Messages

46

Site Information / Re: Membership Approval Now Required

« on: May 10, 2013, 01:31:42 PM »

Fair enough ... but a day for approval?

It's usually more like an hour or two max.

And the only person I've rejected so far was someone that already had two accounts, and for some reason felt the need to sign up for a third.

I've wondered about that.... how can one tell if it is someone with two accounts or two people who use the same computer... husband/wife/partner/kids.....

I've resisted the urge to get two accounts.... but if I did I could argue with myself and always win

Seriously though, you do a great job of keeping the forum clean. It is a generally thankless task, so let me be one of those saying that they appreciate the work you do.

47

Lenses / Re: How to shoot jewellery and NOT get reflections of the camera

« on: May 10, 2013, 08:38:36 AM »

polarizing filter and move the lights around.....

48

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: Color Bombs Kill Cameras

« on: May 10, 2013, 08:31:02 AM »

I would stay as far away as possible. Cameras can be replaced easily, lungs can not.

One of my friends is big into spinning wool and uses Kool-Aid to dye the wool. That's right.... Kool-Aid.... the powder that people mix to make drinks for their children.... the same stuff that's approved for human consumption... It makes vibrant colors that will not wash out... just imagine what it does to your insides

Just because doing something is not banned (dousing crowds with fine powder) does not make it a good idea.

49

Animal Kingdom / Re: Your best animal shots!

« on: May 09, 2013, 07:19:41 PM »

Captured with a T1i 

WOW WOW WOW!!!!!

50

Animal Kingdom / Re: Show your Bird Portraits

« on: May 09, 2013, 06:49:46 PM »

Red-Winged Blackbird, taken with my 7d/600mm f6.3 - 1/800 iso 160

I didn't crop the image at all just re-sized.

WOW!

51

Animal Kingdom / Re: Wrong Photography Ethics?

« on: May 09, 2013, 06:48:22 PM »

Most of us are not forensic photographers who shoot crime scenes and dead bodies ...

Funny you should mention that as an example of photo purity..... It's also a great example of extreme image manipulation...

I am not a forensic photographer, but I do take a number of inspection and verification photos. Sometimes it takes a lot of image manipulation to be able to see serial numbers and scratches in metal.... Highly doctored can be a good thing.....

52

EOS Bodies / Re: No 7D Mark II in 2013? [CR2]

« on: May 09, 2013, 06:24:00 PM »

...Let's do one better, I'll get a better shot from the A1400 wading water getting the shot closer than you will with that 600L you have.

yea thats it.  while you're at it, you can really show him up and shosh up to the bird with a pinhole camera.  you know -- where the shutter is you taking the cap on and off. make the bird pose for you, while you're at it, feed it and take the time to train it to pose just how you want;  and  yes, if you do get the photo it will be amazing, to be sure.

You are all wrong.... I'd get the best picture and it would appear on TV and in the newspapers..... with the following story:

Lakeside tragedy - A wildlife photography excursion turned tragic today. Under circumstances that police will only describe as "baffling" three photographers were found bludgeoned to death with tripods and a large camera lens. A fourth photographer was pulled from the lake with what appears to be a trained Grebe sitting on the body....

53

Animal Kingdom / Re: Wrong Photography Ethics?

« on: May 09, 2013, 06:06:45 PM »

As long as the photographer is not entering a competition and not breaking its rules, to me it doesn't matter what the photographer does with the image, it is his image, his vision  ...as far as I'm concerned he can remove/add whatever he wants. Those who are capable of making awesome changes/modifications will continue to do so while those who are incapable will continue to crib that it is unethical.

+10^99999

If I were to buy a print to hang on my wall, I would have chosen #2. Whoop-de-do, he played with the sky, but the essence of the shot remains the same.... three big wild cats. If you want to carry the logic through, people should not sharpen images, or color balance, or crop.... Even the act of pointing the camera or zooming in/out is to modify what is being represented.

Put things in perspective, it's not like Godzilla is walking along the skyline...It's a nice image. I like it.

54

EOS Bodies / Re: No 7D Mark II in 2013? [CR2]

« on: May 09, 2013, 03:03:21 PM »

That being said, I think gear matters.  If not, I'd be shooting with my Xsi or my 7D as much as ever.  The fact is however I don't, the XSi is long sold and my 7D sits in solitude not seeing much action these days as the acquisition of my 5D Mk III has moved into a place of more relevance, not as a matter of convenience, as a matter of the gear made a notable difference, hence, the gear matters.  In my instance anyway! 

And to try to get back on subject, I shoot with a 60D. I am thinking VERY hard about upgrading to a 7D2 when it comes out. The 7D is better, but not enough so as to tempt me to buy one. For me, the two big things that would (hopefully) help me are better AF system and higher burst rate, but there are a lot of little things I would not turn my nose up at. I'd like to have it NOW!!!!, but that's just not going to happen. Realistically, I had expected to see it in stores by Christmas.... so a few month's more won't hurt. After all, if you are into wildlife photography, patience may well be the most important skill of all.

55

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: Any risk of 1DC overheating on a 1 hour 4K video?

« on: May 09, 2013, 02:42:22 PM »

The best thing I can think of is cooling through the tripod mount.... Perhaps you can fasten a heatsink to the top of your tripod and mount the camera, with some heat-conductive gel, to the top of the heatsink. Since the tripod mount is part of the metal case of the camera, this seems like the best way to bleed of the heat.... now the question is how to get the heat from the heatsink and out of the housing..... could you use conductive gel from the side of the heatsink to the dive housing?

Just thinking.... never tried any of this and have no idea how well it would work...

56

EOS Bodies / Re: No 7D Mark II in 2013? [CR2]

« on: May 09, 2013, 02:03:17 PM »

When one follows the logic through to it's obvious conclusion, the answer is clear.

Real photographers do not use "spray and pray" because it's a cheat... you should be able to use skill instead.

Real photographers should also turn off the AF, because it's also a cheat.

Real photographers should turn of IS, it's also a cheat.

Real photographers don't look at the exposure display.... because with skill they don't need it.

Real photographers should NEVER shoot in RAW, because if they were any good the out-of-camera JPG would be perfect every time.

Real photographers do not bracket, their first shot is always perfect.

Real photographers have phenomenally high keeper rates, because every shot is perfect.

Get the point? Real photographers ignore all the tools available to them..... makes me glad I'm a hack who doesn't know enough to turn everything off.

57

EOS Bodies / Re: No 7D Mark II in 2013? [CR2]

« on: May 09, 2013, 06:33:54 AM »

A photojournalist is looking for a visual narrative in every photo. That takes time, thought, observation, timing, skill and a bit of luck.
Landscapers are looking for the best light, this takes time, thought, observation, timing...and getting one's ass out of bed at inhumane times of the day / night. 
Wildlife photographers are looking for perfect specimines doing interesting things with clear backgrounds. This takes time, thought, observation, timing and patience.
Sports....do I have to go on?
Natutrally there's a host of piccy grabbers who just pray and spray, picking out the successfull chance shots in post production....but that's not skill. Yes 12fps is helpful, but a lot of sports photographers I know still use 5 fps becuase they are good and judging the timing and don't want to fill their cards with time consuming throw aways.

My last wedding, I shot 1127 photographs. An all day shoot of 14 hours. Final edit...down to 537 photos. That's slightly under 50% keepers. A collegue of mine who is a pro football photographer has simular hit rates. A pro landscaper friend of mine has a keeper rate of well over 75%. This pray and spray behaviour supports my previous statement.

I'm still learning and my keeper rate is much lower than that. I wouldn't show even 5 percent of my shots. My reaction time is not fast enough to pick up the ideal wing position of small birds in flight so I have to rely on the camera burst mode. I like the idea of 10 (or more) fps in burst mode and lots of other bird photographers trying to keep up with those damn hummingbird wings seem to rely on the evil "spray and pray". Please tell me, how do I improve my reaction time by a factor of ten or more?

58

Animal Kingdom / Re: Show your Bird Portraits

« on: May 08, 2013, 11:19:47 PM »

A Common Tern landing. This is a resize from the full frame, 60D, ISO200, 1/500 sec, and 400mm at F5.6, shot from a moving canoe..... This was the last frame in a burst before the buffer filled..... my timing was off, but I got lucky.

I'm getting better at this, still have LOTS to learn, and I am enjoying the process.

I would like to thank the members of this forum for all the fantastic advice I have gotten, and the inspiration from seeing pictures from those so much better than myself.

59

EOS Bodies / Re: No 7D Mark II in 2013? [CR2]

« on: May 08, 2013, 10:49:01 PM »

The sport world is bigger than the U.S. and american football, its called soccer

Ahem. Nowhere else than in the U.S. it is called soccer. The name of the game is "football". Pretty logical, as you play it with your feet...

logical except in US there they have a lot of protection and strange helmets and call it football, the original sport calls RUGBY from 1823 and are for real men and  they have no protection.

Here in Canada, we also call it Soccer.... so it's not just the U.S. that has the name wrong.... and I dare you to go tell the members of my NEICE'S rugby team that the game is for real men....

And the sport world is much larger than contact sports. Might I suggest you take up canoeing? A quiet lake, waterfowl and magnificent scenery..... sunsets and sunrises, an osprey or an eagle picking a fish off of the surface of the water, moose browsing in a marsh.... If there was ever a sport ideal for photographers, canoeing has to be it.

60

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: dissapointed 6d 100mm f2 and 24mm 2.8 (non l)

« on: May 08, 2013, 09:21:53 AM »

There are a pair of great articles from Roger at Lens Rentals about filters. The first one, http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2010/12/the-glass-in-front-of-your-glass-all-about-filters, is a general article, but the second one, http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2011/06/good-times-with-bad-filters, shows the effect of a bad filter on your image.