First Post - My Passion, Photography

Hello all. I guess with each new forum you've got to have a first post. This is mine. Any forum with a separate photography area gets my attention as I've been an avid photographer for 40 years.

Now retired, I get to photograph my Pacific Northwest home that I consider a photographer's dream. I have no specialty but instead pride myself in being flexible in my subject matter. I maintain a small site to show various favorite shots at It's Alive!. I feel this will save a bunch of time rather than attempting to post hundreds of individual photos.

I hope to be an active member as I've truly fallen in love with my 21.5" iMac.

Gorgeous image. Welcome to Mac-Forums.

I agree with Brian ^^^

and welcome to the forums, and for FYI the is a thread that members post in : http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/images-graphic-design-digital-photography/256704-photo-month-november-thru-december-2011-a.html.
You can post in there each and every month and look forward to your contribution

Cheers

Nice pic!
And, welcome to the Forum.

Razormac said:

Nice pic!
And, welcome to the Forum.

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Thank you all. I look forward to a rewarding experience.

Great shot Bob. Is that from a local zoo? Good to have another photo enthusiast around these parts! Lately, I've been itching to put together a much smaller kit for personal and street shooting, and leaving my Nikon DSLR for professional shoots. Considered the Olympus E-P3 for a bit, but more and more I'm leaning very heavily towards the Sony NEX 5N.

Would have gone with the NEX 7N in a heartbeat, if not for all of the unnecessary extra pixels crammed on the same sensor from the 5N! Anyway, welcome and make yourself at home!

Doug

Doug b said:

Great shot Bob. Is that from a local zoo? Good to have another photo enthusiast around these parts! Lately, I've been itching to put together a much smaller kit for personal and street shooting, and leaving my Nikon DSLR for professional shoots. Considered the Olympus E-P3 for a bit, but more and more I'm leaning very heavily towards the Sony NEX 5N.

Would have gone with the NEX 7N in a heartbeat, if not for all of the unnecessary extra pixels crammed on the same sensor from the 5N! Anyway, welcome and make yourself at home!

Doug

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The shot of the lions is from the Portland, OR Zoo just about 7 miles down the highway from my apartment. Before I retired this past July I purchased a yearly membership, allowing me to wonder in free any day of the year. I love the subject matter there as it's constantly changing.

I'm always looking at new gear. I use a Nikon D7000 as my main camera but also own a great Leica V-LUX 20 rangefinder with a super telephoto aboard. I also have a GoPro HD NAKED HERO in the mail as a Christmas present to myself. I've certainly looked at all the 4/3 mirrorless models out there and want to avoid another camera bag collection of bodies & lenses.

I'm basically in hibernation until Spring arrives with regard to my animal photography. I'll tote at least one camera to my Christmas gathering tomorrow for snapshots. I chuckle at that statement as friends have claimed I'm incapable of taking a snapshot anymore. I'll look for your posts in the future. - Merry Christmas!

Photo taken with my pocket Leica

Fabulous photo's Bob. Love the Lion's, wildlife being one of my favorite subjects too.
Welcome to the forum, and enjoy your time here.

Edit> Just been looking at your hosted pics. Wonderful stuff.
A question. You get very close to the animals, considering you are only using a 50mm lens. Do they have open pens there? There is no fuzz from glass or fencing. Just curious. Thanks.

Kevriano said:

Fabulous photo's Bob. Love the Lion's, wildlife being one of my favorite subjects too.
Welcome to the forum, and enjoy your time here.

Edit> Just been looking at your hosted pics. Wonderful stuff.
A question. You get very close to the animals, considering you are only using a 50mm lens. Do they have open pens there? There is no fuzz from glass or fencing. Just curious. Thanks.

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With the lions I must shoot through a Plexiglas wall. They have an inside as well as an outside habitat. I take great pains to shoot them as close to the wall as possible and square to that Plexiglas. That eliminates the reflections most commonly seen in shots. I also use a Circular Polarizing filter. Thanks for your questions and comments.

Thanks. The Plexiglas must be much cleaner than the ones in our Zoo's then, they are always scratched and murky.

Hi Bob!

You are right, the Pacific NW is a photographer's dream! I'm a bit north of you in Victoria BC. Superb pic of the tigers and the flowers!

Those of you who enjoy not just taking photos but looking at top-notch photos, here's my "present" to you all ... go have a look at 500px. I could easily spend hours each day looking at that stuff, most of its superb (be aware there are some artistic nude pics, you can filter those out if you prefer).

Doug b said:

Great shot Bob. Is that from a local zoo? Good to have another photo enthusiast around these parts! Lately, I've been itching to put together a much smaller kit for personal and street shooting, and leaving my Nikon DSLR for professional shoots. Considered the Olympus E-P3 for a bit, but more and more I'm leaning very heavily towards the Sony NEX 5N.

Would have gone with the NEX 7N in a heartbeat, if not for all of the unnecessary extra pixels crammed on the same sensor from the 5N! Anyway, welcome and make yourself at home!

Doug

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Can I suggest the Panasonic Lumix FZ45 which gives up to 14mg and has a 24x optical zoom (equivalent to 600mm)? This is my second bridge camera (first was Kodak Z470, c2005) after decades of lugging around various large and heavy SLRs and lenses.

Lions in the wild from the Kodak (not even on max zoom, that's how close you get in Kenya):

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Recent shots showing the versatility of the Lumix:

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Awesom photos of the lions. Wildlife is one of my favorite subjects of photos to look at. All These great photos make me want to be able to go out and get shots of wildlife and pretty scenery..however sadly the only camera I have is just the one that comes with my Android phone:Blushing:And I don't know when Id be able to ever be able to get out somewhere pretty for some shots.

Well I suppose the phone can take "okay" shots compared to the spiffy cameras mentioned here. But the highest res it can go is 3264x1552. Though one thing that its not so good at are indoor shots where the only lighting is fluorescent or incandescent. Ive even tried playing with the white balance but you can still tell. If there is no natural light from outside, the shots are always fairly dull as you can see from the two attachments I included. And I will include some of my better photos here soon.

Back in middle October, really looked like the sky was on fire.






Probably one of the best photos taken of my own cat Safinaz. That cat pic from BadShoe reminded me of this one

I take little cats also.

Yup, you've got the touch all right. I like dabbling with cameras too, so I am interested to know what you like about the iMac for your photography?

Demapples said:

Yup, you've got the touch all right. I like dabbling with cameras too, so I am interested to know what you like about the iMac for your photography?

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I use Photoshop CS5 for Mac. My 21.5" monitor and magic mouse make an ideal combination to edit and display photos. I also use my 37" Toshiba Regza LCD TV to see a bigger version.

tilkilikiz

For me, photography is about being able to 'see' a good picture rather than the equipment and I hate pictures which are over-enhanced digitally. I crop and may lighten/darken on screen and clone out a spot (!) but that's it, no photoshopping! Your leaves and trees are lovely and you did very well on the tortoiseshell cat (dark animals are difficult to photograph in any light). Remember that direct flash (other than infill) flattens. It's possible to achieve good shots with the judicious use of available light (as in your Turkish tea glass) - and the trick with food is to place it under kitchen spotlights (or buy a cheap one you can move around), or you can make a light box easily from a cardboard box with a spot above. Drape a teatowel, or other position other kitchen things to create a cookery book look.

These are some shots I've posted on a food forum (some better than others) - all done very quickly and the subject eaten straight after!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.11314289582.16783.568319582&type=1&l=8cab9d6ee7

badshoehabit said:

. ... . . .I crop and may lighten/darken on screen and clone out a spot (!) but that's it, no photoshopping!

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All well and good on the rest of your post, but what you have to remember (and what a lot of people tend to do is (think PhotoShop think ~ Completely altering the digital image) confuse it).
PS is primarily a photo editor and not the complete picture manipulator that people stereotype **photoshopping** to be.
Im happy to say i photoshop my images in PhotoShop. To me thats just editing . . . . . . .

Some nice images btw . . . . . . .

The constant harping about Photoshop gets to be a boring topic. The famous Ansel Adams used to carry glass plates that contained perfect cloudy skies when he didn't have a decent one in the shot of the moment. I did my own darkroom work for years, cropping, burning, dodging and changing the look and feel of the original shot. Nobody shoots straight out of the camera without editing and remains competitive in competitions or professional photography. There are only two types of decent photographer out there, those that use Photoshop(or similar editor) and those that lie about it. IMHO