DB_Gallery

...mouse while using that good ol' sponge tool? WOW would Warren Faidly or Joel Sartore do a double take on this one.

 

"The camera captures all the details but doesn't always show them withought some tinkering."

 

Sorry fella, this journo likes to see the real thing.

 

Gett'n reeeal frustrating looking for the top rated photos of the week only to find the top rated candy.

 

Your right Ron and I am glad you reported it.

Sometimes, I don't t know if I am consistent with my laptop's monitor.

 

On some images, I pull directly from my Aspen Times archive, they are tuned for a press-specific CMYK setting, are lighter to accomodate for certain dot gain values. When this is brought back into a working RGB, it sometimes goes dark and builds up in color.In the light CMYK mode, the color fades and has to be brought back in to print correct.

 

I simply forget to correct them and upload in haste.

 

Roundtooit

"Doctoring" is strictly taboo in my Journalism book. These were simply HUGE flames and occured at twilight, hence the strange blue cast in the sky.

....I have been publishing my work for the last 10 years, last 4 in the Aspen Times..:-)

The published cover

.....Graham.

 

I do like some of the creations on this site very much, talent comes in all forms!

 

A little common courtesy is all I ask when a piece is put in front of me. If you look at almost any of my uploads, they have a minimum of good technical and real world backround to them.

 

That minimum seems to be the maximum that most put on thier images on this site leaving the viewer but with a minimal learning base.

I am always more impressed by an extrodinary photograph than a computer enhanced creation from an original.

 

I like to share my experience. I also think that it is common courtesy to tell folks when you have put on the micky mouse ears on a picture before serving it up to us.

 

The lack of any written guidlines on this site is the reason I have stopped rating. Rate it as what? A photograph or a mixed media illustration?

 

Is art truth.....or is truth art?

"Baaaack, Buck, Buck!" ( Chicken or the egg thing )

 

Now Yuri...don't think I am implicating you into this thread, your status remains quo.

Again a good photograph with a very stimulating dose of moment!

 

I love this site, always great to keystroke with you all.

 

db

First off,

 

I have to say that this is a good POW pic for the elves and really a great select from Yuri's portfolio. Everything works here, the level of fog and the "Flying South for the winter" look of the fowl in flight.

 

I have to laugh at comments like "More contrast" I mean really....I would love a bit more contrast too when I am driving in the stuff and can't see!!

 

As for the accusations of "Fowl" play using Photoshop.....this is excatly what I was refering to in an earlier rant on a notorious doctoring and fib a few POW's back.

 

The comments like "Who cares if he used photoshop?" those really bother me. That is the erosion of our craft of capturing a real moment going to the birds (No pun intended) Who cares? The National Press Photoraphy association for one. I know of stories of folks getting fired for claiming awards and using P/S in an unethical way.

 

Yuri, I tend to believe you on this one but be careful my friend, for this tough critic, you have to show consistently in your portfolio that you don't rely on heavy photoshop use. I am afraid that by even placing an image like the following that has selected had tinting, your credibility is on the line:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=730644

 

No problemo on the digitally enhanced photo regime. But if you are posting images and giving no classification as to it's final outcome, look out....I'm gonna Swoop!!

 

Keep it real folks and the fear of un-reality will not haunt you.

 

Nice image Yuri! Well deserving of it's distinction.

Elaine, The camera was in the aquarium dear...

As for looking through the viewfinder, I pre-metered in Manual and then removed the interchangeable finder so I could look straight down into it. I also used an electronic remote shutter release cord so I could hold onto the tank easier.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

"Chance favors the prepared mind" a quote my friend National Geographic photographer, Chris Rainer has said time and time again.

Good mind of preparedness mate.

 

db

.....out of the original 53 MB scan. It's at 100%

........close enough that this is nearly full frame.

 

If you are lucky, they get into a pattern and you can dial in a hulluva lot closer to where they might come up next.

By the way, the image qualtiy, contrast thing?

 

Take my word on this.......One f stop will make a huge difference in the way a lens transmits the image in front of it. If you have a 300 f / 4.5 and a legendary 300 F/ 2.0 both set at f /8 you WILL see a major difference in image quality.

This will be particularly apparent with say this zoom compared to an 80-200 2.8S.

 

The faster the lens, the more subtle color and contrast details you will pickup. It's no different than looking through a faster telescope at a deep sky object like a nebulae.

 

For example: If you look through a 8 inch F/ 8 Newtonian reflector and then a 8 inch F/4, you will see a brighter image resulting in more features like the spiral arms in a galaxy.

 

I dislike how much my good ol' manual 400mm 2.8 weighs. It's worth it's weight in gold for it's superlative image qualtiy.

 

FYI

 

db

.......it took me a few minutes to get what the significance of the title was.

 

We have the Penguins as the main subject and the enviroment as the second?? For me to truly feel that the primary subject is efficiently telling the story, I would like to see less backround and crop it to put the feathered singer's more to the left so they lead you into that area for a visual interlude as they sing aloud. I am not saying to get rid of the horizon, it could be in a zoo if it were missing. You do need to show that other subjsect is indeed Antartica for a sence of place.

 

I know that most folks here do this shutter clicking thing for a passion that does not pay, but seeing as I do it for a living, I have learned that unless it's a little different than what I have seen before, I just won't pound dozens of frames of expensive chrome through my rig on it. I simply can't afford to come home with 1,000 "Insurance" shots. I do it for a passion too....I just decided at age 15 that I wanted it to be my job. I am planning to go down to Antartica in 2012 to photograph a total solar ecplipse. Should be "Cool".

 

Congrats on making the new and improved POW, it is a fun image. A good "Nice" image to start the new democracy with. You are to be commended on your eye for the title.....maybe I'm a little slow. Your other images in your folder are nice. If you like a subject enough, keep plodding along and it WILL get better. I guess it's the dead center thing that makes it a bit of a yawner for me.

 

Sorry to be so critical Tom, I agree with Mr. Spinak's take on it as well.

 

And for goodness sakes folks!! In my humble tree hugging opinion, please don't fill flash animals, human's don't even enjoy it now do they.

 

Signed, a photographer with Great "Personality"

db:-)

I will never know if it would have looked better. I make my living as a photojournalist, I don't move things around to where "I" think they should go, I just take what I see. The river police don't leave the guns just lying on the floor, they would trip over them.

....ran out. I would have likened to get a tad more room below the man too, but the 20 foot fall would have broken more than my spirit.

 

db

Thank you everyone for your comments.

 

This was a short but rewarding two months in South East Asia. While in London, I will work on getting "The" major magazine to back me up for a 9-12 month stint in Cambodia on the Tonle Sap story idea. The Aspen Times is pleading for me to come back.....still considering returning but I have a feeling that some really good things will happen in the next few months of my major self-promotion campaign.

 

As for comments on the "Missing eye" and Josephss comments. I understand ones need to "see" a standard angle on this, its the default thinking process.

The subject, if one is to be so definitive, is the line where the mothers face meets the childsthe subject is touch itself. I found that including both eyes made the little boys face too big and distracting. I threw away my "Photography rule book" many years ago.

 

As for the comment of all fabric or all face with fillI suppose we all have differing tastes and opinions, but.ya know? Sometimes life doesnt always fall right in the middle of your face, it spills in wondrously from the sides or the top to delight us with surprises.

 

A quote by yours truly in a radio interview in Aspen back in 99 when asked how pictures happen for me:

 

"When I am making pictures, I am distracted by nothing, yet aware of everything".

 

I joined Photo.net to learn, make new friends and share my life's passion with all who care to look.

 

Keep the comments coming, afterall, it's all good now isn't it?

 

:-)

 

.......chunk out of the 60MB original scan. Nikon Supercoolscan 4000ED. Crazy good piece of hardware, might be my favorite photo goody. I have to hold chromes up to a light bulb to see the shadow detail that things puts on my screen. After the scan is done, the image falls into the belly of an Apple Powerbook G4 with one full gigabyte of ram......... "Burp"!

 

db

I document life, if it is drab, then that's the way it looks. I don't photoshop anything.

....this could ever be anything less than 1 second. I did exposure variations of 2-8 seconds. This is Velvia were talkin about here. You know what film reciprocity failure makes ASA 50? Besides that, the trishaw driver was going fairly slow as to not cause too much vibration for the camera. I shot a roll and a half of this on a 1/2 hour ride.

 

Sorry guys, 4-8 seconds it is.

 

"Chappy Chooting"

db

I have had a bit of wine and it is now three in the A.M.

 

"Bayer" with me, eh? :-)

.....Jeeeeeez guys, Common, lemme have some fun, I have been sitting at this fudging computer scanning slides @50-60 MB a piece for days now (The chemicals used in film makes me REALLY hypocritical!)

 

 

When do you ever see me rant, let alone comment ?(busy shooting)

 

I use Nikon's bricks beacuse I can count on them, I have to make a living at this, I can't afford to hose it up. Did you know that when you shoot at really low speeds like 1/8th with say...a 35mm lens handheld the first frame will most likley be garbo because of the action of pressing the shutter? Do you know what the 2nd 3rd frames look like if you used an F-5 at 8 frames per sec? Tack sharp. I once hand held my 400 2.8 @ 1/30 this way. The shutter dampner in the F-5 and the F-100 are really good, not a novelty.

 

I have had my F-5 in the shop a few times....that's how much and how hard I use my gear. I once had to send it in for a lens mount replacement when I was covering World Cup skiing. The course is REALLY steep and icy as hell so I was wearing crampons. Anyway, I was in the finish area and had the camera mounted on a monopod w/ a 20mm for above the crowd stuff and tripped over a T.V. camera cable, went flyin!! Broke the lens mount. I had an F-4 for 13 years, the counter registered over 200,000 frames on the same shutter!

 

Sorry Mike, I am not preaching (trying not to), just having a bit of fun. I told everyone that I will keep it to photo stuff from now on, so there you have it.

 

Let it go and I promise I will.

 

Make pictures, not war.

 

db

Nicos, others,

 

When I was on the over touristed island of Ko Phi Phi Don, Thialand doing the vanishing island culture story, I would sea kayak 5-20 miles a day sometimes going to Ko Phi Phi Lei. I would often snorkel and dive down to find garbage and untangle fishing line from the delicate coral. Hmmmm, what are you all doing to help?? Recycle? Not hit the gas as hard at a green light??

 

If you people want to continue for me to make you feel guilty, keep the comments coming.

 

Most of the people in Bangkok use public transporation or ride a high fuel efficiency 4 stroke scooter.....it is a ungodly polluted place though, like Mexico city. Cambodian folks will load an entire family of 6 people on one of those little scooters.

"Amerika" as you put it, is the most financially able country in the world. We should be setting the enviromental trend, sadly, we are not.

We make some of the most fuel unefficient cars in the world and the thing that pisses me off is that they are popular!!! It's all marketing making you "think" that you need these things. We have NEVER had a 10 cylinder Excursion before.....why in the HELL do we have one NOW of all times???

 

The amount of supportive emails, pulling people out aside, that I have gotten is AMAZING!!! By the way, when I said that "Pull People out" I really only prevented them from closing the door and made them listen, never got into a scuffle.

 

If you feel sorry for the homeless folks in the U.S. what about this kid in a VERY poor country who lost his parents and got his leg blown off by a landmine??? He could have a great education with all the extra money spent on the fuel for your "Selfishmobile" within a few years.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=596481

 

 

Wake up people, I know it sucks that I am your unrelenting alarm clock....should never have got me started.

 

P.S. This is an amazing site, kinda fun!!!

All in good fun Nicos and other viewpointers.

I used to work on jets, they are about the worst on fuel efficiency. I think about this whenever I fly too.

 

db

 

 

 

....Simon, drive whatever you feel like until the world makes the changes it will eventually make in fuel use. It will happen as more findings surface and policy dictates.

 

But for now, stop attacking me back for my cause when I said that I will keep it to photo subjects. I have my causes, they are very well founded. I work with alot of knowledgeable people who have no financial or political gains from opposing such practices.

 

It's all good, there are worse things going on in the world than what I do......a couple of buildings fell down and alot of innocent people perished as I recall.

 

I don't smoke, I rarely drink and I take care of my self and my planet, it's what I am here to do and someone has to.

 

Chill OUT, I probably won't be engaging in the "removal" practice anymore, education is a much more effective and respectable practice.

 

Tony, the forrester is a great car, good on gas and can really go more places than some of the 4WD 10 cylinder urban assault vehicles ion use can't.......Simon, I am so sorry my friend but they are simply not need in this world.

 

P.S. When I was 15, I was homeless, I have worked my but off to get what I have since that age, no choice.

 

:-)

 

NEXT SUBJECT PLEASE!!!

 

Daniel

....and everyone else who caught my CO2 rant.

 

Sorry about the brash view of the "Gas Gobblin's" It's been a peeve of mine since I was about 5. I remember living in Florida and thinking as a cloud of manmade flew out of an exhaust pipe, "That's not right." So it isn't.

 

I apologize for the physical and harsh way I put my dealings with it.....it's just how passionate I am about this subject. I will put my life on the line to get people to change thier ways.

 

I am very passionate about photography too and have made some impact with published snowmobile and suv pictures that have really pissed some folks off.

 

I appreciate your kind regards to my work Mike, did not mean to get you as rowled as I was. I will keep to just photo related subjects as there are tons of people who read these threads and don't want to "Blow my cover" or make enemies out of potential friends.

 

I am getting ready to put about a dozen new pics on .NET from Soth East Asia.

 

Enjoy the pics, forget the rant, we are all human and by the way, I love my country!!

 

Congrats Aldo, you have made history.

Keep shooting what YOU want, it's just a forum afterall.

 

Dan

No funky work, just Dodge and burn. I only wished I could'a got the backround a bit darker, tis a bit hot but that's the speed of the news bizz.