gloria_hopkins

Well, I couldn't figure out how to post more than one photo, but photos of the places I mentioned can be found in my Hawaii folder: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=234640

 

Have fun

** Akaka Falls (good luck getting an original shot of the falls. Go there not for the photos but to stand in awe of this monster).

 

** Rainbow Falls - Hidden on the side of a road. (not the most exciting fall, but many comp. possibilities)

 

** Umauma Falls (private property - you pay to get in and they give you lychee to snack on while you shoot)

 

** Hawaii Botanical Gardens. UnREAL plants here. Well worth the hike down. BRING BUG SPRAY!!!!!

 

** Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (I have an article which explans how best to shoot the lava fields: http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1102/ej1102-1.html )

 

** Waipio Valley: Splendid place, very overphotographed.

 

** Waimanu Valley: The funky aerial you see below of Waimanu was taken from the air while the helicopter was tipped sideways. I want to go back and get more of these.

 

All these places can be found in the book mentioned before "Big Island Revealed" or whatever it's called....

 

If at all possible, get up in the air and shoot Hawaii from above. Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Tours is expensive but you will keep the memories forever. Write for tips on how to shoot aerials....

 

Have fun and most of all, be careful and be safe.

Gloria<div></div>

http://www.dbpix.com/

I got a Shen-Hao and Schneider 150mm lens (both used) for about $1100 total. Used film holders are very cheap. They say you can used a 35mm camera as a light meter, but I've never done it.

 

Film and processing is a big bite in the shorts.

 

Gloria

I know Shun's going to pounce on this but I'm saying it anyway ...

 

Just be sure that you understand what you're giving up when you give up your film. Think it all-the-way through.

 

I know its easy to be seduced by digital, and for wildlife I think it is smart (if you don't care about film). Wildlife is unpredictable and you can go through soooo many frames.

 

But when the day is done, you will have a bunch of electronic files in a little box. There are no slides or negatives to leave to anyone. Your loved ones will have to cherish your chosen electronic storage device (and understand how, and be willing to, care for it).

Shun I apologized to you. It was a heartfelt apology. I will not apologize a second time.

 

You are being needlessly argumentative. Clearly I have touched a nerve with you. Again, I apologize.

 

Do not ever accuse me of not taking the time to learn something. Don't EVER do that Shun. I will scan my negatives and my transparencies and do you know what? They will be magnificent. And they will be from my knowledge and understanding. And if film is obsolete then screw it, I have my painting. I will not ever compromise.

 

I am through with this.

Shun: sorry I did use the evaluative meter in my Canon! I meant I used no external light meters. And I won't for the 4x5. This is one of the reasons I bought the 4x5 - I want to do everything manually.

Thanks for the good discussion guys. I'm not set in stone in any of my beliefs about digital, nor do I understand it enough to make any real or educated declarations or "claims" about it (except the part about taking the challenge out of photography, I believe that's true).

 

I was thinking aloud...asking rhetorical questions...fishing for your thoughts ... they are highly educational for me. Clearly I pissed some of you off (or insulted you) and for that I am deeply, deeply sorry. That was NOT, and never is, my intent.

 

Shun: I don't use light meters with my 4x5. Grey cards either. Never used 'em with any camera ...

Ok, a question for digital wildlife photographers.

 

Do you still take the time to study and understand your subjects so you can anticipate their behaviors? That's one thing that was drilled into my head as I learned on my film camera. And this is another fear of mine - folks tripping all over the woods not knowing what they're shooting. If you don't research and study your subjects and their habitats, you could be doing more harm than good.

Does anyone care about the transparency or the negative anymore?

 

Is photography these days all about what's fastsest, more efficient, more productive, flexible, upgradable, bigger, lighter, more expensive and high-tech?

 

I don't mean those in the *business* of photography (which is probably half of the contributors to this thread)! I realize that when its your livelihood, you need to have the tools that work best for you. My concern is that photography as an art will be lost forever. The art, for me, is not the print or electronic file, it is the transparency and the negative.

 

If you lose your electronic file and have made no print, your image is gone forever and you have no art. That should rock your world if you consider yourself an artist.

 

A digital camera seems like an expensive safety net, if you ask me. Where's the art in choosing your settings carefully? In knowing and anticipating behaviors so you can make sure you get it right when you have just one shot left on the roll? Are there nervous butterflies when estimating exposure values because you may get it wrong? Not anymore! And where's the feeling of satisfaction when the lightbox confirms that you got it right? It's gone because you already know you got it right. Just snap, snap, snap until you get it right. Right? Digital takes all the fun (not to mention challenge) out of image making.

 

What happens if someone sets off some electric bomb and fries all your electronic devices? I'll be sitting here with my little box of slides and my canvases smiling fat and happy :)

 

I don't mean to be argumentative folks ... I'm just sort of "reflecting" here. I own a tiny digital camera too, and for some things you just can't beat it.

 

Have a great day folks! I'm going shopping for a laptop!

 

Gloria

Hey thanks for looking everyone and thanks for the big welcome back! I know I've been adrift on the web for years - story of my damn life - but this site is permanent. Joe: I always knew you had a thing for those big wooden cameras. Fess up, you want to kiss it too, don't you? Roflol.....

 

Thanks again everyone! You're really swell.

 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Gloria

Hey all: Hope you're having a great week.

 

For the kindness and generousity of a fellow photo.netter I now have

a permanent web address forever and ever. Please have a look, I think

I have ironed out all the wrinkles, crossed my Ts and dotted my Is. I

haven't yet, however, taken the time to figure out how to manually

link a URL - sorry!

 

www.gloriahopkins.com

 

Have a great weekend,

Gloria

Oh man! Why can't that kind of romantic thing happen to me??? What a great story... Thanks Jeff, for the story and the advice.

Haha - I'm not yet there but I will be before you know it! (I'm thinking of moving to the area, that's why I checked it out on the map.) This is cool stuff!

I can't thank you guys enough. Brian, that sounds like some excellent advice all around. The advice about being professional got me very excited. Thank you so much. And thanks for your concern about my being a woman. I've already decided to use "we" on the road. This is what makes me most nervous about the trip.

 

Gary: There will be places where I will focus more on painting, such as southern Utah and Yellowstone. I can't really say which I will do more during the course of the year. As far as being successful in business at both, I'm no stranger to hard work. I once worked 14-16 hours a day, for eight months straight (took Sundays off). It was nuts but I loved it and was most productive. I taught myself to paint in oil between the hours of 2-6AM over the course of about five months. I can do this :-)

 

Scott, many thanks for the tips on finding locations! Sounds like great advice. I will photograph the icons and pretty stuff for sure, but I also intend to do a lot of hiking, knowing me, in the opposite direction of the crowds. Best of luck to you with the guide!

 

Thanks again folks, you guys are just awesome,

Gloria

Did you check out the search features? Try doing a search for "pizza" in your neighborhood. Bye bye yellow pages......

Wow, lots of positive energy from you folks. Thanks so much!

 

Ake: GREAT idea about a theme. That's going to be a lot of fun to think about. THANK YOU.

 

Mark: That's some bag of tricks. Many thanks for the suggestions. This will be printed and referred to when looking at lenses. I know a guy who said he'd *give* me his 300mm LF lens (!).

 

M. Huber: You are far too kind. Good ideas and, thank you :-)

 

Frank: Thank you for your post and I'm glad you sugar-coated it as usual :) I understand what you're saying and I will give it considerable thought. I appreciate your sharing your insight with me. (Don't put me six feet under just yet, okay?)

 

Quang-Tuan: Thanks for your reply. I don't mean to be argumentative, especially when I asked for your help, but I'm dead-set against digital. I'll have a mini-digital video but I don't want to get involved with the whole digital scene right now. If that hurts my opportunities, I can accept that. And, I agree with Greg, your work is stunning.

 

Marcio: Many thanks for your kind comments. I'm not sure what I want to do with all of them, but I want to do some exhibits, shows and fun things like that. I will be visiting a lot of art galleries.

 

John: I used to design databases for a living so I can get ready for the filing and organization of my files in a jiffy. Thanks very much for that!

 

Kent, as always, thank you :)

 

Sweet dreams everyone, and thanks again!

 

Gloria

I'm so excited I'm not even going to be able to sleep tonight. It's a

zoomable satellite map with unbelievable detail. Detail is better

over some regions than others. For example Boulder, CO is so detailed

you can see individual homes and cars. But the image over half dome

was pretty bad.

 

I thought this might help travelers take a sneak peek at a region

before visiting.

 

http://maps.google.com/

 

Find a location with the map, then switch to the "Satellite" view in

the upper right (it says "new"). My roommate said the photos are

probably a little outdated for security reasons, but otherwise it is

awesome.

 

Sorry, I can never remember how to make the link active.

 

Have fun!

WOW - look at all these great flight shots. The skimmer and full-frontal raptor are outrageous!!

Thank you Emily, so much, for those little bits of GOLD. Already I'm learning....

 

It may help if I added that I will be using a 4x5 and video. I'll take a little Elan7 too, but the majority of the scenic work will be done with the 4x5 (for which I will have a backup).

I can sympathize with your frustrations. Erratic movements are most frustrating. Are you sure your equipment is not failing somehow? I'm very non-technical but it doesn't sound like AF should just freeze with the bird coming straight at you.

 

As for film cameras, my old EOS3 + 400 f/5.6 was a crazy combination for handheld flight shots and I'd use it on the tripod in low light. Manual focus was easy for the bigger birds here in Florida. I once photographed a pair of great egrets who were all over the place fighting over a fish at first light with a 500 f/4.5, EOS3, tripod. Steady hands came in 'handy' (har har). I even did some handheld. Technicals were good. The contrast definitely helped.

 

Good luck and I'm sorry I can't be of more help.<div></div>

Good grief, I just realized my post sounds like its posed to working pros ONLY. Pardon me I'm a little scattered this morning ... very sorry.

 

Of course I welcome ALL advice.

Hi all - hope everyone is having a great morning! Sorry for the

lengthy inquiry. It is for those who make their living (or most of

it) from nature photography. To get to the question, I think it will

help to explain a little first:

 

I'm preparing for a very long (nearly a year) road trip: S. Florida

to California, up to Seattle, over to Yellowstone, down to New Mexico

and then back over to California again. I'll basically be stopping

everywhere and anywhere in between. The purpose of the trip, aside

from relocation to California, is to paint and photograph and hike. I

will be alone 90% of the time.

 

Changing channels: I have done very little marketing and self-

promotion since my first photos in '99. But since this road trip idea

has evolved, I have slowly convinced myself that I want to

aggressively market both my paintings and photographs when I get

settled, wherever that may be.

 

I've been reading photography forums for five years now and I

understand the work and drive involved in making a go of nature

photography. I'm up to the task and hope to have a lot of quality

images to work with.

 

The question is this, what advice would you give someone about to

embark on this kind of journey, with these kinds of aspirations? I

don't mean location hotspots, but the whole photographic process. For

example, what critical tools should I be sure to have, what mistakes

should I try to avoid, are there certain folks I should be contacting

as I travel, etc. I'll be in some places to which I won't likely

return, and will surely face many once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Professional correspondance from the road will be impractical at best.

 

Many thanks for your time and any advice you can offer.

 

Gloria

Vivek: I love a good belly laugh first thing in the morning. Thanks for the visual ;-)

I disliked that violent pullling action very much. And I wasn't very good at it. The whole contraption was just too bulky and seemed awkward to handle. it just didn't 'feel' right.