Messages

16

Video & Movie / Re: Heading to London, mate? Better keep your lens cap on!

« on: April 16, 2012, 02:47:07 PM »

They're coming for you briansquibb, can you hear the footsteps yet?  They're on the scent, their Attitude Detectors dialed up to ISO 125,000! -- hard maybe tell chalk from cheese in all the noise but who cares?  It's Olympics, imagine! Drop that lens, raise those sneaky hands, turn slowly to the wall!  We'll leave the light on for you.

17

Video & Movie / Re: Heading to London, mate? Better keep your lens cap on!

« on: April 16, 2012, 01:47:40 PM »

Does this sound familiar, brothers and sisters?  Hot off the press:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/apr/16/02-olympic-venues-row-security-photography

18

EOS Bodies / Re: I am done with B&H

« on: April 12, 2012, 05:17:42 PM »

I have to say it's kind funny that I couldn't take photos inside a Photo store.

Ha ha... I hope you don't take same attitude of trying to do "the stores type of thing" in other types of shops like gun shops or sex shops :-)

The day it's no longer possible to shoot up a gun shop or shag the staff at at a sex emporium, is the day that American freedom is no longer anything but a figure of speech and the Constitution isn't worth the blackboard it was written on.

19

EOS Bodies / Re: I am done with B&H

« on: April 12, 2012, 05:07:14 PM »

Last week I was visiting NYC and decided to visit B&H store for the first time and while I was impressed of how busy the store was, I sensed an unwelcoming attitude and one dude told me I couldn't take photos inside the store.  Maybe its just the normal tone of New Yorkers, but I have to say it's kind funny that I couldn't take photos inside a Photo store.

On this particular point -- I get just the opposite feeling inside that store, though perhaps that's because I'm a New Yorker and have morphed into an unwelcoming person myself without realizing.  I've taken lots of pictures in there, with their equipment or mine, everybody seems to understand it's necessary, very surprising that you had a problem.  I'm a new customer but beside their low prices and gigantic inventory the best part of it is their sales force.  They all seem to be photographers, many of them professional (what digital hath wrought!) and every dept I've visited had at least one who could conduct a very useful class for my benefit on the spot.    It's true I don't know much, but I was impressed.  Not all depts are equal; beware.   And also: they refuse to carry many of the good-but-cheap alternatives -- speedlights, radio triggers, movie stabilizers -- for cobbling systems together and for DIY, B&H is a lot less helpful than it might be.

20

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 12, 2012, 01:00:46 PM »

@sandymandy  That's the spirit.

21

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 12, 2012, 10:18:13 AM »

Just noticed my mistake -- this must be the quoting-ist forum ever heard of!

22

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 12, 2012, 10:14:57 AM »

@sandymandy:  meant to be funny!  I was wondering how you (or anyone new) would react to the avalanche of advice and bickering that your straightforward query elicited.  This website IS funny,  (of course there may be some who don't see it yet),  not to worry. 

Maybe the time has come for you to take another picture...

23

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 11, 2012, 06:30:23 AM »

@sandymandy:  You've figured it out.  Everybody here except the newcomers, is enrolled in a stand-up comedy class and this website was created for us to try out new material on you guys.  It certainly took us long enough to get you smiling, but at least now we should pass the course. 

24

Site Information / Re: Disappointed and goodbye

« on: April 10, 2012, 07:05:50 PM »

Don't feel bad wickidwombat, you're ok...

25

Site Information / Re: Disappointed and goodbye

« on: April 09, 2012, 08:41:50 PM »

@peederj:  Well said.

26

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Mark III or 1DX? Money no object.

« on: April 09, 2012, 10:03:23 AM »

Buy the cheaper one.  You will love it.  Gather up all the money you save and send it off to me.  I will love you.  Funny is no object.

27

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 08, 2012, 05:59:09 AM »

The problem is: How to sort it out?
[/quote]

Well that is the problem.  Was it Picasso who said that genius is knowing whose advice to take?  I suppose a beginner can sign up for school or attach themselves to a guru or just take from here & there...  For me the personality of a teacher wouldn't matter, nor the quality of their talk -- only their photos would. 

I think you can make good progress from staring at the kind of work you like and trying to match it, trial and error, the long way, true, but also the way of lucky accidents.  And there's nothing wrong with sandymandy's approach of throwing out an appeal for advice -- so long as you don't expect The Answer.   The answering babble will harbor leads, for him in particular and his to find. 

28

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 08, 2012, 04:57:33 AM »

@Marsu42: PhotoSig is a website -- mainly for what seem to be beginners -- whose business plan is the volunteer coaching of all by all.  Non-paying members must write critiques (with minimum word-counts) in order to post their own photos, so everyone's a critic.  I won't attempt to describe the atmosphere there -- go visit.

I thought that sandymandy got some good and useful advice here in answer to his query, plus encouragement, plus a preview of some of the vibes that often go along with photography these days.  Of course he'll have to sort it out, it's in the nature of things that there's no single answer to his sort of question, isn't that so?

29

Lenses / Re: Any Active Magic Lantern Users?

« on: April 08, 2012, 04:37:38 AM »

Agree 100% with Marsu42 and SRHelicity, and expect to agree with bvukich once I'm up and running.

30

Black & White / Re: So..what sucks about this shot?

« on: April 07, 2012, 02:49:40 PM »

Be careful what you say about Bulgaria, @peederj, because it turns out Bulgaria is full of about the most soulful photographers on planet earth.  Fifty years ago they may have been restricted to pin-hole cameras I don't know, but today they have metal gear with little wires just like we do.  What do you think of this?

http://photomoment.bg/photo/82375

Yes?  Then I could also show you, right away, 100 more, in every style and on every subject carrying as much or more impact -- Bulgaria!  Add in Russia, Belorus, Ukraine, Turkey, even Moldova and you have a feast that just never ends.  5dMkii is popular in those regions among professionals but you will see astonishing results from less rarified kit and every kind of junk, pin-holes too I kid you not.

What is the "American perspective," anyway?  Is whatever's left over Socialist Realism?