40 replies to this topic

[geek-accountant]

Just noticed Dave added this section. Awesome Dave!!

Dave got the group off and running with his DSLR post, but I was interested in how many photographers are on the site. So, if you are a photographer (pro or not), what do you shoot and what gear do you use? Also, any images on the web you want to share?

I will start things off:

What I shoot:
* Sports - soccer, baseball, cheerleading, football, basketball
* Landscape - HDR, IR

My gear (aging as it is)
* Nikon D2x
* Nikon D2h (actually have 2 of these)
* Nikon D100 (sending to Lifepixel to convert to full time IR camera)
* Nikon 70-200vr f/2.8
* Nikon 300mm f/4
* Nikon 85mm f/1.8
* Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and the f/1.4 version
* Sigma 120-300 f/2.8
* Tokina 12-24mm f/4
* Tamaron 90mm f/2/8 (macro)
* Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and Really Right Stuff ballhead
* Various flashes and lens filters
* A few other lenses I can't remember without going down to the office and checking
* A couple I want to sell after getting them adjusted (Sigma 70-200f/2.8, Sigma 100-300f/4)

My websites
* Images - www.mhfoto.com (general site used for family/fiends so not just my select shots)
* Blog - www.mhfoto.com/blog (just started so not a lot there)

[cskenney]

I like to look at pictures....does that count?

My youngest brother got interested in photography about 18 months ago and bought some pretty nice equipment. He has now turned his hobby into a fairly nice part time business. He works as a AYSO officer in a school district as his regular job and then attends many of the school activities with his camera to snap photos of the kids that their parents can look through and get copies of for no cost. In turn he hopes they come back to him for senior pictures or other professional photo shoots.

[geek-accountant]

The lady who had the contract for the action shoots of our soccer league asked me to shoot for her company. It started off as a lot of fun. I love to shoot and this game me a chance to shoot almost all day Saturday and most of Sunday (had a rule that I went to all my kids games and shot them for free). She was great to work for and I liked not having to post process the 1,000's of images I would should each day. The money helped offset the cost of the gear, but after a while it felt more like a job than fun, and I already have a full time job that takes up a lot of my time. So I stopped shooting with her and just shoot for fun now. I do have a VERY small portfolio on iStock which brings in a little money from time to time. And when I say little, I mean less than $1,000/year.

[dagamer34]

Here's me:

Level:
* Amateur with money to burn

Years of Experience:
* 1 year

What I shoot:
* Whatever I find interesting

My gear:
* Canon 7D
* Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
* Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS USM
* Canon 50mm f1.4 USM
* Canon 580EXII External Flash
* Manfrotto tripod and grip head

My pictures:
* http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkibuule/

Total GB worth of pictures:
* About 140GB

Number of really great pictures:
* Probably 2-3 so far which I can really say I'm proud of. Yeah, I've got a terribly low keep rate.

Edited by dagamer34, 13 May 2011 - 08:13 PM.

[geek-accountant]

The secret is that even the pro's take a ton of bad shots. Their stats (good to bad) may be better than ours, but we are talking more in baseball stats, or even less.

I would say that for me, I have not taken a photo yet I don't find problems with. Many times the "good" photo is not technically correct, but it was the subject that made the image good. Wish I could find an example which would make this statement better, but can't at the moment.

[IndyLux]

What I shoot:
* Landscapes (HDR)
* Portraits for friends and family
* Travel Shots
* HDR Artsy Stuff
* HDR Panoramic Stitches (Landscape and Vertical)

My gear:
* Canon Digital Rebel Xs
* Canon 50?-250 IS Telephoto Lens
* Bargain Tripod
* UV Filters for all lenses

My Software:
* Photoshop CS5
* Live Photo Gallery

My websites
* Images - www.flickr.com/christopherlux
* Blog - chrislux.wordpress.com

Edited by IndyLux, 13 May 2011 - 09:00 PM.

[geek-accountant]

HDR pano, NICE. I have shot plenty of HDR and some pano but have not tried both yet. It's a project I was planning to do at our local park (Suwanee Town Center), but have not made the time yet. I also want to try some HDR IR shooting, but I am going to wait until I convert my D100 to full time IR.

Nice images BTW.

[ikon]

Yeah, I've got a terribly low keep rate.

The secret is that even the pro's take a ton of bad shots. Their stats (good to bad) may be better than ours, but we are talking more in baseball stats, or even less.

I would say that for me, I have not taken a photo yet I don't find problems with. Many times the "good" photo is not technically correct, but it was the subject that made the image good. Wish I could find an example which would make this statement better, but can't at the moment.

Reality check: pros waste at least 90% of their shots. Don't worry about your 'keep rate'. A photog friend of mine was hired by National Geographic to shoot the Aswan High Dam in Egypt when it was new. He shot 10,000 frames of Kodachrome. Guess how many made it to the magazine............ 9. But that's what they wanted, lots and lots of choice. Pros do this all the time. I can only imagine it's worse with digital, since the cost of 'film' is so low.

[ikon]

* Images - www.flickr.com/christopherlux
* Blog - chrislux.wordpress.com

Nice job on the pano. Only 1 suggestion: I think you can get away with a lot fewer shots for the pano. This one isn't all that wide in reality (I have one in my LR that's 13" tall and 74" wide) so I think you could do it with 4 or 5 shots. Are you bracketing when you shoot for HDR?

[axoid]

What I shoot:
* Motorsports
* Family outings

My gear
* Nikon N65
* Nikon D50
* Nikon D90
* Nihon 25 - 70 zoom
* Nikon 70 - 300mm zoom
* Nikon 18 - 105 VR zoom
* Nikon 70 - 300mm VR zoom
* Tamaron 1.4 teleconverter
* Nikon SB60 flash
* Some other stuff that I can't remember right now.

My websites
* incom-racing.com

I'm purely an amateur.

[geek-accountant]

Are those your images in those magazines?

I love images like your last one. Panning with the car to give the background a blur while keeping the car sharp really gives you a feel for the speed. Nice job.

[axoid]

I have never sold a picture to a mag.

[dagamer34]

Reality check: pros waste at least 90% of their shots. Don't worry about your 'keep rate'. A photog friend of mine was hired by National Geographic to shoot the Aswan High Dam in Egypt when it was new. He shot 10,000 frames of Kodachrome. Guess how many made it to the magazine............ 9. But that's what they wanted, lots and lots of choice. Pros do this all the time. I can only imagine it's worse with digital, since the cost of 'film' is so low.

Yeah yeah, I know. They'll take 10,000 and only show 5 and NEVER show you the other 9,995 so it makes you think that all shots they take are amazing.

[IndyLux]

Nice job on the pano. Only 1 suggestion: I think you can get away with a lot fewer shots for the pano. This one isn't all that wide in reality (I have one in my LR that's 13" tall and 74" wide) so I think you could do it with 4 or 5 shots. Are you bracketing when you shoot for HDR?

Hey ikon, I have reasons for the 9 shots in this picture. Each bracketed HDR is 3 pictures (0, -1, +1 exposure). I used three HDR images across. I tend to use a large amount of overlap to give the software more to work with and limit parallax error. All in all, 9 isn't so many. I wish I had YOUR printer. 74" wide shot sounds cool.

[JDLucas]

Great new addition to the forums, thanks Dave.

My interests in WHS originated from finding an easy way to backup and store all my photographs, digital and scanned 35mm slides. My frustration trying to find an easy backup solution ended when the HP MediaSmart Server EX-475 came along.
From back in the day when film was the only option I used a Nikon N90s and a F5, which I still have but don’t use anymore. Have about 8,000+ 35mm slides accumulated since the mid 60’s and in the process of scanning and storing all the best ones to my EX-475.

HP MediaSmart EX-475 w/ 2g memory upgrade / 500g sys drive, 3.5t Storage
Add-Ins:
Stablebit Scanner
Disk Management
WHSBDB
Update History
Web Logs

Partial list of Nikon photo gear I use:

Nikon D3, D200, D100.
17-35mm f/2.8
18-200mm f/3.5 (DX)
60mm f/2.8 Micro
Sigma 180mm f/3.5 Macro
80-400mm f/4.5
Nikon Extenders TC-20e, TC-17e and TC-14e have used with 300mm f/2.8 sold last year, wish I had it back.
Also have an assortment of strobes, tripods and ball heads. My editing software of choice is Lightroom 3.4 and Photoshop CS5.

[JDLucas]

Just noticed Dave added this section. Awesome Dave!!

Dave got the group off and running with his DSLR post, but I was interested in how many photographers are on the site. So, if you are a photographer (pro or not), what do you shoot and what gear do you use? Also, any images on the web you want to share?

I will start things off:

What I shoot:
* Sports - soccer, baseball, cheerleading, football, basketball
* Landscape - HDR, IR

My gear (aging as it is)
* Nikon D2x
* Nikon D2h (actually have 2 of these)
* Nikon D100 (sending to Lifepixel to convert to full time IR camera)
* Nikon 70-200vr f/2.8
* Nikon 300mm f/4
* Nikon 85mm f/1.8
* Nikon 50mm f/1.8 and the f/1.4 version
* Sigma 120-300 f/2.8
* Tokina 12-24mm f/4
* Tamaron 90mm f/2/8 (macro)
* Gitzo carbon fiber tripod and Really Right Stuff ballhead
* Various flashes and lens filters
* A few other lenses I can't remember without going down to the office and checking
* A couple I want to sell after getting them adjusted (Sigma 70-200f/2.8, Sigma 100-300f/4)

My websites
* Images - www.mhfoto.com (general site used for family/fiends so not just my select shots)
* Blog - www.mhfoto.com/blog (just started so not a lot there)

Would be interested in your D100 IR conversion. Worth the expense or not?

[geek-accountant]

I think it will depend on how often you end up shooting IR. For me, the IR filter needed to go on my main landscape lens (Tokina 12-24mm) will cost as much as the conversion (about $250), so I think it will be worth it for me.

Now, I just need to wait for the expense to fit into the budget and the camera is off for conversion!

[JDLucas]

I think it will depend on how often you end up shooting IR. For me, the IR filter needed to go on my main landscape lens (Tokina 12-24mm) will cost as much as the conversion (about $250), so I think it will be worth it for me.

Now, I just need to wait for the expense to fit into the budget and the camera is off for conversion!

I thought of both scenarios myself, using filters or conversion and decided on the conversion. Have and older 24mm prime lens that will be calibrated to the IR converted D100. Don't shoot any IR yet, but it's on my to-do list and think it would be a perfect use of the D100 rather than gathering dust on the book shelf.

[geek-accountant]

My D100 was one of my favorite cameras of all time. The images were great and like you said, I hate to see it gathering dust on the shelf. There really is not point in trying to sell it since the price I would receive hardly seems worth the effort of giving up this camera. But with the other cameras I have, I almost never use it anymore. So converting it to full time IR seems like the perfect solution.

However, I am really struggling with the conversion process using Lightroom or even Photoshop. I used to run them through Nikon Capture first and then pass the TIF image over to Photoshop. I no longer have Capture, so everything is done in either Lightroom or Photoshop and they both use the same ACR engine which doesn't handle the white balance correctly. And if you can't get the white balance correct at the start of the conversion process, it's going to be a tough up hill battle to get the image to look right, if you can at all. Of course my post processing skills are NOT top notch, so that could be part of the issue.

[JediTim]

What I shoot:
* Family / Vacations
* Sports - soccer, baseball, football, basketball
* Landscape -HDR, Pano

My gear (aging as well)
* Sony Alpha A700...replaced a Minolta Maxxum 7
* Sony AF DT 16-105mm F3.5-5.6
* Minolta - AF 24-105 F3.5-4.5 D
* Minolta - AF 50 F1.7
* Minolta - AF 85 F1.4 G D
* Minolta - AF 100 F2.8 Macro
* Minolta - AF 100-400 F4.5-6.7 APO
* Flash - Sony HVL F58AM
* Flash - Minolta 5600HS
* Tripod and Monopod
* Too many camera cases...Tamrac

Computer Software
* Adobe Lightroom
* Adobe Photshop
* HDR - Photomatix Pro

My websites
* Images - www.flickr.com/jeditim

Edited by JediTim, 23 May 2011 - 07:41 AM.