Photography
From Rant-A-Day
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[edit] Introduction
Okay first off if you came here for professional photography tips and examples then maybe it's better looking somewhere else. I'm a dead amateur however during my travels have enjoyed taking lots of photo's and the experience is made even more enjoyable when I use good quality semi-professional gear.
[edit] So What Kind of Gear Do You Use?
I guess I wasn't listening when the salesman told me all good photographers stick with one brand; I have 2 cameras, an 8.2MP Ricoh Caplio GX8 and a 10MP Nikon D80 (DSLR). To make it brief, both cameras were love at first sight. The Nikon is the more advanced of the 2 cameras, but one of the greatest things is that in automatic mode a monkey could take an amazing photo. The other advantage is the range of lenses that it allows you to use; from crazy scientific electron microscopes to star gazing telescopes… or my cheapo lenses in the middle.
The Ricoh also has its sling of advantages. It's about 1/4 of the size still takes a great photo on automatic mode. This is probably aided by its macro lens, which you really have to use to see the advantage of. It's also pretty advanced in terms of functionality; I learned how to do night shots with 30 second exposures using the Ricoh, so it shouldn't be passed off as being a toy camera. Its form actually gives it an advantage for night shots because it's so light, and doesn't shake cheap tripods with its weight on windy nights. I guess buying the Ricoh is like buying an iMac rather than a computer with a tower… when you want to upgrade the lens of add new things you'll be disappointed, but if you see it for being what it is rather than what it isn't, it's a very respectable camera. Below are some stock photo's of my 2 cameras.
Note: These photo's are not to scale, and I am not comparing them to each other (take a quick uneducated glance and you can see which one is the better camera). I simply love both and want to spread my opinions about them.
[edit] That D80 looks nice, what kind of lenses do you use?
I keep it simple by owning 2 lenses; I used to own 3, however I sold the stock general-purpose lens that came with it as it wasn't particularly good at macro shots and wasn't particularly good and shooting objects in the distance. Sure it gave a good photo, but I find myself using this camera for specific purposes so have gone for 2 reasonably specific lenses.
I went for Tamron lenses… don't ask me why, but I did and I like them. Firstly I bought an aspherical 28-300mm lens, I guess it's still a pretty general-purpose lens, but the 300mm capability gives it a bit of an edge on the stock general-purpose lens I bought when shooting objects in the distance.
My other lens is more expensive… and more… it's a good macro lens! I love macro shots (Ricoh got my hooked) and found myself always begging for a macro lens when I was using my stock general-purpose lens. It's a Tamron SP AC 90mm F/2.8 (with 1:1 macro). Okay so you've got a better macro lens that cost more… lucky you, but I'm happy with this one thankyou. Below is the image that believe it or not got me sold on this lens (yes okay… it's the guy who sold me the lens, and he's holding my other lens… smart bugger you are).
I've taken much better photo's, but this is a great portrait example (wise cracker, you noticed it's not a typical macro shot of some PC gamer's l337 overclocked mobo that's so clear you can see the salt on the Dorrito's). For those who don't know macro lenses, basically why I like it… there's no zoom… yes, your little Sony Cybershot with a 3x zoom has more zoom in it. What it does is grab an object that you choose, squeeze every bit of detail and colour out of it so that's it's near-perfect and then blur everything in the background that it's not focussed on. It's good! It's I don't need a scanner good… I can take a photo of a full A4 page of text and it will be as if I'd scanned it onto the computer at a high resolution.
[edit] Right you're all talk mate, show us some of your photo's
Sure thing, I'll be the first to admit that my photo's are less than perfect however I think substantially due to the fact I have some decent gear some of my photo's are pretty good. Rather than posting up all of my photo's and hoping that you like some I'm going to post the photo's that I like in my gallery. Personally I like some of them… sure a pro could do a better job, and all of my good photo's were complete flukes (aided by an 8gb memory card allowing for many hundred's of photo's in one photo shoot), but I'd love to show you my work and also receive a few opinions.
If you're a pro or an armchair expert wanting to put me down then go away, I'm looking for constructive feedback, not criticism.
Photography:Gallery (My Photo Gallery)
