yay, photography! (thumbnails or links only, pls.)

[ibrahimdelil]

oh, thanks a bunch 

[Allybee]

haha, thanks swm, but I'm not sure if that's true.

here are some more old things that I scanned for my photography portfolio. I think they scanned with weird contrast, I'm going to rescan later but I'm too lazy now.

1 2 3

fuck I need to shoot really badly

[Gilead]

I really like that last shot ally, I would probably pay for a print of that if it was for sale.

I took some photos for my film school application today, pretty pleased with how they turned out, if anyone has any advice I'd be glad to hear it.
My friend Morgan:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/Morgan1-1.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/Morgan8.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/Morgan7.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/Morgan10.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/Morgan2.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/morgan4.jpg
Some stuff around the church where we shot
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/gravestone1.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/gravestone4.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b171/CatFishEnFuego/Weathercock.jpg

[Allybee]

thanks! it's so old oh no I'm getting worse at photography :[ that's why I never post anything recent.

I'm digging the shots of morgan and the depth of field in that grave stone pic - I particularly like the composition of 7 (which might be cool cropped tighter near her head) and 10. and oh god thank you for shooting digital and not feeling the need to photoshop your pictures, the colors look so nice as they are.

[Gilead]

Haha, I'd like to pretend it's an artistic choice not to try and photoshop them but mostly it is because photoshop is completely bewildering to me so I try to just shoot it right.

[elcapitan]

OK, so here's one of the better things I've captured on my recent travels around India:





I'm pretty happy with it. If you like it, can I ask a huge favour? If you have a Digg account, and like the photo, and don't mind (of course!), could you go to this page and digg it up? I want to see how much play I can get out of this whole Web 2.0 thing...

[Runs_With_Scissors]

That's a really amazing shot! wow!



Marbles are so much fun to photography.

[St.Germain]

elcapitan: That is an amazing shot. I love the way the clouds look, it's almost as if they're swirling around what I'm going to call the minaret, even though I think that's the wrong word.

[elcapitan]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I was pretty happy with it too.

Here's another travel shot from me. This time it's the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in the Punjab. If you like what you're seeing, please check out my photo blog or just have a browse through my Flickr account.

[Jeans]

I be followin' yr blog. Great shots, dude.

[Sam]

Pillars
portholes???

[ibrahimdelil]

the maiden's tower / istanbul

[elcapitan]

Hooray for Rajasthan!













(All those photos are links, guys, if you like them then please feel free to view them at a decent size and browse through my Flickr.)

[elcapitan]

Want to see something that'll break your heart? I don't usually take pictures of people living in poverty, but I saw this today and I had to take out the camera and capture it. I mean, I've been here for months but I still can't get close to the blithe ignorance Indians show to, say, a pair of ragged street kids sleeping in the middle of an intersection.













I moved them off the street and gave them a couple of rupees for food (the girl in particular looked like she was starving), but I couldn't do anything more. I hated that feeling so much I felt sick.

And this is a country that has the balls to tell the West, hey, maybe you shouldn't be discussing our problems (i.e. the ruckus surrounding Slumdog Millionaire/Crorepati).

[Jeans]

This is a pretty old shot, I think I posted it in the old thread too, but I just sifted through my (way too small) archive and found some stuff. More to come when I get my SCANNER to work, which it isn't at the moment, because the PRINTER is out of ink. What the fuck, Canon.

[chma]

That's some heavy photos, elcapitan

[elcapitan]

Aren't they just. Jeans, that's an interesting angle, what is it? A shot tower, or just an old chimney?

Oh well, here's some slightly happier ones. These are all natural-light portraits from a couple of small villages in Kutch (far western India, closer to Karachi than to Delhi). They're part of a set on Flickr, which you're more than welcome to check out.

[phooey]

That last man has excellent hair.  You have a real flair for portraiture, Cap.

[Drill King]

God I love all your photos from India. I love pictures like that, I really want to travel to India actually! It is on my list!

So I am not really a good photographer, but I saw some really interesting dogs on the way home and am kinda proud of the results





The dog with the different colour eyes was what struck me about them. His eyes were really just that piercing. Maybe it was the light reflecting off the snow, but I have never seen such eyes. I tried not to really edit them much except for some cropping, and some desaturation in the last one.

[youthcant]

http://flickr.com/photos/nathanmorrisphoto

[Scandanavian War Machine]

Drill King (sorry, forgot your name), that first shot of the dog with different colored eyes is awesome. i love pictures of animals!


and to the person above me: wow! those are really cool! love the birds.

[el_loco_avs]

http://jarnass.deviantart.com/art/Coney-Island-Low-47251142

Can't figure out how to post deviantart links properly

[ledhendrix]

link to bigger size http://www.flickr.com/photos/8267572@N05/2407620761/sizes/l/

[Jeans]

I took a picture of a girl. Or, well, several, but this is the prettiest picture. The rest of the edited ones can be found in my photostream.

[parm]

So, it snowed in Cambridge:

[öde]

I've started uploading photos now, I'll add more later. Some day I hope to take good photos!

[zerobar]

I spotted a Chris Farley lookalike in Potsdam. This statue is on the front of King Fredrick the Great New Palace at his summer Residence.

[elcapitan]

Here's a picture of me in front of my guesthouse, wearing full Indian riding safety gear!





And here are some random photos from Vanakbara, a small fishing village in Diu:

[elcapitan]

Here's a photo that took a whoooole lot more effort to produce than is immediately apparent. It's a panorama of an old Portuguese fort, again on Diu:

[Be My Head]

Some amateur photographs, isn't this great!!?

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i293/Jarlaxle_56/DSC00447.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i293/Jarlaxle_56/distance.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i293/Jarlaxle_56/Barn2.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i293/Jarlaxle_56/Barn.jpg


I promise I'll have some stuff that is miles more interesting when I visit France and Germany in March.

[the_pied_piper]

I really like those landscape pics. It makes me think of the american midwest and all the little villages spaced out over there [is this where the pics were taken? sorry if it wasn't but i think its the greyscale that makes it seem that way] that all the novelists and songwriters write about. It just seems different enough from the open lands we get in the UK to seem to have that eerie mystique about it. 

[Be My Head]

Southern Ontario (Canada)

If I get the chance I suppose I might look for other things around here that I can photograph in the same dreary/depressing style.

[the_pied_piper]

Oops, bit of a way off there. I do like the greyscale photography though, very artistic.

[elcapitan]

Be My Head, I like your shots, but I think they could do with a little more contrast and attention to colour. It looks like you've just opened them in Photoshop or Lightroom and changed the colour mode to "Greyscale" - I don't know if you've done any proper B&W stuff, but as counter-intuitive as it sounds, the colour balance is actually really important.

(Unless maybe you deliberately went for that dreamscape low-contrast feel, in which case I take it all back.)

Anyway, here are some shots from Mumbai. Specifically, they're from Dharavi, the biggest slum in Asia (and incidentally, the focal point of the action in Slumdog Millionaire, although I'd been planning a visit well before the movie was released). This place is intense; 1.7 square kilometres, with a population somewhere between 600,000 and a million people. Despite the fact that they have almost no toilets and daily queues for water, the residents are some of the nicest, most welcoming people I met in Mumbai - but it's still a pretty unsettling place to walk around.

The shots themselves are well below my usual standard, but I like them for what they portray. The light was unworkable in most places in Dharavi, and I would have given my right testicle for a decent off-camera flash. (Also, I'd had more than a couple of beers with some Jogeshwari locals before I went there.) But still...

[Ballard]

elcapitan, your work is absolutely wonderful. Vivid, poignant, and an inspiration to me as an amateur photographer.

Thank you.

[elcapitan]

No, thank you! I'm really glad that you like the shots.

[Ballard]

I don't suppose you could point me to a resource from which I could begin to learn technique and artistry? I'm hoping to take an introductory photo course at SVA (the School of Visual Arts here in New York) over the summer, and go on to a BFA from the same place, but at the moment all I have are a DSLR and ambition.

As well, just how big a difference does gear (and more importantly the cost of gear) make? Is it at all possible for someone to take shots like the ones you posted above with consumer-grade lenses? What is the balance between artistry and incredible equipment when it comes to digital shooting in particular?

[Jeans]

It's not as gear-dependent as a lot of people think. An expensive camera will not make you a good photographer, so until you're confident that a camera will be an upgrade for you, it probably won't be. I went from a Canon 350D (you'll probably know this as "Digital Rebel XTi" or similar) to a Canon 40D before I had any real use for it, and my shots didn't improve overnight - a mate of mine, however, went from a Nikon D40 (which is the low-range DSLR in the Nikon family) to a D80 after working a LOT with his first camera - and his shots actually did improve through it.

Your artistic skill decides the quality of your shots, your gear just helps it along. Think of it as sport - unless you're in good shape, new shoes won't make you run better on the track.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

that's an excellent analogy.

[Neebin]

Glimpses of Montreal

From Mont Royal the view of Pont Jacques Cartier.


The Olympic Stadium


A church in my neighborhood.

[elcapitan]

I don't suppose you could point me to a resource from which I could begin to learn technique and artistry? I'm hoping to take an introductory photo course at SVA (the School of Visual Arts here in New York) over the summer, and go on to a BFA from the same place, but at the moment all I have are a DSLR and ambition.

I personally haven't taken a professional course since my Year 9 photography class, which involved processing black and white film from an old Pentax SLR. So I'm almost completely self-taught, which is a whole lot easier these days. Why? The Internet!

That's a bit of a throwaway comment, but it's definitely true. There is so much information on the Internet about photography that it will make your head spin. The trick is winnowing the good stuff from the bullshit, unfortunately. What kind of information are you looking at to start with? How much do you know about photography and DSLRs? I can either give you some tips myself or point you in the right direction.

(That said, taking an introductory course is probably a really good idea if you have no experience!)

The big mistake when you're starting out, I think, is to get into the high-tech stuff too quickly (HDR, off-camera flash, etc.). You need to take time to develop your own style and sense of composition - this is something that you can't just pick up overnight. It's good to start with the simple stuff, and spend a while experimenting with it until you get a real sense for what you're working with. (If it's at all possible, you should consider getting an old non-digital SLR and shooting ten or twenty rolls of film with it over the course of a couple of months. It's amazing what not having a Delete button will do for your shot selection.) This leads on to the next point...

As well, just how big a difference does gear (and more importantly the cost of gear) make? Is it at all possible for someone to take shots like the ones you posted above with consumer-grade lenses? What is the balance between artistry and incredible equipment when it comes to digital shooting in particular?

Umm. This is a tough one. At the end of the day, yes, gear makes a difference. But I definitely agree with Jeans that it's not all that important for a beginning photographer. The differences in quality between low- and high-end gear are often quite subtle and (in many cases) not even readily apparent until you start blowing up shots or printing them. Plus, there are plenty of very good photographers who use cheap gear, even to the point of only using point-and-shoots; some even consider it to be part of the challenge.

For reference, all my shots recently have been taken with a Nikon D80, an older, lower-end DSLR from their range. They're pretty popular because the build quality is high and they can take really nice shots if you treat them right, but it's still a consumer camera instead of a professional camera. It's been great for me, but I am definitely at the stage now where I want to upgrade to a better camera, probably either a D200 or D300. (I feel I'm starting to hit the limit technically with what I can do with the D80.)

I use two lenses more than any other:

1) The kit lens (i.e. the lens that came with the camera), which lacks clarity in areas but has a great zoom and is basically a solid, compact lens for travelling, and
2) A Tokina 11-16mm ultra-wide angle lens, which was a recent investment and is much more of a professional-level tool, but still only cost me something in the hundreds (rather than thousands, which is what a lot of hardcore lenses go for).

So basically, yes, you can take almost all of my photos with consumer gear, because that's how I've done it!

As far as "artistry vs. gear" goes, it really depends on how creative you are. The so-called "digital darkroom" is an absolutely integral part of digital photography, and you can do some incredible things with software these days. But at some point, you will need to actually have light pass through a lens and fall onto a sensor, and if you can't get that to work right, then the rest of the process is more difficult. :S

Hope that helps, I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I just like talking about photography.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

i'll second the recommendation to get a non-digital SLR.

i got this bad boy for twenty bucks at a garage sale and it has served me oh so well over the years.


then again, i'm not much of a photographer so maybe you shouldn't listen to me.  i dunno

[elcapitan]

Oh man, I still have my Pentax KX on my shelf, it looks a lot like that one. It's a really nice old camera, and I owe it more time, especially for portraits (I've only got a 50mm lens for it).

Neebin: Nice colours! If I may make a suggestion, though, try making sure that the horizons in your shots are, well, horizontal.

[Ballard]

I've got a very similar looking Pentacon Praktica LTL 2 which I inherited from my father, and all it needs to be fully functional is a nice once-over (the mirror and kit lens probably need a good polish) and a battery for the light meter (sadly the intended batteries for the thing are mercury-based and thus illegal, but I've found alkaline replacements).

It's been sitting on a shelf for months; I decided when I received it that I'd first buy a DSLR, learn the basics, profit from the ability to instantly analyze my mistakes, then take up film when I felt comfortable behind the lens. I'm starting to debate how efficient that method will prove to be, but either way now I have the opportunity for both methods at my fingertips.

I've been scouring the internet for resources but it's very hard to find a straightforward this is what you should know before you go out and take pictures, and these are the things you should keep in mind sort of lesson. I was pointed to Kelby Training today, and I'm enjoying the lessons so far, but their free trial is somewhat limited and I'm not convinced enough to make the investment yet.

Any tips are greatly appreciated. I know my way around the camera fairly well (a few of my friends have Canon Rebel models so despite it being brand new, I'm quite comfortable with this XSi), I'm just not sure what to do now that I have it. Do I go out and shoot just anything with no idea how to apply my theoretical knowledge of aperture and exposure?

[Drill King]

elcaptian, stop having the most gorgeous portraits ever. I hate you :cc

[Kilonum]

some older pics

http://kilonum.info/g/img2/qm2pano_copy.jpg



http://kilonum.info/g/imgs/CRW_0195.jpg

http://kilonum.info/g/imgs/bloom.jpg

http://kilonum.info/g/imgs/spring.jpg

http://kilonum.info/g/imgs/IMG_0018.jpg

[Ballard]

So these are the first results from my new DSLR. They are my favorites out of about 150 shots. I am kind of pleased with them but I have a lot of work to do.

                                       

                                       

As always, any critiques are greatly appreciated.

[idonthaveorgans]

i took these a few years ago on a shitty 2 megapixel digital camera, but i like em







sorry for not thumbnailing them/linking them, they're pretty small anyway

[Be My Head]

Ballard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

[Scandanavian War Machine]

yes! rule of thirds is extremely important.


okay, i may have posted some/all of these pictures before but i'm not really sure so here they are anyway because i like them:

catching air

trick: unknown

they grow up so fast

<3 mom

lurker

trees

trail blazing

the sound



p.s. i really like that first one alot, idonthaveorgans.