Photographer's thread

[Capt Spaulding]

@The Red One

You mentioned sitting down on a rock and prefocusing. Did you shoot these on film? It's been years since I thought about prefocusing. Used that all the time with my Minolta SLRs - at motorraces, airshows, kids' sports, etc. but since I picked up my first DSLR and learned some of the "stupid autofocus tricks" I haven't given that much thought.

[Capt Spaulding]

For the birds.

The poor trout is thinking 'oh man. I am so fucked.'

[The Red One]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

@The Red One

It's been years since I thought about prefocusing. .

Im old, I have habits that are hard to let go… Specially the ones that serve me well.

I first got into the habit around 1981 when I got a 300mm 4.5F and foolishly mated it with a 2X. Could not see much in the dark viewfinder but always had it pre-focused on larger pebbles or Grass close to the racing line at the local F1 races. That was the only solution back then.

This bird was taken with a 10 yr old D7000 that I still drag out when it rains, it’s aught –to-focus was great back in the day but far from what I get with the new stuff. There really was no need to pre-focus just habit and low contrast Overcast does not help the focusing anyway… and I had the time to do it. The lens I had on it a 70-200mm Zoom was very capable of keeping up by itself.

I do have a longer focal length 200-500mm lens that is notorious for being slow to acquire the subject initially and shoot a lot with it and have found my keeper rate goes up if I can pre-focus and give it a better chance, but once it acquires focus it is very tenacious at holding on to the subject. I always get comments about it being a “slow focusing lens” Im not quite sure what they are talking about!


And sometimes there is no reference to pre-focus and just trust the technology.

[Capt Spaulding]

Is your 200-500 the Nikkor 5.6? That's what I shot the Osprey with, mounted on a D7200.

That combination works well for me. Those D7xxx bodies have life left in 'em. That said I'd like to get a D500 body before Nikon bails out of the DSLR business, and probably a D850 body as well. My D750 is great at somethings (low light is high on the list) but pixel lust can be strong. My son has taken to mirrorless. I think I'm too old to make that jump and certainly too poor.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

and probably a D850 body as well.

From what little I have read the D850 is a bit of a legend?... ummmm.....The camera to which others are compared to?.... Top of its class?..... How about an awesome camera?

[The Red One]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

Is your 200-500 the Nikkor 5.6? That's what I shot the Osprey with, mounted on a D7200.

That combination works well for me. Those D7xxx bodies have life left in 'em. That said I'd like to get a D500 body before Nikon bails out of the DSLR business, and probably a D850 body as well. My D750 is great at somethings (low light is high on the list) but pixel lust can be strong. My son has taken to mirrorless. I think I'm too old to make that jump and certainly too poor.

I just love my D500 pared with the N200-500 5.6.
I was on a pre-order list for that one and have not lusted for any more new cameras since!
The unlimited buffer is amazing, it will just never slowdown even writing to 2 cards;
If you have any old AF-D lenses it will give them a new speedier life as well.
I like to shoot low light concerts and have no issues with using a high ISO. It feels always ready. A baby D5.

I very seldom print bigger than 8x11 so a full frame has not tempted me as much yet.
Till I can use my AF-D lenses and keep the auto focus functional A mirrorless switch is not a consideration,
Besides my phone is mirrorless. But I do like what Fuji is doing.

If I would be starting out with nothing -> go Mirrorless no question!

Since I retired my piggy bank ran out of the room and locked the door!

[Captain Snooze]

.

[beltax90]

random stuff from around town

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by beltax90

random stuff from around town

Any more information about that?

[beltax90]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

Any more information about that?

Yes!

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/...topiary-garden

From the article:

EDNA HARPER WAS NOT A fan of the boring, cookie-cutter shrubs that decorated the hilly landscape of her Mission Hills home in San Diego.

Unwilling to yank the bushes purely for aesthetic reasons, she and her husband Alex came up with a delightful solution that would be (arguably) easier on the eyes without destroying the preexisting shrubs-a whimsical topiary garden for everyone who passed by to enjoy.

For the last 15 years, Edna has been conceptualizing what she’d like the bushes to become, and then grabbing her pruners and making it happen. The couple has tenderly shaped and trained their formerly blah foliage into over 50 different creations, many inspired by their travels around the world. Thrilled to share their lovely living sculptures with anyone who delights in them, the Harpers are happy to show off their topiary free of charge, as long as everyone promises to tread carefully and refrain from climbing them, regardless of the temptation. The garden museum includes pyramids, a dinosaur, a surfer, a Buddha, an entire menagerie of animals including a whale and an entire herd of elephants, and a figure of their gardener, who helps Edna maintain her artwork. While most topiaries are shaped by growing the shrubbery around wire figures, Edna’s bushes were already mature, so they are patiently shaped and slowly guided as their new growth appears. This makes them unique in the sense that they are solid foliage all the way through as opposed to hollow inside a wire cage.

Edna shows no sign of being satisfied with her garden of creatures as it is, and continues to come up with new, fantastical shapes to give the lucky shrubs that were rescued from a drab landscape existence.

The Harpers welcome anyone to come and enjoy their outdoors museum, but if you do visit, p[please remember this is a private residence, and treat it with love and quiet observance.

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another website also says that a lot of the inspiration behind their shrubs have been from their travels across the world which is pretty neat

[beltax90]

more adventure! la jolla, ca!

beautiful weather today! visited and parked at the local library. 10 mins of walking from the library gets you to the beach. was never a beach person growing up, still not so much. even though the beaches were always and is 30 mins away from where i live i never really appreciated them like i do now. this was my first time checking out this place!

[beltax90]

Another day by the beach, this time at the gliderport in La Jolla! Got lucky and caught beautiful weather again! From a nice sitting area atop the cliffs that serves sandwiches and is open to the public. You don't have to para/hanglide to hangout!

[Captain Snooze]

Hong Kong 2010, Panny TZ7, tweaked with DXO 3 and Topaz Denoise.

[beltax90]

One more time in La Jolla! This time at the UCSD campus which is huge and filled with all kinds of art installations (the first photo being one of them). Didn't capture too much as it was getting dark and I didnt have a tripod but these two shots came out not tooooooo terrible. the second photo is of the campus' main library Geisel which, while not officially confirmed i think, served as inspiration for the snow fortress featured in the movie Inception!