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That was exactly what I was trying to capture with those shots that I posted this past winter at the skating rink.

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Downtown Detroit, from Belle Isle:

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2912/...88fea879_b.jpg

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I crossed over the bridge in the background RIGHT after 9/11.....can you IMAGINE!

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last night I found the second-darkest venue in Memphis, TN. NOTHING can top Earnestine & Hazel's,
but The Cove is right up there. Shame is it might be the most ambiance-dripping place in town. A 5hit-ton of
wicked wooden ship-related swag. But what made it worse is the fact that I do not like to block people's view of things
and NEVER use a flash of any kind. So I got what I got. But some of it was great. Don't stare too long at the
lips. 70's **** come to mind?

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps679c9d72.jpg

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This is a crap photo focus-wise, but I liked it so much I wanted to post it. I was reading a blog post from a guy that
shoots a lot of club photos for some doofus club somewhere, and he was talking about how to avoid the common pitfalls
of posting photos. One has always made sense to me, NEVER DUMP PHOTOS, pick one or two or a few that speak to the
event or occasion and leave it at that. His second one is also food for thought, but you will see me break it right here.
He said never post a photo of a great idea that you had for a shot that failed, no matter how you might feel that 'People
will understand what you were going for and let their brain make up for the shortcomings." Something like that.


Well screw the rules, I just like the background in this photo, and although my subject was not in focus as he should
have been, ehhh, there are so few photos left in my bucket that I posted to use here and never did, and I am so bored
sitting here that I will break any rule to kill the boredom, lol. My friend Mark taking a break outside his recent Tornado
Relief benefit, Tunes for Tupelo....
Manual focus only lenses are tough in the dark on a digital camera, exacerbated by alcohol intake. But at least I got his
shoulder in focus.

Suffer bit(he5. ;)

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps811dd005.jpg

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Kingsley Plantation on Monday

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5279/...691fdd77_c.jpgKingsley Plantation by emopunker2004, on Flickr

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Leading lines.........neat shot.

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Some high shutter speed shots, in full auto mode where you just hold down the shutter button:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5080/...4a536c60_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3721/...7b971b35_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3730/...0b986051_b.jpg

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Them Rebs just LOOK like they needs killin'. Looka that devil's expression!
Also, I am confident now in the cavalry, that if we ever take on a army of midgets, we are in good hands, lol.
but seriously, nice shot by the rider, and nicer shots by the photographer.

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A couple of shots from my recent trip back down to NOLA to shoot pics will soon follow.
Here is Oak Alley Plantation from a different perspective.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps16e4227e.jpg

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Love that picture with the baloon popping :tu

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Here is Ormond Plantation across the river, but much closer to my own home area downriver from the bulk of the other
plantation homes you see. This one is MUCH less famous than the others. This was an economy tour of sorts that
my mother and sisters and I took over the weekend, just like we used to as kids, no money, just fence gawking.
But we walked around the grounds a bit here. This is a 15mm-30mm lens at 15. You can see the levee on the right
side of the photo. I SEE the distortion of these lenses, but it really doesn't bother me. I photoshop "skewed" the
structure and left the right side not just normally distorted, but maybe a little extra distorted from transforming the
other side.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps461c9def.jpg

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I love the live oaks with the Spanish moss draped on the boughs. The first time I saw Spanish moss, I was wondering "WTF is that?" It just looked weird to this Yankee. :D

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It was pretty hot that day, and I know for sure that the Union uniforms are wool...Wool Jacket, wool trousers, long sleeves, those guys were sweating and thinking of doing something else most likely, especially with that annoying photographer running along snapping shots. :r

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From the Memorial day parade in Dearborn. He was representing the paratroopers from WWII. He actually resembles the actor who portrayed "Wild Bill" Guarniere from Band of Brothers:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5546/...7794d63f_b.jpg

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An almost time for sunset shot. I took this with a tripod. 50mm lens, f7.1, 1/15 second
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3703/...3e00c57b_b.jpg

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A great weekend of shooting, and some of the stuff I shot was soft but I liked it so much it didn't matter.
I know that is a bad thing to do, but we all know I am no pro. So sue me, haha.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...psed6a820b.jpg

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I thought this girl with the yellow boots on was so sexy, and she came out soft because my eye focused on the girl to
the left, and my actual subject came out soft....I was manual focusing most of this night. As I was snap shooting this
to keep from getting overly busted, I lived with what I got.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...psf4f15140.jpg

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I like to shoot people photos, but I rarely DO because it is the most awkward kind of thing to shoot people who
invariably do not want to be shot. AS anyone here knows, it is far from my preferred form of photography.
But when I SEE something great, I will often focus on something at a similar distance and exposure level,
then turn on my heels and fire away, manually focusing as I shoot to get it right before the person becomes
aware of what is happening. This is the story here, the girl in the glasses figured it out and buried her face
in her friend's shoulder to escape me. But those 4 frames of 'hang time' before she reacted are perfect,
because you can see the brain working and still have the scene the way you wanted it. The picture above
was so different, in that I just pulled the camera up, focused (badly) and shot 2 frames and respectfully
left them alone. It works better this other way, I think.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps633c350f.jpg

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Love this picture, the reflection off the glass adds to the image as well :tu

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yep, I am a sexy reflexy...oh, you mean the CARS and stuff. ;)

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here's one from Monday night, looked up while having a smoke out on my balcony and the sun was just about set. I have three hundred of these on my phone, take em most nights when it's nice out, but this one I thought was particularly cool. I see now that it's not quite framed right, oh well.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7...602_202232.jpg

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Nice sun disc, that's for sure. Damn jets....love the waves of clouds!

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Here is another shot from the recent Trolley Night for May......

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...psa3d3c5c3.jpg

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Here is just a kind of throw-away shot from Wednesday Night, and yet it is so good.
My friend teaches a Ukulele class for 5 weeks and then they had their recital this week.
In Memphis, since I have a job for now and I have this photo thing as a hobby, I use my
hobby to help promote things and people who need it. No musicians ever have any MONEY,
to there is no sense in trying to get blood out of a turnip. If I can help them with what I do
for FUN, why not. This is another such case. They were pleased to have their event
shared with others....only 8-9 people showed up to watch, and they were likely all loved
ones. But the Facebuuk post that night shared it with many hundreds more, so it works
out for the size of the next class, I guess. And it helps people to share their deal with family
and friends and gives them proof that it happened. Here are a few of the students trading licks
before the show. I thought it was a great "people shot".

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4b6d5a83.jpg

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Here is another shot I like, I was forced to hang out a LOT LONGER than I wanted to last Friday night,
I had shot all the haps of Trolley Night and was headed to my car when I realized that Pete Wood from
The Pistol & The Queen had asked me if I was doing anything Friday night, which is his code for "Hey man,
I would really like it if you came down to our gig and shot." He's from London and his band mate is a
Creole angel from New Orleans. They are a great team. But the house band was feeling their oats and
played far too long, and had basically taken P&TQ's slot at 9pm. SO it was 10:45 before they started
to even set up. And what made it worse for Pete, they had been playing all these Beatles and
Stones songs in 'party band' form and it was like driving a corkscrew into his eardrums. SO when it was
time to play, he was wound up tight. The light in Earnestine & Hazels is unique in the world for it's terribleness.
But in this shot it kinda works. And here is a video that I shot elsewhere, too. http://youtu.be/nNPXFr2nzCU

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps23bdf891.jpg

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cool pics I need to get an online album updated

austin

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That's sort of how its done here, we store elsewhere to present full size here through html code kinda stuff.
But you can upload files directly to your posts here, they just show up as thumbnails that must be clicked on.
Either way. As this is kind of a artsy fartsy subject for a thread, it looks better full size. But in the
"What's in your smoker" thread, I often go with thumbnails.

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One of the most iconic, yet little known places in Memphis is Earnestine & Hazels Sundry Store. Tourists rarely make it this far
down South Main street. Used to be a drugstore, but the original owner made it big with hair tonic, then later Coppertone suntan
lotion, and basically gave the store to some ladies upstairs. In the 1980s it became a bar, and they might have the best jukebox
in the world. Depends on what you like I guess. It is HARD to shoot in, because of that DAMNED NEON SIGN. But its SHO GOT SOUL.
I spotted this lady one night under the old light fixtures.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3de17155.jpg

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Went to the zoo yesterday and saw these new sculptures at the bear exhibit, there's a dozen of them.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...pse516b13e.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps543f8ff4.jpg

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Louisiana Road Kill........for a fast little critter, they sure can't seem to avoid cars.
Maybe this is my attempt to get this thread moving, if enough people post,
this photo will be on another page and lost to time.
Maybe its just a disgusting sight.
I can say that the aroma surrounding this critter was bad enough to make me shoot one and done.

http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8328db5d.jpg

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I am debating a purchase of a lens I don't think I need, and I wish there was someone in the thread that can help me
confirm or refute my feelings on it. But sadly, there is very little participation around the forums these days, and I am
as guilty as anyone.

I have a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens, and I love it because it is sharp and fast. I never REALLY needed it to be faster,
because I had cameras that can shoot at high ISOs without too much image degredation. So when
there is a chance to get a 50mm 1.4, I don't see the cost of the lens as being worthwhile, because I am
ALMOST that fast now, and I don't see .4 difference in aperture as being worth the money. But I know that
aperture is "logarithmic", so there may be a REAL difference in 1.4 and 1.8. In fact, in researching the issue, I see
that 1.8 is actually kind of a halfway house between 1.4 and 2. So maybe I DO need the 1.4 lens. I have always believed
that bumping the gain will easily make up for this lack of 'night vision' in my lenses. And I still do, I guess. But if I intend
to continue buttering my bread with low light, natural light shooting, I guess I need to accept some facts.

I sure would like to hear some other thoughts from people who know and understand.

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All I can say is the Nikkor 50/1.2 is a sweet lens...

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Brad, my first Nikkor 40 years ago was a 50/1.4, and it is a great lens. But I see no need for one to "step up" from a 1.8, or even a 2.0, as one stop rarely makes the difference between getting the shot and NOT getting the shot. That opinion is based more on my past work history. I worked for 8 1/2 years in a photo shop, before high-speed digital sensors, and my go-to films were Kodachrome 64 and Tri-X 400.

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THe 1.4 and 1.8 have 7 blade diaphrams, the 1.2 has 9 blade and will provide better "sunstars" when stopped down. Not sure there is much of an advantage from the 1.4 over the 1.8

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BTW, I ahve the 1.8 and think it is a great lens

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yes, but you have your own river-view hot tub, I am talking about for schlubs like ME. :D

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:r:r

I WISH that was my hot tub with a river view. It's actually my MIL's, and it's currently up for sale (much to my daughters chagrin). Buy the hot tub and the view and you get the 5000 sq. ft. house for free :)

I may still have my 1.2 lens; I just put a lot of my old 35mm stuff away. I got a really great deal on it when I bought it, and since I used a 55mm macro for most of my work, I needed something that would be a little faster for candid and such when I wasn't doing nature stuff.

Boy, I wish I still had some of my big glass stuff though!

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That is what we all want to hear, affirmation that we are right, lol. What pushed me over the top on NOT getting it
was a very interesting article I read that added a tidbit near the end that KIND OF shocked me. You don't have to read
all of it if you want to read the part that kind of surprised me...just scroll down to "A Surprising Result". It was not the
thing that made up my mind, that was helped along by you guys repeating what I thought I knew, that while the lens
I was looking at IS AWESOME, the difference when one has one lens is somewhat lost when you pick up the other. Add to that
the fact that I am not really a portraitist but someone who struggles to get things in focus in night clubs, losing even more
DOF might actually be a tragedy, lol. Thanks, y'all. And way to get that dad armadillo banished to a non-current page!

http://www.adorama.com/alc/0012817/a...out-f18-or-f14

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Would that lens have been a "modern spec"? AI or above? I am always tempted to pick up a pre-AI lens
because they are the REAL red-headed stepchildren now, since they will damage most popular Nikon digitals.
I even bought a D40, because they can accept those old Nippon Kogaku lenses. but then I realized it might be
a bad idea to pick up a blazing fast Pre-AI lens and mount it to a camera as consumer-grade as a D40 when
I have perfectly decent 'fast' lenses and great bodies....just to pick up .4 . Also it mostly seemed dumb to
pick up ANY GEAR AT ALL when I am set and content.

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Almost all of my stuff was AI'd. I used F3's mostly, but I had a few older FMs and a couple of the original Fs that I used at various times, so I was able to use all of my lenses on most of my bodies.

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Thanks, Steve. I may end up picking it up, as half of us think its worth it and half don't.
And I will continue to ponder whether or not the narrower DOF actually HURTS me or can add something.

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DOF wasn't really an issue for me back then, but again, I was younger and had better eyes at the time. For me the real deciding factor of getting the 1.2 was that there really wasn't that much of a difference between the 1.4 and the 1.8 (I actually had a 1.4 as well) but I needed something that would perform better than the 2.5 of the macro lens.

One of the benefits I had to hanging around a local old school B&M camera shop was I had access to a lot of deals on quality used glass. Unfortunately these days, most of those old school shops have gone the way of the dodo bird :mad: