections in the water as they do. Here's a Google street view of the location for anyone interested.

There are also regular gaps in a couple of the satellite paths I can't explain...sometimes what happens is a decomissioned satellite is still in orbit but no longer has attitude control, so it tumbles with a regular period and is only reflective for part of that period...that may be it.

This was a stack of 1200 frames spanning 2 hours, at a pretty ridiculously high iso of 6400, f8, 11mm, 4s per frame with 2s gap between each. Lighting was completely ambient, mostly coming from businesses on the road about 200 yards behind me. It should make a 90s or so timelapse video which I can post a link to if people are interested:

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Enjoy

EDIT - I was curious myself, so I ran Stellarium through the entire 2 hour time window, and was able to verify that one of those 2 satellite tracks in the lower right was the International Space Station - not sure if the scaled version that GMT hosts will let you see it, but a 1:1 zoom of the full resolution image allows you to see the solar panels extending slightly to either side of its trajectory.

 

[WarGawd]

Just a couple pics to give people a sense of the difference between the eyepieces that came with the scope I inherited from my dad (1999 low end technology) and the new ones I bought a couple days ago:

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[marshall@pcm]

I can't really guess how detailed of an answer you want, but I suspect just naming the maker isn't quite what you're after. It's a Thomas M. Back Signature Series Carbon Fiber. TMB was the designer, he's somewhat of a legend in the industry who passed away in 2007. I believe these were limited production runs of 100/yr for 4 years. The SS version came with the extremely highly regarded FeatherTouch focuser (~$400 upgrade), and certain early purchasers also got a 2" Williams Optics carbon fiber diagonal worth another $150+, as shown in the first pic. I literally jumped on this absolutely pristine condition one the minute I spotted it for sale.

Name and model is what I was after.

 

[WarGawd]

Name and model is what I was after.

LOL, ok - but then that seems to suggest you know telescopes somewhat...are you into astronomy in some way as well?

 

[marshall@pcm]

Yeah... and the photography of it. Got started on star trails several years back. Would like to get a good telescope on day.

 

[WarGawd]

Yeah... and the photography of it. Got started on star trails several years back. Would like to get a good telescope on day.

Cool - any specific one you're lusting after? Got any pics to share stashed somewhere?