Well I didn't say they were cheap.


So I'm on my way home tonight and decide hey I've got the camera, I've got a few extra minutes, so hey I made a little stop to take some shots.

 

thread is this?:impatient

 

Its the help Motor thread because his car is sitting at a funny angle Artsy

 

I didn't want to hijack yours, so I only linked out of it

 

Motor on bags a terrific sunset! About time.


Using the "Enhance" feature in post processing brought out the car. I should try partial shots like Motor on, eh?

Just enough contrail clouds to color the sky. I missed an awesome sunset last night; the clouds were almost like the Arora Borialis (sp?) that lasted a long time.

 

Dang it, now I'm confused, sorry 'bout the screw up (had this window open still).

 

It's all good, but I warn you this is a tough crowd of critics over here!

 

Critics are allowed here?:impatient Thought that was not allowed on NAM.

 

This thread only, they are requested so that I can improve my photos and develop my composition, I noticed I began to take lots of cliche, boring and medioqure photos so any advice tips or tricks to improve my skills are requested. For some reason Chows is the only one that will respond now even though I get a good 50-100 views between postings, I just don't know why the rest won't chime in

 

 

Two more.

 

I like this shot. The whole car is in the frame, the tilt is okay, great reflection in the windows, great lighting for a black paintjob, makes do with the background well. The only destructive criticizm I can give is to turn the front wheels the other way, and what's with the plate in the window?

 

Thanks I was doing what I could to get a decent reflection of the sunset offf the side of the MINI. Wheels where turned as such for the other lower angle shots, its a faux pas I knew of just didn;t think to check, next time I'll remember. The plate is to meet the state requirements up here in the northern areas I usually take it down for photo ops but as this parking lot is also a meeting place for county patrols to get some paper work done, I decided it was not an oppurtune momment to make such accomidations.

 

Every time I see this last one I think of the JAWS theme....

Put a few in the night shots, thread not terribly thrilled with tonights results though, many photos where the car simply disappeared in the surrounding blackness of the night. It was wierd as I'm usually pretty comfortable with night shots.

 

I like the low angle and perspective. Because of the perspective, my eye is drawn to the rear of the car, where it is out of focus. I would rather see a hard edge between the rear of the car and the sky. Also, no need to show so much of the pavement. You could either crop it out, or else compose it such that more sky is shown.

 

With the way you've been kicking my butt in the monthly photo contests, I'm having doubts if I really have anything to offer in the advice department. I'm due for a re-read of "The art of seeing" anyway.

FWIW, something I'm noticing lately is how my photos look better when I use my tripod. For most photos it isn't making a technical difference, but it is forcing me to slow down. This gives me time to concentrate on determining what the subject my subconscious really wants in the photograph and to eliminate any distractions. For example in the photo below, I set up the camera and wanted to get the road sign in the photo, yet not get the dilapidated structure on the hidden beyond the right side, all the while working in a 3' deep ditch. Once I got the basic composition down, I started looking closely for items of distraction (beer cans, styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, etc). While looking through the viewfinder, it looked like I had a stone in the tread of my new non-runflat rear left tire. Went to go fish it out and discovered instead it was a machine screw head with the rest of the screw firmly inserted into the tire. Seeing as how we were 20 miles out into the countryside, we high-tailed it back home to the local tire shop ASAP. Next day an air compressor, tools and tire plug kit went into the boot! Sometimes it helps your luck by slowing down and looking carefully.

 

Another reason to dig out the tripod head. Maybe allof those "professionals" have a point

 

Well while digging up my tripod head I came upon heaps of photos from my film days. I went through and began to narrow them down. I came to the conclusion that I was actually good at this once, so I went on my personal art of seeign tour so to speak. I'm going to try and have patience to scan them in, so I may be able to post a few.

 

Here is the level I was once at. (You'd be appalled to know how many of those were taken with disposable cameras)

 

...here!

Tilt, and think of reflections.

speednut: interesting screw-in-the-tire story. A one lane PAVED road?

 

I love the reflections, but I keep titling my neck, what I think does it is there is lots of horizion giving me reference points and making my head want to turn. But it certainly does grab my attention.
I did a few quick crops in PS with this and eliminated the horizion above anbelow and removed a ***** on the right and it gave the photo a rule of thirds framing that felt a little easier on my eyes. I also cropped it to rotate so the horizion was flat and narrowed it so it went from the headlight to the rear of the car (couldn't fit the whole thing inwith out huge corneres but this is a good 3/4 angle position you have to work with) and that left the twisties in the background still there and the front to back of the car sat on an angle to keep a dynamic angle in the shot that guides my eyes.

If you look at Speednut's last photo the horizion is level but the car sits at an angle, which helps you eyes flow, in his case down the twisties. I'm actually not to fond of the tilt aspect of the photos I posted but I'm using the thread to go back and forth with different aspects of each and track some progession of composition.

 

Yo Motor

What camera and lense you been using.

Your getting me sucked into buy a new camera Probably for XMAS

 

Ohh you can't buy what I'd using anymore

I use Canon 10D, with a 19-35 f/3.5 and 28-105 f/3.5 Quantary Lenses, and a 80-200 f/4 Canon lens (pretty much cheapest possible for their respective categories).

Unfortunatly Canon decided to update their equipment and got rid of many of the fluid use features I'm accustomed to and I can't reccomend the updated products having used them. I've heard some good things about Sony (recent thread on the topic).

A little secret I don't think I've shared here yet is Shutterbug magazine, Their reviews tend to be pretty spot on about such things (and offer an occasional technique or tip), you can check the back issues and find reviews of cameras you're interested in.

Talk to MLE she has some nice toys

 

I think I liked your other work better. (then again I'm not a fan of tilt)

 

I like that shot - it's a good location, has good Fall color & contrast and it shows a very nice car (looks even better in your sig). What's unfortunate is the light-pole and sign sprouting 'out off' the top of the car. The light-pole can be removed, but not the sign (it's a cool sign but it's in the wrong place maybe)... And you're right about the tripod - thanks for the reminder!