Frontroom Gallery

[Ser Clegane]

The photo of the man with the afro hair is very striking, Greg.

Seconded
The blue/red background adds to the perfect look of that picture.

I share your difficulties with getting good shoots of people (especially close-ups) - that's why (so far) you will rarely see shots of people from me

@ DJ - very nice shots
A macro lens would actually be on my to-buy list, so I am as well interested to hear what equipment you are using.

@ Mith
Greg - made me curious.
Please? Pretty please?

[Duke John]

I am using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ6: 7 Megapixel, 6x zoom and optical image stabilization.

BTW, where do you find such perfectly formed flowers?

They grow on our balcony (), the first one is a 1cm cactus flower actually. Here is a photo with not so perfect flowers, but the bumblebee in flight makes up for it:


Next time I'll try to show something else than a flower

[Gregoshi]

Nice picture DJ!! That bee came out so good. How close were you to it? I have no objection to more flower pictures if you have them.

Up until January, I was using a Panasonic Lumix FZ20 (5mp, x12 zoom). I liked my Panasonic a lot. The only drawback I had with it was it showed a lot of digital noise in low light shots - which unfortunately was a large majority of my shooting.

[Duke John]

I would guess 5 to 10 cm. No zoom, doesn't work that close anyway.

I have no objection to more flower pictures if you have them.

Ok then!



That drop of water looks so perfect it is almost spoiling the photo as it is starting to look fake.

The only drawback I had with it was it showed a lot of digital noise in low light shots.

Still need to experiment with that. I am quite happy though that I have much room to play with dark scenes than with our old "mechanical" camera. I was once in a foggy wood with trees with moss on the bark with the sunlight highlighting certain spots. I so wished I had a good camera at that time.

[Gregoshi]

You are right about the perfect water drop. I think that is my favourite picture yet. I've been meaning to spend some time with the flowers around our house. You are inspiring me to do so.

[Sigurd]

I am using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ6: 7 Megapixel, 6x zoom and optical image stabilization.

Wow... this is the camera I got for my birthday monday.
I haven't used it yet...



I am using my video camera taking stills here. It has only 2.3 mega pixels and takes crappy pictures. That is why I wished for a separate camera for stills.
I am looking forward to use it now that Duke John has showed me its potential.

[Gregoshi]

We're gonna hold you to it Sigurd.

Here's a shot I took at dusk in Philadelphia last evening:



The stone monstrocity in the forground is 30th Street Station (train & bus) - a monument to the early half of the last century. The glass and steel oddity in the background is the Amtrak building - a monument to the new century. The blue lights (on the left side) & white lights (on the right side) on the Amtrak building alternate colours every minute or two, the change sweeping diagonally from the bottom of the building to the top.

With this image I will admit to a little photo editing. 30th Street Station was rather dark in the original, so I brightened it up a little to show some detail on it rather than just a black shadow.

[Duke John]

The same camera, what are the odds?! I agree fully with Greg that you now have a promise to fullfill, Sigurd.

***

Everything looks so sharp on your photo, Greg. How did you do that? Or is it because you resized the photo?

***

Took a picture of a sunflower with the sun at its back. I then noticed the left side of it having a nice graduation of the yellow leaves dissappearing into the white backlight. Photos like this provide for some nice material to be used for other things. This new hobby can keep me busy for quite some time

[Goofball]

Just to shatter a few stereotypes, here is what I, a card-carrying Orgah lefty, was doing for the past six weeks:

[Gregoshi]

Everything looks so sharp on your photo, Greg. How did you do that? Or is it because you resized the photo?

I've found resizing has mixed effect. In the case of the buildings, resizing actually hurt the picture. If you look at the top of 30th Street Station, you will notice the "jaggies" (stepped effect) where the roof meets the sky. That is not present on the original. However, in the case of poor focus, shrinking the picture can help overcome that. My picture of the afro-haired gentleman is a perfect example. It looks really good at 800x640. However, look at it anywhere near actual size and you can tell he is not in focus. I have taken a number of School of Rock pictures that make great regular prints, but you wouldn't want to enlarge them to 8"x10" (or whatever the international equivalent is).

DJ, in just posting a few pictures, it seems to me you have a very good creative eye for a photograph. For me, that is the hardest part of photography - seeing the picture. You can't take great pictures if you don't see it and recognize it first. That sunflower picture is fantastic. I do look forward to seeing more from you.

[Husar]

Awesome Goofball!

I mean you look really cool and badass as childish as that may sound.

[Samurai Waki]

"Hasta La Vista... Baby."

[Duke John]

I saw the jagged edge and I thought you might have resized in the pixel resize mode, although that would have probably resulted in even more jagged lines. Have you tried different resize techniques? I never/rarely get such obvious jagged lines.

And you are quite right about usefullness of using resizing to increase the sharpness. Very few of my photos are worth printing at 100% size. 7 megapixels is than convenient as you can easily downsize it for smaller prints.

[Papewaio]

You know duck hunting is traditionally done with a double barrel shotgun either side by side or under and over... that is for a very big duck.

BTW your absence was noted and we were worried where you had disappeared too... we should have been more worried for the ducks...

Wherefore art thou, Goofball?

[Sigurd]

Is that a weapon on the ground I see ??

[R'as al Ghul]

God, I envy you for your nice cameras. I want one, too.

Here's a greeting from the land of analogue photography:



Taken in the Tropic house at the Zoo, no flash, hardly any natural light.
I've a Pentax 1:1,4 lens for purposes like this.

R'as

[Sigurd]

I have been playing with my new camera during the weekend and here are some of the pictures I took.

[Gregoshi]

Nice shot Ras. What speed film & shutter speed did you use? Did you have to use a tripod too? Indoor zoo shots can be very hard with poor lighting, but fortunately the animals usually cooperate by not moving a muscle for hours at a time.

Nice start Sigurd. I like the dominant colour theme in each picture (red, blue & white) - whether intended or not. Where do you have water that colour of blue?

I was out on Sunday traveling around with my camera. I took quite a few pictures, but I'll post a couple inspired by DJ (but not as close up as his).

[Sigurd]

Nice start Sigurd. I like the dominant colour theme in each picture (red, blue & white) - whether intended or not. Where do you have water that colour of blue?

The colour theme was not intentional .
There was a 60th birthday party this weekend in one of the older parts of my city.
The building we ate at (not the red one) was down at the bayside.
It was sunny and the light on the water just asked to have its picture taken. I must say that the lights were nicer in the display that on the actual picture. I took several with different settings. I believe the one I posted was taken with ISO 400 and the longest open shutter setting I could find. The water became "more" blue than the real thing.
I bet the picture would have looked really nice if I used a more expensive camera with much longer shutter times.

[Duke John]

That water looks really good, SG. I don't think a longer shuttertime would have much improved it though. The water itself would only get more vague and, in my opinion, it is nice to be able to recognize the waves and ripples, gives it more texture.

Greg, the spiderweb photo has an unexpected (?) element; the web has a "twin" as the general form (standing ellips) of it can also be seen in the twigs to the left of it.

***

We went to the zoo this weekend which was an exellent opportunity to take pictures:

[R'as al Ghul]

Nice shot Ras. What speed film & shutter speed did you use? Did you have to use a tripod too? Indoor zoo shots can be very hard with poor lighting, but fortunately the animals usually cooperate by not moving a muscle for hours at a time.

Thanks Greg.
I think I used an ISO 100, a 1/30 or 1/60 sec. at F2. I didn't have a tripod with me that day but the croq had no intention to move for the next hours, or so it seemed. The birds on the other hand were more flighty.
If it wasn't for the amazing pentax lens it wouldn't have been possible to take the picture. I'll see if I can share some more but most need scanning first.

People photography is very difficult because people tend to put on their photo-face when they realise that they are being photographed. If they aren't professionals this ususally means that they make a grimace.
To avoid that you need to be unobtrusive. When being with friends and family it's rather easy, you just need to become the guy who always takes pictures and soon people will stop bothering and won't break off their conversations just because you're fiddling with your camera again. Once they see the results they'll play along and you can make portraits where the subjects' faces are relaxed and natural.

R'as

[Fragony]

Scaring bunnies, nice.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

"You know when I said I'd kill you last? I lied."

[/Arnie Voice]

[Beirut]

He's on my side.

[LeftEyeNine]

Sorry, fellows, I have been somehow away from the cove for quite some time, I missed the congrats.

Rakı for all of you out there. Cheers to the bone.

[AntiochusIII]

Amazing thread. Can't believe I didn't find this one before.

It's nice to see Orgahs in their real life pics with their real life activities, it feels good to think about all those lives and their courses which take them to meet together here in this little corner of the internet.



P.S. And no I don't have pictures to offer. I've taken very very few pictures these last few years for some reason.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Just, as some may know, return from a Scottish holiday. I, for once in my life, can actually say I did something useful with my time and took some photographs of an acceptable quality - not as brilliant as some of your exceptionally detailed and elegant pieces of artwork though. Unfortunately, some of them were taken at a terrible 1.1 mega-pixel at times when I didn’t take along my laptop to transfer the pictures too - my camera has a terrible memory size and I was rather afraid of any suspicious characters. Fortunately though, a select few are of the more suitable 4.0 quality which is the maximum my camera can perform.

These photographs were taken in St. Andrews, on the Isle of Mull and in Perth.

St. Andrews
A view over St. Andrew's Bay















The Old St. Andrew's Golf Clubhouse



From the Oban and the Oban to Craignure Ferry
A lighthouse just off the coast of the Isle of Mull







A peculiar tower on the mainland after leaving Oban's harbour



The view while entering Oban's harbour



The castle I managed to get a shot of while leaving Craignure's harbour



Pictures of a strange lighthouse like object just off the coast of Mull









Another view from the ferry, taken just as the ferry entered Oban harbour



The view from a raised area in which I stopped to take lunch



The Isle of Mull and Tobermory
Two shipwreaks beside the main costal road



A stream entering the sea at the Tobermory harbour






The boats in Tobermory's harbour



The view of the town's main street







The view from a raised area in Tobermory



Some more boats in the harbour, viewed from another raised area







A small stream's waterfall, just before it enters the sea at the harbour



The ferry as it prepares to make port in Craignure



Two small birds in Craignure's harbour



The Highlands
The following three pictures were taken by a loch in the Southern Highlands



Some ducks by the same loch



Another view over the loch



The view of another strange castle located in a loch from a raised point



What I think to be Ben Nevis, although I can't be sure if I was right or not



Some sort of damn in the Central Highlands



Another view from the Central Highlands



The views of another loch and surrounding features. These are most certainly my favourite pictures.















This was a photograph I simply had to take - of a highland cow. They were very un-cooperative though. They just ignored me the whole time I was there pointing my camera at them. Henceforth I only succeeded in gaining a side view.



Perth
The view from the top of a hill on the entrance to Perth



A small church in the city centre



Perth's council offices



A bridge flying over the River Tay

[doc_bean]

Some very nice pics

[Husar]

This is a slightly older pic which I scanned this weekend and thought I might share:

[LeftEyeNine]

You don't look starving in this one. A couple of thumbs up.