The Great Ongoing Photography Thread

Cafe Society
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Hi all,

Firstly, I searched and didn’t find any threads of this nature… if I missed one, please point me at it (and slap me around the head with a tripod…)

I bet there are a lot of people on the Dope who have an interest in photography, either as beginners, amateurs, enthusiasts or pros. Personally, I’m a hobbyist, and I like talking about cameras, technique, photography, discussing and sharing images…

So I thought it might be nice to have an ongoing thread (not unlike the guitar one) where we can discuss whatever shutter-related thoughts pop into our heads!

To get things rolling, I’ll fire off a few questions:

  • What kind of photography do you do? Landscapes? Portraits? Macro? Fashion? Abstract? Street? Sport? Something else?
  • What kind of camera do you use?
  • Where do you share your images?
  • Any funny stories?

In the last category: I’d got up early one autumn morning a few years ago to catch the sunrise at one of my favourite landscape spots - a large country park with a fair amount of woodland. I wanted a shot of the light coming through the trees, and I wanted it to be from a low angle - so I put the camera on the ground and lay down in the dirt to operate it. Which was when I heard the screaming; a passing jogger had seen me lying down in the dirt, not moving, and thought she’d stumbled on a corpse in the woods.

Strangely, it didn’t help when I jumped up and started talking to her… :slight_smile:

Edit: typo in the thread title. Oops. Self-reported.

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Mostly what I would call travel photography, which ends up being landscapes, architecture, and wildlife.

Nikon DSLRs, D300 (although just picked up a D7200) with a half dozen Nikon lenses (35-70 f2.8, 80-200 f2.8, 80-400 f4.5-5.6, 18-300 f3.5-5.6, 105 f2.8 macro).

Mamiya 645 Pro with the standard 80mm lens, shooting Tri-X or Ilford B&W. Saunders LPL 4500 enlarger with Heiland split-grade head. Ilford fiber paper.

Also have a Toyo 4x5 view camera (bought for a class that was dropped), but haven’t really gotten around to using it. Someday.

Digital photos we share via Flickr, also photo books. Occasionally printed and framed. B&W photos printed and framed, frequently given as gifts.

Most stories involve peoples surprise when they see the Mamiya. TSA has accused us of having a video camera (back in the day when you had to take video cameras out tof the bag for xray). Dropped the Mamiya once in Edinburgh, breaking the filter such that we couldn’t get it off the lens. Took it to a camera shop - they were absolutely thrilled to have a real camera come through the foor (they also had the right wrench to remove the stuck filter).

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I’ve been taking pictures forever it seems. I snap away at pretty much anything that catches my eye, As a kid I used a Brownie, a Polaroid Swinger, an Instamatic and my dad’s Argus C3. I took a photography class in high school and got my first SLR, a Mamiya Sekor 500. After that I had a Pentax Spotmatic and then went on to Canons until the mid-90s when I switched over to Nikons. Now I have a Nikon 5100 with 16-300 and a 3200 with a fisheye and a couple of Canon point-and-shoots.

I guess I’d call myself an amateur-enthusiast. I have random stuff on Flickr, Photobucket and Google Photos and post pics on my blog every week. It’s all for my own enjoyment and to share with friends or whoever. People have told me I should try to sell my photos, but I’ve never been interested because frankly, that would make taking pictures(and making enlargements and framing and…) a “job”.

Just last weekend I took a photo safari to Berkeley…I just wandered around and took pictures of whatever for 3 hours or so. It was a beautiful day, as you can tell from this view from Sather Tower.

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I started my love affair with photography when I was about 9 years old with a Brownie Hawkeye, shooting 620 film. I used that camera for several years, then switched to my mother’s Argus C3, which was a 35mm parallax view that I didn’t really understand how to use.

I took a photo class in high school, and my parents decided that the balky old Argus should be replaced. I ended up with a Petri 7, which was an improvement in that it had a light meter. It was still a parallax camera, though. I shot a lot of film through that camera, including several black and white rolls of the 1964 Alaska earthquake damage. My father was a bartender at the airport, and some passenger left a Zeiss Contaflex on the bar when he ran to catch his plane. After 30 days, it became our property. I could never really figure out how to use it, as it had a removable back that required manipulating some knobs to get it off. The back was interchangeable with a spare, meaning you could carry two different rolls of film and change them out without exposing the film.

I went to Vietnam in 1968 and bought a Minolta SR-1s. It was my first SLR, but had a really clunky external light meter and no flash shoe, which was bizarre. I would have bought the SRT-101, but didn’t have the money. I used that camera for a lot of years, though. I always had a natural eye for composition and captured a lot of shots of the war, then later a lot of mostly scenery and family photos.

It wasn’t until I bought my first quality camera (in Africa), a Nikon N70 SLR, and a few lenses that I really started taking what I would call pro-quality photos, particularly of wildlife. I used that camera for many years before giving in to the burgeoning DSLR market, buying a Nikon D100. Heavy and clunky, with a small screen, but I took a lot of beautiful shots with it. I kept that camera until recently, when I bought a Nikon D7200 with an intermediate zoom lens. I still have my secondary market lenses - macro, 300-500mm, wide angle zoom, etc. - but have gone more and more to my sidekick camera, a Canon S95 for every day shooting.

The most recent acquisition is a Celestron C5 spotting scope with a Nikon adaptor. It’s a terrific lens, but I haven’t had much opportunity to use it yet, other than on a tripod.

My first love is B&W photography, and I always compose photos with that in my mind: how would this look in B&W?

Sorry, got carried away. TL;DR: I likes takin’ purty pitchers.

ETA: blondebear, looks like we followed the same path. :slight_smile:

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Thanks folks!

For my own part, I’m very much an amateur. I have a Nikon D5100 mid-range DSLR, with the kit zoom, a nice Sigma 30mm fast prime, a Nikon 55-200mm zoom and a Tamron 70-300mm zoom, which I got mainly for its macro abilities.

What’s interesting though, is that I’m finding more and more that the camera I use is my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge - because it’s the one I have with me. I tend to only take my DSLR and associated kit with me if I’m going out with the specific intention of taking photos, which doesn’t happen all that often.

I’m seriously considering investing in a high-quality physically small camera as an everyday “carry-around”. I’m drawn to the Fuji X100T - on paper, it looks like a ludicrous choice, with its non-interchangeable 35mm prime lens, but there’s a strong argument that such a restriction might well improve my photography as I won’t be able to rely on standing still and zooming, or believing that the next lens will be “the one”. And to be honest, when using my phone as a camera, which I really enjoy, I haven’t felt the fixed lens (it’s roughly 28mm equivalent) to be that restrictive. There are shots it can’t do, but that just forces me to think more creatively about the images it CAN take, and I’ve found that tends to lead to more interesting photos.

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Just as a follow-up to the previous post, I’m blown away by the quality of the camera on the Galaxy S7 Edge. It gets very noisy in low light, but in good conditions it’s stunning.

Here’s a snap taken on the phone.

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I’ve been a photography hobbyist in spurts for about 35 years. As a teen I had borrowed by dad’s rangefinder 35mm (Voigtlander?), and my first SLR was a Yashica. I then got snagged into the Canon family with my (then) father-in-law’s AE-1. It’s been all-Canon since then, although there were periods were I’d go many years between updates.

My current camera is the 5DMark IV. I don’t deserve it. I have a mixture of Canon glass, including a few “L” lenses.

My equipment is definitely better than I am, primarily because I am seldom willing to spend the requisite time to make great photographs. The quote attributed to Ansel Adams, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it”, means a lot to me. Art doesn’t just happen.

I take a wide variety of photos, from candids at a gathering, to “studio” shots (I have a small setup in my basement), to birds and wildlife, to events like airshows, to macro, and so on. I get the most compliments on my candids and wildlife, although I got some terrific shots at the last WWII aircraft show.

I have used SmugMug for years; their pricing and features work very well for me and those with whom I choose to share photos.

As happy as I am to be able to have the equipment I have, one of my top five favorite photos is a landscape taken with a point-and-shoot.

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Very much an amateur. I started with a Nikon around 2008, switched to Canon about 2011. I just bought a SL1 a couple of weeks ago. I keep my stuff mainly on Flickrhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/29097013@N07/with/32144448182/

Arthritis has kept me from going on many strolls for a few years, but thanks to my aqua fit classes, I’m getting around much better. I went for a two mile walk Friday. And the lightweight SL1 helps, too.

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I’ve been a full-time (well, full-time in the sense that it’s my only source of income, not that I work 40 hours a week, or anything) since 1998, minus about two years where I did that in addition to side work. From 1998-2003 I exclusively worked as a photojournalist. (Well, I started the PJ work in 1997, doing some jobs for AFP/Agence France-Presse. After that, Budapest Business Journal for a year and a half; then freelance jobs for Business Week, Car and Driver, various papers like the Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe, etc.) In 2004, seeing where the editorial market was going, I transitioned into wedding and portrait/lifestyle photography. I’ve been doing that business for myself since the fall of 2005. (In 2004 and the first half of 2005, I contracted for a local wedding studio to build up my wedding portfolio.)

My current line-up of cameras is a Nikon D750, Nikon D3 (which will be replaced this year by probably another D750), a Nikon D800. I also have a backup D700, and some legacy gear (D200, D70 converted to infrared, as well as F5, F90x/N90s, FM2 film cameras. I used to have a TLR, but I have no idea what happened to it. A Yashica of some sort. And there’s a Holga in some cabinet or who knows where.

My main lenses are the 24-70mm f/2.8G, 70-200mm f/2.8G VRII, 85mm f/1.4, and 60mm f/2.8 micro. I also have an old 80-200mm f/2.8 as backup, a 55mm manual focus micro, a 24mm f/2.8, a 20mm f/2.8, a 20-35mm f/2.8. And probably some I’m forgetting. All Nikon/Nikkor.

For lights, I travel light, so 3 SB-800s, an SB-900, some Vivitars in the closet, and an Alien Bee Einstein for when I need more power. (I really should have two of these, but I don’t do a lot of studio strobe work.) Also a Yungnuo LED light panel.

In the garage I have an enlarger and darkroom setup I’ve yet to use. I thought one day I might go back to printing black and whites, but I never got around to it.

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I’ve been taking photos since elementary school.
I like all types of subjects, but seem to gravitate to landscapes, nature and urban scenes. I also have an interest in Astrophotography, mostly Milkway landscapes (I haven’t tried to do deep-sky objects yet). My primary camera is a Nikon D7200, with a Tamron 16-300mm lens. It’s my “walk-around” camera/lens combo. I have also recently purchased two Nikon D800E bodies and a variety of prime lenses (20 & 35mm focal length) in preparation for the “Great American Eclipse” this August. I plan on having 4 camera going, 3 of which will be under computer exposure control.
Even though the eclipse is 7 months away, I feel rushed. I have a ton of prep work to do, including upgrading an old Equatorial mount tracker, figuring out which lens is the best, and testing the computer control and exposure for the three cameras.

Most of my images end up on our digital photo frame, which is a Vizio 50" 4K monitor, connected to a Raspberry Pi, running a Python script I wrote. It grabs a random image at full 3840x2160 resolution and displays it for four hours, then gets another image. It also turns the monitor on and off automatically. Here’s how it looks: IMG_2760-small

I post some images to Flckr, but mostly just ones that I want to share with the SDMB. They are not necessarily my best or most interesting images, and tend to be pretty “random.”
Here’s one I took a few days ago:
Imgur

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One of the best things I did was to take a couple of local classes. One was a ‘getting to know your digital camera’ class, which was valuable. DSLRs are so different from film cameras. The other was a Photoshop Elements class, again a really valuable class for a complicated program. It was gratifying in that we brought in our own photos to work on, both at home and in class. One assignment was to bring in a before and after Photoshop. When mine (a shot of a hippo in full gaping rage) was put up on the screen, there was an audible gasp from some of the students and the teacher asked me if I had taken the photo. He was visibly impressed, which was a compliment, coming from a professional. Every time I had one of my wildlife shots on screen at my work station, I could hear the guy behind me go “holy shit!” :smiley:

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Oh, I forgot a link to my work. Here’s a little write-up an album software design company did on me a couple years back that has links to some of my photos and some of my words:

Linky poo.

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There’s still a SDMB Flickr group that gets very little traffic anymore:

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I’m an amateur although I have sold a few prints here and there.

I use a Canon 7D.

My main lenses are the Canon 24-70 f/4L, Canon 10-18 and Canon 100mm macro lens (the older non-L version).

I usually shoot landscape and city shots. I also dabble a bit in macro, water-drop refraction and (oddly enough) self-portraiture.

I share my images on my website and on Facebook and sometimes Instagram and 500px.

Zev Steinhardt

Website Facebook 500px

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I think this describes what I do, too.

I had a Polaroid and an Instamatic as a kid, but didn’t get my first ‘real’ camera until I was in college. My minor was visual communication technology and I needed one for the photography classes, so I purchased a Pentax K1000. Built like a tank, and I even did zone photography with it. I kind of regret selling it, but as a college student I needed the money to upgrade to my next SLR, an Olympus OM-1(n), which I still have. I’ve been offered some good money for that over the years, but I’m keeping it.

Current stuff is a Nikon D7200 with two Nikkor lenses I use a lot (a kit 18-55 zoom and a 70-300) and a third mid-range zoom I don’t use at all. I have some extension tubes for macro projects as well. I also have a Lumix DMC-FZ300K, which I call my ‘tourist camera,’ a Sony DSC-RX100 that lives in my purse, and of course a phone camera (mine’s a Nexus 5X). I too am amazed at how well that camera can do some things.

I’d like to do more with video (I am probably the shittiest videographer ever) and have a nice Canon video camera, but I can’t seem to be able to find a decent class. I thought I’d found one a couple years ago, but not enough people signed up and the class was cancelled. Need to work on that this year.

I mostly post stuff to Facebook, but I have a few slideshows I put up on Zenfolio. Here, I’ll give you the bird, which I took on a photo trip in Newfoundland. Made me appreciate even more the hard work that goes into professional nature documentaries!

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Landscapes and wildlife: nature photography.

Canon SLRs. Currently a 7DII.

Pbase, ViewBug, various photography forums.

One time I was walking around a small lake trying to get a better vantage point on some water birds and stepped into a mud pit that went up to my chest. Managed to keep my camera and $4000 lens out of the mud though.

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A sort of funny story: we were on a Nile boat trip, where I was shooting with a Nikon N70 (film camera). There was a huge croc sitting on the river bank with its mouth open (as crocks tend to do). I was shooting some telephoto shots as the boat driver edged closer to the reptile. I shot my last frame, and the film rewound. I opened the back and started to insert a new roll of film when the croc launched itself at the boat. Missed shot that wouldn’t have happened if digital had been a thing back then.

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We were doing a story on the Autobahn police for Car & Driver. After three days of nothing happening except for us pulling over Dutch camper vans, we get into a chase of a couple of motorcyles, and then an accident scene where they had to pull out the jaws of life. As I’m hopping over the central guardrail dividing the highway, the momentum of one of my cameras swinging forward causes me to lose balance, and I end up crashing down right on top of my F5 with my 85mm f/1.8 with a metal lens hood on it. It cuts right above my eye and there is just blood gushing out all over the place. Luckily, since medics were on the scene attending the crash, they just taped me up right there (though they sent me to the hospital afterward to get stitched up.) In the process, I handed my cameras to one of the cops to have him take pictures. That photo ends up running in Car & Driver and I managed to insert myself into the writer’s story with my clumsiness.

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What a great idea!

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This is how it evolved:
My wife was always saying “how come we don’t have any of your photographs on the wall?” Then, we would spend some time figuring out which photograph to print, and how big to make it, and what process to use, and what medium to put it on, and how much we wanted to spend…and then we would give up. One day, she was looking at some of my images on her MacBook, and said “you know, the photos look so much better on a screen - they are much more brilliant and colorful than a print. Maybe we should just get a big monitor to display them.” To which I replied “…Ummm, OK!”
I chose the Vizio because it had the best image quality at a reasonable price. The Raspberry Pi was pretty much the perfect device for driving it - it can just …barely… output 4K at 3840x2160x24Hz, and it takes insignificant power (2-3W). I wrote the script in Python because there was no software available that did exactly what I wanted. My wife originally wanted the image to stay up for 6 months at a time (just like a painting), but I convinced her that doing that would wreck the monitor. So, we compromised at 3 images/day (the Pi turns the monitor on at 10AM, and off at 10PM). Since the Pi is up all the time, I also use it for some Z-Wave home control tasks. The images are processed in Photoshop or Affinity and scaled to fit the monitor, and stored on a USB stick. They used to be on a Mac server, but I decided that was overkill.

ETA: I use the incredibly nifty ‘lirc’ software to send IR commands to the monitor to turn it on/off.