obi-wan-yj

I love the colors and the detail of the subject you chose. The lighting is wonderful. I agree that it looks a little fuzzy, though; perhaps focused too close. Since you used a tripod, I'd have focused on the main surface behind the nut and used a small aperture like f/11 or f/16 to get as much detail as possible throughout the image. For something like this, don't be afraid to shoot a whole series of images and just roll the focus point slightly farther back with each shot so that one of them is bound to be perfect.

I like the way you divided the image vertically, but the horizontal positioning of the bolt seems just a little bit off to me. I thin kit needs to be either dead center or a little bit farther off center.

This follows the same theme as my '41 Chevy images:http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=9415354

You've gotta love that old, high-quality glass (yours with a Leica, mine with a Takumar)!

Here it is with a red filter. It actually looks better than I expected, but I still prefer the color version. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

 

My almost-two-year-old son loving the newborn chicks at the statefair. This was probably his first trip to a petting zoo, and he loved it.

This shot was entered into our state fair photography competition tobe judged later this month.

My almost-two-year-old son loving the newborn chicks at the statefair. This was probably his first trip to a petting zoo, and he loved it.

This shot was entered into our state fair photography competition tobe judged later this month.

Chimney Rock, near Bayard, Nebraska, was one of the great landmarks onthe Oregon Trail as it passed through the Great Plains and headed intothe Rocky Mountains.

We were running late on our return trip from the Black Hills, anddidn't make it here until after the gates had closed and the sun wasdisappearing behind the horizon. This shot was taken from the carwindow on the county road outside the park. My wife didn't even stopthe car. Someday I want to get a closer look in better light.

This shot made it onto the local evening news and was entered into ourstate fair photography competition to be judged later this month. I'dlove to get any constructive criticism on it.

While taking some photos for a church assignment one snowy evening, Iturned around and saw this pack of a dozen cats emerging from the junkyard across the street. They were friendly as long as they thought Imight feed them, but quickly lost interest in posing when theydiscovered I had nothing to offer.

This shot was entered into our state fair photography competition tobe judged later this month. I'd love to have any constructivecriticism on the shot.

The shed built onto the back of the garage at my grandma's farm hasseen better days. This shed houses my dad's and uncle's first cars, a1951 Mercury and 1941 Chevy, respectively. The Chevy is picturedelsewhere in my gallery.

This shot was submitted to our state fair photo competition to bejudged later this month. Contest rules prohibit significantmanipulation, so I couldn't do the localized contrast & dodge/burningthat I would have liked to give this shot more mood.

How would have have improved this shot as pictured here?

My uncle Bill's first car, a 1941 Chevy, has been in the family forhalf a century. It's spent the last half of that sitting in the shedbehind his parents' garage providing shelter and warmth forgenerations of raccoons, woodchucks, and other creatures. Rumor has itthat its days are now numbered, so I wanted to capture some of itscharacter before it leaves home for the last time.

The lighting in this shot is natural via a large hole in the roof ofthe shed.

Postprocessing darkened, slightly sharpened, slightly increasedsaturation, and vignetted the original frame. How could I haveimproved this shot?

The color version is also in my gallery. I submitted this B&W versionto our state fair photo competition to be judged later this month.

I don't use colored filters when shooting digital. You can easily apply them in postprocessing, and shooting an unmodified color image allows you the flexibility to do whatever you want in post. Once you get comfortable with the effects that different filters produce, you can easily move to using physical filters when shooting film. You can read more of my thoughts on B&W photography on my web site at:

http://www.jedi.com/obiwan/photo/bw.html

I submitted this shot to our state fair photo competition to be judged next week. The only change from what you see here was to slightly brighten the sky slightly near the horizon. I'll let you know what the judges think of it.

 

Be sure to check out the other three shots from this series in my gallery.

Yeah, everything still seems to be working, so I think I'm good. I kept wiping the lens & body off with a sock after every shot, and hid the camera behind my torso whenever possible. It would have been fun to setup the tripod there with a fully waterproof camera, but I think I did OK with the handheld shots I got.

 

Be sure to check out the other three shots from this series in my gallery.

Samrat, thanks for the compliments (did you rate it?). Be sure to check out the other three from this series in my gallery. I played with darkening the sky in post, but it made the bright lighting on the water look unnatural. Also, the highlights in the clouds on the right half are blown out (the sun was over that direction), so there's not much you can do with them. I agree, though, this would also be good with a more ominous sky. I'm just glad I got any clouds at all. We visited the falls on a rainy day, and the rest of our vacation week was clear and sunny.

 

I submitted this shot to our state fair photo competition to be judged next week. The only change from what you see here was to slightly brighten the water spray. I'll let you know what the judges think of it.

You're off to a good start here. Good sharpness and tonal range. I assume you used a GND filter on the sky, and it worked well. A couple things could improve the shot, though.

 

First, the horizon line (or at least the far shore of the lake) is off-level and leaning to the right. I don't know if this is how it really looked, but it makes the entire photo seem cock-eyed.

 

Second, it's all just a little dark for my tastes. Brightening it up by up to a full stop might help.

 

Third, it bothers me that the rock on the upper left is cut off. The one on the upper right doesn't bother me because I know it extends way past the top of the frame, but just barely losing the top of the left rock seems wrong.

Our family vacation this year took us through north centralNebraska, where we stopped to play in Nebraska's tallest waterfall.This spring-fed creek plunges 70 feet before eventually trickling intothe Niobrara River. I was standing in the pool below testing theweather sealing of my camera and lens as I hand held this shot. Whatdo you think? Suggestions for improvement?

Be sure to check out the other shots in this series.

Our family vacation this year took us through north central Nebraska,

where we stopped to play in Nebraska's tallest waterfall. This

spring-fed creek plunges 70 feet before eventually trickling into the

Niobrara River. I was standing in the pool below testing the weather

sealing of my camera and lens as I hand held this shot. What do you

think? Suggestions for improvement?

Our family vacation this year took us through north central Nebraska,

where we stopped to play in Nebraska's tallest waterfall. This

spring-fed creek plunges 70 feet before eventually trickling into the

Niobrara River. I was standing in the pool below testing the weather

sealing of my camera and lens as I hand held this shot. What do you

think? Suggestions for improvement? I know the sky at the right is

blown out -- there was a white cloud covering that area and the sun

was just off frame on that side.

Our family vacation this year took us through north central Nebraska,

where we stopped to play in Nebraska's tallest waterfall. This

spring-fed creek plunges 70 feet before eventually trickling into the

Niobrara River. I was standing in the pool below testing the weather

sealing of my camera and lens as I hand held this shot. What do you

think? Suggestions for improvement?

That's a cool effect. Nice job noticing it and capturing it. The only thing I don't like is that green spot on the left.

I like that you included the spectators in the shot. It adds a personal touch that's missing from so many firework photos. The trees to the side are a nice touch, but they're so faint as to be distracting. A higher ISO setting would have kept the same depth of field and shutter time, but would have made some of the darker details like the trees and spectators more visible.

I love how you've framed this inside the trees and included the spectators below. You did a good job of getting enough light on them without blowing out the firework bursts. I wish our event organizers had been as considerate as yours and sent the bursts to a variety of locations in the sky instead of all right on top of each other. My one complaint is that it seems (judging from the tree trunks near the middle of the frame) that the entire picture is leaning to one side.

About 20,000 people showed up at Oak Lake Park on July 5th for the

rain-delayed city fireworks show in Lincoln, Nebraska. The still air

provided some wonderfully sharp reflections in the lake. This is a

20-second exposure taken about two minutes after the show ended

(10:30pm). That's smoke in the sky, not clouds. The blur along the

island to the left is a mass of humanity heading home. Any

suggestions for improvement?

About 20,000 people showed up at Oak Lake Park on July 5th for the

rain-delayed city fireworks show in Lincoln, Nebraska. The still air

provided some wonderfully sharp reflections in the lake. This was

during the grand finale, where the bursts were coming non-stop. Any

suggestions for improvement, short of asking the event organizers not

to send all their bursts into exactly the same sky location?

About 20,000 people showed up at Oak Lake Park on July 5th for the

rain-delayed city fireworks show in Lincoln, Nebraska. The still air

provided some wonderfully sharp reflections in the lake. This is

nearly the full height of the original frame, but obviously cropped

narrower. Any suggestions for improvement, short of asking the event

organizers not to send all their bursts into exactly the same sky

location?

About 20,000 people showed up at Oak Lake Park on July 5th for the

rain-delayed city fireworks show in Lincoln, Nebraska. The still air

provided some wonderfully sharp reflections in the lake. The original

shot is twice as tall, with the horizon running through the middle.

What do you think of this crop? Any suggestions for improvement?

Thanks for the kind words. The details you describe are exactly what drew me to these scenes when I first ran across them in Grandma's shed. I've got a few more from this series that I'll be posting as I have time to postprocess them, so stay tuned.