I got a Nikon camera. I love to take a [PHOTO THREAD]

saltiness

I refuse to let the first picture of our new thread be a fucking pet photo!

Bouldering in Bishop, CA

UnknownSaint

Isn't the new thread supposed to be made by the last poster of the old one anyhow?

Either way Salti, I'm not too sure about any of those really. Just...eh.

RusticCreature

Salti is an expert tippy toe stander.

Veritas

Psssh at least my title was cool. Nikons.... blech

:P

Only kidding

Anyone have any experience with online printing companies? I was thinking of going with adorama or mpix but I haven't tried it before.

Dark Moon

I had a lovely photo diversion tonight on my way home from a friend's place. I left at 3:30 AM and had my camera and tripod along with me - there's a neat park directly behind his house that I really wanted to catch before the snow got all disturbed by footprints. I was confident that I could shoot with my gloves on and remain relatively warm.

Oh how wrong I was. At -25°C, it was rather chilly this evening. When you're laying in a field at 4 in the morning trying to compose a 30 second landscape exposure, it's deathly cold. I only managed to get about 20 good shots in before my hands stopped sending sensory information to my brain. I ran back to my car (5 minutes away) and frantically fired up the engine. I can honestly say that my hands have never hurt that much before. Between handling the tripod/camera with bare hands (as I have gigantic gloves not very good at tactile motions) and accidentally dousing them in snow a few times, I froze them up quite handily. The 20 minutes it took my car to start producing heat did not help the agony. As didn't the frozen steering wheel and wet gloves.

Despite all that, I still had a lovely time. 4AM in a really quiet neighbourhood during a cold winter is a wonderfully serene environment. I did not see a person, hear a car or experience any other living thing during my entire 30 minutes shooting, and in a really snowy city the amber streetlight reflect off the snow and light the whole city up to a strange half-light. Very ethereal and very neat.

I am dying to see my images, but sadly my camera is currently in quarantine inside a sealed plastic bag with some waterphilic crystals. I suspect it will take all night to warm up to a point where water will no longer condense all over it. I just thought I'd share my experience of how neat late-night photography can be.

Jake!

A friend of mine pointed me to this thread so I thought I'd share some photo's that I've taken in the last few months. The weather is awful here at the moment so I'm not really getting to shoot much. Can't wait till the days start getting light again!

Some personal shots







Some work shots







Not really happy with the foreground in that last one.

Just a technical question, if I view the following image through Firefox the colours become totally washed out, any idea why that would be? In PS and in general the sky looks like it's on fire, all reds and bright purples. In Firefox it looks really pale. Does the same with jpg and png...

sonictk

Just a technical question, if I view the following image through Firefox the colours become totally washed out, any idea why that would be? In PS and in general the sky looks like it's on fire, all reds and bright purples. In Firefox it looks really pale. Does the same with jpg and png...

This is because of ICC colour profile inconsistencies. Your image is using the Adobe RGB (1998) colour profile, whereas Firefox will by default display all images using the sRGB colour profile. Safari can display images using their embedded ICC profiles thus the change in look via different browsers.

There should be a setting in your camera to choose what colour profile you wish to apply to your images, since the 400D is waaaaaaay more expensive than my D50 and I can do so on mine. Adobe RGB may have a larger colour gamut but frankly colour mgnt is a pain in the ass, which is why I do all my work in sRGB or US Web Coated SWOP CMYK profiles, saves me a lot of headache.

saltiness

Thanks for the comments peoples. I'm not in any of those climbing shots, just a friend and another guy who was there. What don't you like about them Unknown?


Also, I don't shoot Nikon. If you don't get the title of this thread you seriously need to go listen to Kodachrome by Paul Simon.

Veritas

Ah damn.... your thread title is better then. Phooey.

Gafoto

My thread titles were better.

Moss

I look a bit chubs in today's 365 shot.

erisian pope

A couple recent photos - a touch of Xmas theme for 2 of 'em. Feedback and crits are always welcome!

NotASenator

Those are fabu popesterite

TrippyDK

I love the ornaments pope, especially the lights behind them. My only problem is the nutcracker looks almost..squished...maybe its my eyes playing tricks on me, or maybe its just the ornament itself.

JAmp5

I got 2 Nikon cameras

Sheri

JAmp5 wrote: »

I got 2 Nikon cameras

Show off.

(We missed you, dude)

Proto

Dark Moon wrote: »

I had a lovely photo diversion tonight on my way home from a friend's place. I left at 3:30 AM and had my camera and tripod along with me - there's a neat park directly behind his house that I really wanted to catch before the snow got all disturbed by footprints. I was confident that I could shoot with my gloves on and remain relatively warm.

Oh how wrong I was. At -25°C, it was rather chilly this evening. When you're laying in a field at 4 in the morning trying to compose a 30 second landscape exposure, it's deathly cold. I only managed to get about 20 good shots in before my hands stopped sending sensory information to my brain. I ran back to my car (5 minutes away) and frantically fired up the engine. I can honestly say that my hands have never hurt that much before. Between handling the tripod/camera with bare hands (as I have gigantic gloves not very good at tactile motions) and accidentally dousing them in snow a few times, I froze them up quite handily. The 20 minutes it took my car to start producing heat did not help the agony. As didn't the frozen steering wheel and wet gloves.

Despite all that, I still had a lovely time. 4AM in a really quiet neighbourhood during a cold winter is a wonderfully serene environment. I did not see a person, hear a car or experience any other living thing during my entire 30 minutes shooting, and in a really snowy city the amber streetlight reflect off the snow and light the whole city up to a strange half-light. Very ethereal and very neat.

I am dying to see my images, but sadly my camera is currently in quarantine inside a sealed plastic bag with some waterphilic crystals. I suspect it will take all night to warm up to a point where water will no longer condense all over it. I just thought I'd share my experience of how neat late-night photography can be.

What's your procedure for keeping your camera safe in the cold? I'm always nervous about shooting when it gets really cold.... and it gets really cold here during the winter.


also: excellent thread title salt!

sonictk

What's your procedure for keeping your camera safe in the cold? I'm always nervous about shooting when it gets really cold.... and it gets really cold here during the winter.

Actually I'm also curious about this, I heard that manual cameras (e.g. with film advance levers) will actually operate under extreme cold but not self-advancing film SLRs or dSLRs (without special protection), is this true? Never really bothered to find out since I don't live in the Arctic or anything like that.

Cycophant

sonictk wrote: »

...Never really bothered to find out since I don't live in the Arctic or anything like that.

Haha, time for my rare predicament to come in handy for once!

I've been using my digital camera pretty extensively up here in the arctic. Granted, it's not a fancy DSLR or anything (yet...just a few more paychecks), but it is a decent-range camera nonetheless. I took the camera out with me to try and get some photographs of the crazy insane blizzard we had here a few days ago. The weather was somewhere around -25 celsius or so, but the blowing snow and winds meant that anything exposed was covered and caked in snow in about 5 seconds. I kept the camera in a camera bag when I wasn't directly using it, but it still had a nice thick layer of ice and snow on it by the time I got back inside. I shut the camera off, let it warm up and dry a bit, and haven't had a problem yet.

Alternatively, I've also taken the camera out on some of the coldest days we've had here (you get some beautiful sunsets when it's -55 celsius), and the camera seems no worse for wear. I wouldn't suggest storing the camera out there, but for shooting for half an hour or so, it seems perfectly fine.

Ironically I'd think people like Proto would have more problems than me, though. Back down south in Ontario and the like, the winters are stupidly wet and icky. Up here it's cold, yes; but there's little to no moisture or humidity. And that's what's going to wreak havoc on a camera, I bet.

erisian pope

I have read of some photographers who keep their camera in a plastic bag and that bag in another plastic bag (ziplock style) when it's inside (where it's warm) and then take it outside and let it cool down. all the condensation forms between the two bags and not on the camera. When the camera has cooled to outside temperature they then remove it from the bags.

Other photographers keep theirs in a single plastic bag with those silicon packets to absorb the moisture. You would have to change those out regularly as they do "fill up" with moisture and become inert after a while.



In other news, here's another pretty sunset as seen from my uber-lame Texas semi-rural landscape on the outskirts of town.

Sheri

Hah, you suckers and your cold.

Moss

Tried my hand at a bog standard, black and white self portrait for today's 365:

Iruka

Your eyes look very unfocused, its as if your looking around me.

Prospicience

Awesome contrast Moss. I guess the only thing I'd say is the left side of the picture on the bottom (right part of your neck) looks too smooth of an edge compared to the rest and it looks like there's a little chunk 'shopped out. I could be completely wrong about that though. Tiny complaint for a really cool self portrait.

bombardier

Moss stop being so fat, you goddamn fatty. Even your photos are soft around the edges.

Dublo7

Iruka wrote: »

Your eyes look very unfocused, its as if your looking around me.

like the G-man.

JAmp5

Sheri wrote: »

JAmp5 wrote: »

I got 2 Nikon cameras

Show off.

(We missed you, dude)

Christmas means time to take more pictures.

Prospicience

JAmp5 wrote: »

Sheri wrote: »

JAmp5 wrote: »

I got 2 Nikon cameras

Show off.

(We missed you, dude)

Christmas means time to take more pictures.

Wuhoo, can never have enough of you Jamp. Also moss I meant to say it's awesome you're doing a 365, I was thinking about startin' one as soon as work settles in a little bit.

MEADONE

Moss wrote: »

Tried my hand at a bog standard, black and white self portrait for today's 365:

I think there is a definite lack of midtones in this picture, which is really a product of the simple frontal lighting and perhaps your post process. It really washes out the flat areas of your face and destroys some good detail that would make this (in my opinion) a better portrait. Also, I would have preferred a back light or kicker in there to define the outline of your shoulders and head.

Moss

Thanks for the crits. I've got another 344 to go so I should get the hang of this eventually.

Dark Moon

sonictk wrote: »

What's your procedure for keeping your camera safe in the cold? I'm always nervous about shooting when it gets really cold.... and it gets really cold here during the winter.

Actually I'm also curious about this, I heard that manual cameras (e.g. with film advance levers) will actually operate under extreme cold but not self-advancing film SLRs or dSLRs (without special protection), is this true? Never really bothered to find out since I don't live in the Arctic or anything like that.

When you're actually out in the cold the only real trouble is the extremely bad battery life. From about 600 shots at 20 Celsius my battery life drops to about 200 at -30. The temperature flux from cold to warm is the next big problem. During my most recent trip I brought along a ziplock bag and a couple packets of silica gel and sealed my camera in it while I was still out in the cold. I then brought it in, and no water condensed on it. As far as I know this is a safe way of using the camera out in the extreme cold.

Sheri

I love the way your eyes look in that photo, Moss. I'm not sure if it's just the awesomeness of your eyes or if it's something in the photography, but it's neat.

Prospicience

Good tip as far as battery life, keep an extra battery on you really close to your body. For instance I put mine in a little plastic baggy usually on my side in my underwear.

:winky:

This way when one battery dies off swap it out and put it in your pants and so on. Get more life out of them this way.

Tini

Prospicience wrote: »

JAmp5 wrote: »

Sheri wrote: »

JAmp5 wrote: »

I got 2 Nikon cameras

Show off.

(We missed you, dude)

Christmas means time to take more pictures.

Wuhoo, can never have enough of you Jamp. Also moss I meant to say it's awesome you're doing a 365, I was thinking about startin' one as soon as work settles in a little bit.

I'm planning on doing one for a new years resolution.

Sheri

Prospicience wrote: »

Good tip as far as battery life, keep an extra battery on you really close to your body. For instance I put mine in a little plastic baggy usually on my side in my underwear.

:winky:

This way when one battery dies off swap it out and put it in your pants and so on. Get more life out of them this way.

On this note, I feel the need to inform you all that the battery pack that is available for most dSLRs is an excellent investment. My camera came with one (being a hand-me-down), but I can tell you that if I upgrade to a different body, I will spend the extra money for that battery pack. I've gone all day shooting and haven't run out of batteries, and the handiness of the vertical shutter button has made it pretty much a necessity.

So if any of you are considering getting one for your dSLR, do it. It makes your camera bigger and heavier, but you also don't have to worry about swapping out batteries or do that crazy arm thing to take a portrait shot. :P

Veritas

Sheri wrote: »

an excellent investment.

This is good advice, really. I use an XTi which is a bit of a smaller camera so the battery grip makes a huuuge difference. I actually like the weight I think it feels more balanced but a lot of times that just comes down to personal preference. On the battery side of things though, I have 5 for my camera, 2 of them in the battery grip and then a few spares. I rarely ever need to change them out if I go in with a fully charged set.

Also, and lets be honest here, it just makes your camera look badass, so why the hell not.

bombardier

Also known as a vertical grip. And yes they are very nice. Mine came with an adapter that you can toss 6 AA batteries in if you're really in a pinch.

erisian pope

Moss, according to Flickr, you're quite interesting. (It's the 9th one for 12/08!)

EDIT: Congrats! That's pretty cool.

Prospicience

erisian pope wrote: »

Moss, according to Flickr, you're quite interesting. (It's the 9th one for 12/08!)

EDIT: Congrats! That's pretty cool.

That's really cool grats moss!

bombardier

Flickr comments are almost up there with Youtube comments in terms of being completely retarded and annoying.

Prospicience

Oh so true bombs.

So it snowed last night so I got up this morning at 6:30 so I could try and catch the frost and snow on ze trees. Ended up hiking about an hour in 10 degrees F. to one of my favorite spots in the area. Probably not the smartest move with how sick I've been.