ianhoke

<p>I LOVE circus peanuts. Best candy ever! I almost want to order a fine art print... ;-) Lots of great shots as per usual. The Dead Sea shot sticks in my mind, as do the colors of Velvia, which I have discovered for myself recently and am in love with now forever. Alas, no scanner.<br>

This shot is a D80 w/ 16mm f2.8: 1/200 @ f5.6. I'm off to Thailand for 9 days tomorrow, so am looking forward to taking some photos there.<br>

<img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/images/20090405144533_20090404_5888sunnychengdu.jpg" alt="" width="852" height="600" /></p>

<p>Thanks, all. My last film body was a 1960's Pentax from my father, so the automation is all new to me. I appreciate the information. Perhaps in light of your comments I will continue to set the ISO manually anyway. Cheers!</p>

<p>I searched for an answer to this but found nothing, so here goes. I recently bought an (awesome) used F5 that does everything right, except I keep having to set the ISO manually. The F5 is a US body and I'm buying film in China, but thus far, neither Ilford nor Fuji films have registered ISO via the DX coding.<br>

Any suggestions? I'm doubting the DX coding differs geographically, so here's hoping for an equipment-based answer.<br>

Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Great shots, all. Too many favorites to list.<br>

This is from a D80, 16mm F2.8; ISO 100, f 3.8 @ 1/400. I had hoped to put up some shots taken with my new F5, but I lost something in translation at the print shop and wound up with scanned contact sheets rather than scanned negatives. Mandarin is hard. Maybe next week...maybe not... ;-)<br>

North Chengdu Neighborhood<br>

<img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/images/20090405144042_20090404_5876sunnychengdu_crop.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Some great shots again, as usual. Hesse, I loved yours - so narrative and well-composed!Tom (I think) I also really liked the colors of your photo.<br>

D80 50mm f1.4 - 1/200 @ f 4.5 - A rare spot of grass on a rare sunny day in Chengdu, China.<br>

<img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/images/20090405143548_20090404_5844sunnychengdu.jpg" alt="" width="852" height="455" /></p>

<p>So many great shots this week! I love the landscapes - wow.<br>

My little monster: D80 w/ 16mm f2.8, unsure of exposure particulars (sorry), but shot w/ a red filter and converted to B&W in PS RAW Bridge. I <em>think</em> the image size is ok. If not, again, sorry.<br>

<img src="http://www.ianandkalley.com/familyphotos/zp-core/i.php?a=black-and-white&i=20090328_5838dot+B%26Wredfilter.JPG&s=595" alt="" /></p>

<p>Sam, Bruce, Robert, Wayne, Bogden, Doug, Gary, Ray, Ofer - I really enjoyed all of your photos this week! Lots of other good ones, as well, but these really stood out to me. Georg, I think yours is the best of the bunch. Interesting, unusual, technically sound. Of course, each photo here is as good as my offering, and most better! I'm late, but the China time zone thing usually throws me off.<br>

I think my size is OK here, 150kb? I may be wrong, not uber techy...<br>

D80, 50mm, 1/100 @ f. 4.5 - The Twin Towers - Great Wall of China, Shanxi Province, & China Mobile.<br>

<img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/images/20090322122420_20090315_5627shanxi_best.jpg" alt="" width="592" height="852" /></p>

<p><img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/images/20090308183908_20090308_5408bw.jpg" alt="" width="774" height="518" /> <br /> NIKON D80 50mm AF-D 1.4; 1/160sec @ f 1.4 handheld. Tea farmer, Mt. Mengding, Sichuan. B&W conversion in PS CS3 as a part of my ongoing experimentation therof.<br /> <img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/index.php?showimage=32" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/index.php?showimage=33" alt="" /> <br /> <img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/index.php?showimage=33" alt="" /></p>

<h3><em>Capturing Life's fleeting moments.</em> </h3>

<p>Either capitalize each word or only the first. English teacher to the rescue! ;-) I don't know enough about web design to comment otherwise.<br /> </p>

<p>D80, 50mm 1/80 @ f 1.4: This is not old equipment, but is at the first harvesting of the tea at Mt. MengQing (sp?) in Sichuan, China, which is purported to be the ancestral home to all tea. So, old in that regard. Also, this week my new, old F5 and 16mm 2.8 should arrive with my mother-in-law. I'm psyched to shoot some black & white film! That's older, no?<img src="http://www.ianhokephotography.com/photoblog/images/20090308184438_20090308_5523tea_ceremony.jpg" alt="" /></p>

Nikon D80, 50mm, f 1.4 @ 1/800 ISO 250<div></div>

No PS: Nikon D80 50mm; f 13 @ 1/8 sec; intentional movement for blurring.<div></div>

<p>Some great shots here! This is taken in rural Sichuan, China, 1/30/09, during the Spring Festival lunar new year holiday. The photo was taken with a D80, 50mm 1.4, ISO 320, f 3.5 @ 1/80 sec; auto white balance.<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3505/3239628939_890308e007.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="335" /></p>

<blockquote>

<p>Critique is no more honest than flattery, but there should be a point to employing one or the other.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's an interesting point that I have to consider.</p>

<p>In particular, I liked the portraits of the head speechwriter and Ken Salazar. Both spoke something to me of their places in (ongoing) history and their personalities. I see the digital overprocessed point, if it's valid - I am hardly one to know or understand Photoshop et. al. However, the effect of the photos works for me. Unflattering is fine, if it's real. Does the Fox News flap over Palin's extreme closeup on Neweek an applicable analog? Is it the photographer's responsibility to flatter the subject, or is that dishonest? Is honesty more important than flattery in photography? I know I'm spitballing here, but the "flattering" argument seems off base to me as criticism.<br>

As for the official President Obama photo, flag pin on the lapel? Really? Also, a bit dark on his left side, I thought.</p>

<p>Thanks for the link. I liked many of these individually and the group as a whole. I agree with many of the above positive comments, in terms of naturalness and personality of subjects coming through. Additionally, I think the lighting (from below?) that casts the slight background shadow is unique and very interesting. I found many differences between the portraits and wonder how boilerplate the above negative reactions are. Any you liked?</p>

<p>I just wanted to echo what a few folks here have already posted - get a 50mm fast lens and leave it on for a long time. Learn to use your feet to compose. Play with depth of field and composition. Your learning curve will be so much faster than ours, since we had to develop the film, learn to make prints, and do cool, but slow, time consuming things. Try to avoid getting sucked into the gear wars and spend your time shooting around. When you get a chance, I highly recommend the darkroom experience!<br>

Again, I'm an echo, but it bears repeating. Have a blast!</p>

<p>Chaco Canyon - it's a UNESCO World Heritage site and amazing. Highly, highly, highly recommended. Just dress warmly.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1836413&id=771479049" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1836413&id=771479049" alt="" /><br>

I also had a baby in June and shoot with a small-sensor DSLR - Nikon D80. I love the 50mm 1.4 and haven't really taken it off since she was born, so my suggestion would be to go with your EOS 50mm 1.4. I am no expert and I am sure that my tune will change once she gets really mobile, but for newborns, this lens/sensor combo is great, imo. I regularly use a tripod, reflector, and remote trigger for photos of my daughter. I don't know if the photos I linked will work (first try), but I think they are ok (honestly, I think they are beautiful because of the subject!).<img src="http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v951/150/90/771479049/n771479049_1778619_7175.jpg" alt="" width="604" height="404" /><br>

<img src="http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1348/150/90/771479049/n771479049_1836409_5537.jpg" alt="" width="604" height="404" /></p>

I have the D80 and the 70-300 G lens and find that the combination rarely works out. If you want an uber-cheap lens for memories of a safari, go for it. Rarely doe I manage to take a very crisp, sharp photo with that lens. I don't recommend it. My favorite lens so far is the 50mm 1.4, btw.

 

-Ian

Thanks all, I think I'm going to jump on a few 4 gig cards here in China. Prices checked out yesterday seem comparable to those on Amazon with a bit of hard bargaining. I appreciate the ideas.

Cryptic subject line, I know. I have read all of the posts in this forum, but

have a more specific problem:

 

Last week, my laptop, my wife's laptop, and my back-up HDs were stolen in a

break-in. I live in Chengdu, China, and am heading to Xinxiang for May holiday

solo, looking to take lots of photos (Nikon D80). My film SLRs are in the

States and I have 4gb worth of SD cards. Since I am going to buy a new laptop

in the States this summer (I teach), carting around a laptop and/or DVDs and/or

hard drives doesn't help me any. Can folks specifically recommend portable

digital storage devices with card readers, please? I shoot in raw, but am

considering jpeg for this trip due to storage issues.

 

BTW, redundancy issue learned. All of my digital images are gone. They left

the music hard drive, so I guess that's something.

 

Thanks, folks.

 

-Ian Hoke