This might belong in Cafe Society, but since mine aren’t either artistic or particularly entertaining, I decided to put it here. Mods, I could well be wrong, so I’ll expect a move.
As I said elsewhere, Zyada got me a digital camera a few weeks ago, and I’ve been taking lots of pictures. I just put a few up at Yahoo, and would like to hear comments from dopers. It’s at http://photos.yahoo.com/bob_ca_1.
If anybody else has photos to put up and discuss, please join in.
OK, one bump.
Tell me what you think of my photos, please, and put up some of your own.
As a fellow amateur photographer I think yours look professional.
my early photies are here - http://homepages.manx.net/lobley/index.htm
To save face, I have got much better at taking photos since these were taken, however I have not got any less lazy, so these remain the only ones uploaded to the internet.
I’d say you’re both excelent photographers! rjk, I particularly like the one you’ve titled “sub.” Something about the angles in that one really appeal to me.
I generally just take your run-of-the-mill Family Vacation type photos, nothing even close to being as artistic as the ones you’ve both posted. If anyone’s interested in seeing mine, though, just ask, and I’ll post the link.
I do like the one titled “Fuchsia”, rjk.
Here’s a link to my deviantART account where you can see some of my photographs.
Here’s another link to some photos of mine that haven’t been posted on DA.
Thanks for the comment, Lobsang. “Professional,” eh? 
Not so bad, since I haven’t had the camera a month yet. If those are good, it’s probably genetic.
As to your pics, they’re pretty good! I really liked the sunset, the sidecar, and “Douglas at night”. One unfortunate thing I noticed with the first few landscapes and a couple of others is that they have the horizon halfway up the picture. Sometimes that works, but usually not.
My favourite is probably “Tower at Langness” but I think it needs cropping (or zooming, if you can go back and reshoot). I saved the file and tried cropping roughly, and it looks like 1024x768 would be good, centered about where the clouds meet the tower. (That’s what I did with the “Bud” picture I posted.)
Good stuff! Anybody else?
He said “Professional!” Woohoo!
If you want some truly helpful and professional comments, try posting to www.shuttercity.com. It’s no-cost photo hosting and there are some very good amateur and some pros who frequent the site. The only requisite is that you comment on others’ photos in order to be able to post your own (3 per week max).
Oh yeah; my comments on your photos. Well, in my opinion you need to concentrate on composition and framing of your shots. Keep in mind the “rule of thirds” when shooting. Think about what are you trying to say with the photo, if anything (I realize not all shots are an attempt at creating art). Instead of color, think about contrasts, shadows and tension between the subject and its surroundings.
You should also invest in a basic image-manipulating software such as ACDSee where you can sharpen images and adjust the color, contrast, saturation levels, crop out unwanted items, etc.
As photos go, my honest opinion (and I hope that’s what you’re asking for here) is that these are fairly ordinary. The solution is to shoot more…lot’s more. Then compare what you’ve done to what others are doing. Eventually, you’ll find what I call your “eye”: your personal view of the world that is somewhat unique.
I hope you aren’t offended by any of this. It’s meant to be constructive.
Or “lots”, even. :smack:
Thanks for joining in, Mr Pud and AwSnappity. “Sub” and “Fuschia” are a couple of my favourites. The sun just came around so I can’t see my screen very well, so I’ll take a look at both of yours later tonight.
Chefguy, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll see what they have to say as well.
Thanks, Chefguy, any and all comments are welcome. I certainly know I’m a newbie at this, so I’ll take any help I can get.
Mr Pud and AwSnappity, you both have some great pics. I notice you both have a copy of the kneecap shot - that’s a keeper!
I’ve got an Olympus C-4040, and here’s a small album I put together with four photos - two of my dog Katie, and two I took of my desk because I liked the quality of light that was shining on my mouse and remote
rjk: I liked the sub photo, and the bud. I think another good shot of that sub would have been if you moved closer and shot the sub bow from an oblique angle. The rose I think should have had the focus on the interior of the rose, because that’s what the eye is naturally drawn to. The picture would then ‘draw you in’ by focusing on the part you’re interested in and leaving the petals slightly out of focus. Just my .02, and I could be wrong. I’m just learning myself.
I’ve got a few photos on this little Geocities page, along with my other creative stuff.
I don’t consider myself that great of a photographer—pretty ordinary, for the most part. However, I choose excellent subjects (mostly Yosemite ;)) and I’ve been fortunate enough to sell a few photos now and then. I think this only proves the fact that if you keep taking lots of pictures (and I have) and you make a big website showing them off (I have done that too), then eventually some people (suckers) will buy the pictures. Okay, I shouldn’t be so cynical. My photos couldn’t have sucked that bad—the clients wouldn’t have bought them if they were.
I do try to tweak (for better or worse) my pictures in Photoshop. I recommend that for everyone else as well.
Right now I’m using different 35mm SLR cameras, nothing fancy, for my photos. Haven’t done anything serious with digital yet.
I think everyone else here has done some really nice work. Nothing here is bad at all. But some of you really need to get acquainted with Photoshop (or other image editing software) and start to adjust contrast, crop the image to improve the composition, straighten out crooked pictures, that sort of thing. It works wonders!
The mouse photo was interesting. You’re right about the light lending a sepia-like tone to the photo. The angle you captured makes it look vaguely sexual. A good effort.
Yosemite: you can hardly go wrong in the Park. We took a trip there a couple of years ago and I’m not sure it’s possible to take a bad photo there.
Chefguy: Thanks. I was experimenting with using an LCD monitor as a light source. I used paint to make full-screen solid color images in different colors to throw different colors of light. Originally, I was looking for something to illuminate small jewelry and such for a friend who sells stuff on eBay. It creates an interesting effect.
Thanks.
The horizon in the middle ones were very early on, before I learned to put the horizon about a 3rd the way up from the bottom (or from the top in some rare cases)
p.s. Looking at my webpage again is persuading me to update it. I am still just an uncreative ‘shoot things that look interesting’ guy but with a few simple tips learned since that make those pictures on the site look comparatively dull and amateurish compared to pics I’ve taken since.
Yes, I’ll do that on my new laptop.
The sidecar was a team from the town where I grew up in England - Accrington.
(on preview I realize I mentioned that on the site. p.s. the thumbnails being that small is a fault)
p.s. my fave from the ones on the site are Silverdale Glen boat pond, lambs, and the boat lake in the park at Ramsey (Mooragh Park I think it’s called)
Thanks for the comments, everybody, and for showing some great photos.
Sam Stone, my first thought was that the mouse is somehow erotic, and that in that lighting the remote looks like a heavily carved medieval sword hilt or something similarly powerful. Cute dog too!
I agree that the sub needs to be reshot. It’s not going anywhere, so I’ll do that soon. The original of the bud picture (Purple Glory tree) has room to crop a little differently, which I intend to do. The rose was pretty much an accidental discovery, and I can’t find it again; I wish I’d moved back a little to show more rhododendron leaves, and used manual focus to blur them.
I’ve seen some of your stuff before, yosemite, and still think it’s all good, especially the shot of the Valley. (And I’m a MacGyver fan too! Too bad it’s not on any stations I get. I have to make do with SG-1, where they don’t actually build any of their gadgets.)
Lobsang, I liked those too, especially Silverdale, but I’ll stick by my previous choices. I’ll look forward to seeing some new ones!
Again, thanks to all.
I like Fuchsia best too. How interesting the use of space is maybe.
Lobsang I like Summer Hill Glen best of yours. The colors are lovely.
AwSnappity I really liked Find the Monkey and Polar Opposites.
Hehe, I never did post the link to my photos… not sure who else’s kneecap shot you were checking out, but it wasn’t mine!
Anyway, if anyone does want to see my extremely un-artistic photos, you can check 'em out here.
