erica_cooper

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<p>Spent the weekend in Miami visiting my aunt and newborn baby cousin. Shot this one while walking around by the bay and little marina. Sunset, not sunrise. </p>

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<p>Another thing to keep in mind is to have a colorful and varied background. The motion blur is much more interesting this way than if you were to have a solid block of a single color behind your subject. <br /> Shutter speed is the most important aspect. Play around with it on a street-side while panning with the cars until you get the hang of it. <br /> Here's one of my first panning attempts at an indoor track meet</p>

<p>One important thing to note is that rarely will your subject be tack sharp, but the goal is for them to be relatively sharp compared to the background. Play around with it and go for different effects. The blurred arms and legs here contribute to the motion of the shot. I particularly love his shoes. </p><div></div>

<p>taking a leaf out of Andy's book, I decided to experiment with the whole ring/book/heart/shadow thing, so I got a cool shot of that. but THEN, i realized that there was an even better picture i could take, being this one, which is ultimately just creepy</p>

<p>d90 w/ VR 18-200 @200mm; 1/60s, f/9 ISO 500</p><div></div>

<p>College Track & Field </p><div></div>

<p>Hi all, <br>

I'm shooting a track and field event tonight / tomorrow morning, indoor. I'm new to sports photography and photography in general, for the most part. I've shot a basketball game before, so that taught me a little bit about super poor lighting conditions, but I was hoping that you tried and true photographers could give me any hints you think might be helpful in getting the best shots (might I add for the school paper) at this track meet. <br>

I'll hopefully be able to get pretty close in to all the events, and I have an 18-200 f/5.6 (@200) that I'll probably mostly be using, although for some things I might be able to switch to my 50mm f/1.4 if I'm doing a single event (like stand by the long jump for a while and get some shots wide open.) Oh and this is on a Nikon D90. <br>

So my question for you all is do you have any advice on which shots are best to take, how best to focus, etc., just any tips you've come up with over the years of shooting track or sports more generally, would be really really great! <br>

I'm anxious about shooting this and don't want to miss all the greatest shots! <br>

Thanks,</p>

<p>Erica</p>

<p>I shot an indoor basketball game last week and wished I had a lens faster than my 18-200 but longer than my 50 mm f/1.4. If I can ever save up the money, I'd love to have an 85mm fast prime. If you really want the 50mm, I suggest you buy one of the cheap-o 50mm f/1.8, I've heard it's a great lens, and I love my 50mm, although I think it's a bit too short for making tight sports shots. If you're going to continue shooting sports, you're going to want fast glass, period. Your 85mm sounds perfect, you should keep working with that. </p>

<p>Staying warm in a hot gym with hot sweaty college basketball players! Love the look of pure rage/agony on his face. Also, beautiful pictures!! I wish I could take a landscape like Hamish! </p><div></div>

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Hi all,

 

I want to get into photography and start taking some serious pictures, so I'm moving into the dslr range. I was split between the D80 and

D90 for a while (a bit on budget issues, a bit on necessity) but I'm now leaning towards the D90 (although this is an opinion I can be

swayed in and if anyone has good enough reason for me to get the D80 or the D90, I'd like to hear that.

My biggest question is what sort of lens should I be getting at? The 18-105 kit lens doesn't seem as terrible as some of the other kit lenses

I've heard about, but does anyone know firsthand? Would I be wiser to just forego the 18-105 and jump into something else? A friend has

recommended to me the 18-200 which she has and loves, and I played around with that and it seemed very versatile. Are there any other

good lenses out there which are good solid lenses that can handle a wide range of environments? To start I'm looking to just be able to

take good general landscapes and portraits and then after a while I'll go into experimenting with other lenses (hopefully a macro lens :) )

I guess I'm just looking for some general advice, and I'd really really appreciate any help you could give me!