isaac sibson

More as an experiment with the 1.6X FOV crop "multiplier" of my

newly acquired D30 than anything else, I decided to put both my 2X

and 1.4X teleconverters onto my 300 F4L IS and take a shot of the

moon. More impressive still than the 1344mm equivalent FOV, was the

fact that this was taken without a tripod, instead using a monopod

and image stabilisation at 1/80th of a second. The image is

deliberately underexposed to give more dynamic range to the moon's

surface. Any comments or suggestions?

The bokeh is not just background blur, but foreground blur also. This can lead to unusual effects as seen here. Thanks for the kind words, and yes, it is a superb lens.

Extremely harsh light made this a difficult image to work with. Any

suggestions, comments?

That is an extremely constructive comment. I wish to thank you for it.

 

The explanation is that all of the pictures in my folders were taken with my EOS 5 camera. Eye-control on the EOS 5 is painfully slow, and doesn't work vertically, so I disabled it and tended to use the central AF point. Hence the dead-centre subjects.

 

I have now changed to an EOS 3, and with the rather more capable ECF and much wider area of AF coverage, I'm no longer so fixed to the central point. I am also putting much more time into my technique now, and relying less on AF and Program AE (which was too easy on the EOS 5). I was too reliant on these things previously.

 

Your comment really made me realise that it was time to pull my own game up more to match my equipment. That's a process that will take a while, and practice, but I'm combining it with increasing my familiarity with the EOS 3.

The garden is in Washington park. Take the MAX out of downtown westwards, and get off at washington park. There's a shuttle bus which will take you to the garden.

 

The beds which are low and red in this picture are full of irises, which bloom quite spectacularly in summer, as you can see in this picture I took on the very path that is shown in the above shot: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=494762

 

The above shot is quite pleasing, but I think the reds seem a little subdued, in comparison to the popping green of the foreground. Perhaps a slight drop in the saturation of the greens would balance it a little better?

This is my Siamese cat, Minnie. Do you think this is a serious

portrait?

Flat bed scans are never as good as you think they should be. They're certainly not worthwhile for photographic work, for which you will want a film scanner.

 

As for the picture, the timing, focus and exposure are all pretty good. However, this is the sort of shot that would benefit a great deal from a wider aperture, throwing the background out of focus more. I've used the Sigma 70-300 APO Macro which you have, and the results are perfectly acceptable. Try shooting with a wider aperture. If you look in my America 2000 folder and France 1999 folder you can see some shots I took with the sigma wide open (the butterfly shots and the squirrel).

A pair of mute swans, in mid winter in england. This was late in the

day (relative to the light, so probably about 3:30pm), and shot hand-

held with IS. Comments?

This shot was taken just before christmas. The low, winter evening

light made things difficult, and this was hand-held with Image

Stabilisation. The image is cropped on the left hand side (there was

another, out-of-focus swan in the foreground, and this is as much as

can be left without it getting in the frame). Comment appreciated.

In common with much of your work, this is really good. I have a comment on this though, which is that the bit of the plant sticking up above the Blue Tit's head is rather distracting.

 

However, may I congratulate you on a lot of consistently excellent work. Bravo!

Very sharp. Welney and Slimbridge are great places for shots like this, but I've never managed one this good. Great work!

Napoleon or not, the cat knows it is in charge, as they always do. http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=173360

That's nice work. I had a shot just BEFORE an eagle left its tree: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=494769

 

Beautiful birds, so any chance to see them is good!

Another of the very tame squirrels (which seem to be found in a lot

of NPs in the northwest US). Others in my folders, please view them!

Ratings? Comments?

I spent about a week on the lookout for bald eagles (not in the best

places, admittedly), and eventually found them on my last day.

Comments? Ratings?

This was WAY longer than 1/15th. I've used 1/15th to pan much faster-moving objects (cyclists), and the pan-lines were only about a quarter or less than what you have there. If we assume (very conservatively) that the cyclist was travelling twice the speed of the runner, and the pan lines are 1/4th the size, that means your shutter speed was 8 times longer than 1/15th, so more like 8/15 ie around 1/2 a second. This would still seem conservatively short, because you can see that the runner has almost completed two strides, which would take longer, unless sprinting.

This iris was in bloom in the Japanese garden in Portland, OR. It

was my first day out shooting with my new 70-200F4L, so I decided to

see how it would do with a detailed subject in a contrasty scene.

What do you think? Please also see other pics in my folders.

Thanks for that kind comment. I have another similar shot, taken in 2000 at Mt. Rainier, which can be found here: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=344816

This is one of the tame golden-headed squirrels at Crater Lake NP.

Somewhat reminiscent of Art Wolfe's work (esp "Pacific Northwest, land of light and water"). Wonderful colours in a great natural setting. Very nice.

In fact, the sky detail was lost in the scanning process, as this scan was taken from print. When possible, I will make neg-scans of this, and other images in this folder.

The Phantom ship at Crater lake OR. Please have a look at some of my

other pictures too!

I will attempt to explain the 2s...

 

Technically the photo is fine. The thing is...I can't see the merit. I can go up to my own bathroom and see similar (well, worse...).

 

Don't get me wrong here. I don't say there is no worth to the photo. What I am saying is that the worth isn't obvious to me. It is my failing that I can't see it. Consequently, I am not going to rate it, because I don't claim to understand it. It doesn't really register with me as a picture (then why am I writing a comment on it?!...because the photog asked for them...), and so no opinion forms.

 

All that the ratings are is people's opinions. This will split opinions much more than many photos. PS, not a flame

One of the first shots I took with my Canon 70-200F4L, displaying its

contrast and (on the print....the scanner didn't do a wonderful job)

sharpness. Please look at the other pictures in the folder, as well

as my other folders.

Wow...beautiful colours and saturation. The tree in the foreground on the left doesn't add anything, but rather blocks out the beautiful sky.