Phoenix Gold Phorum

I went for a drive today with my old man and ran into these. Someone had thrown out some hay for horses or cows and these bastages were all over it. So, having my new toy I decided to take some pics. Critique away! No seriously, I need all the pointers I can get!

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You're getting pretty damn good with that camera. Beautiful shots.

mr tibbs wrote:So, having my new toy...BAM! Turkey for dinner!

Fixed.

AVICJR wrote:You're getting pretty damn good with that camera. Beautiful shots.

Thanks Mando, but seriously all credit so far goes to the camera. I'm still pretty much using it like a point and shoot!

Grim0013 wrote:

mr tibbs wrote:So, having my new toy...BAM! Turkey for dinner!

Fixed.

I do have a Benilli that still needs to be broken in.

I'm no shutterbug, but I do know one or two things.

First, make sure there is nothing in front of the pictures subject.

Second, make sure the noise in the background of the subject isn't to distracting. Also, make sure the subject contrasts the background so it stands out and doesn't blend in like the picture of the turkeys flying in front of the trees.

If only you caught those flying turkeys in full frame with your telephoto! This is why I love my megazoom... I can react quickly and hit telephoto occasions when they appear.

I agree with Paul. Your background is very busy, so it obfuscates your subjects somewhat. Also, in a couple of frames, there's half a turkey poking out the side of it... Try to make sure all of your subjects are in the frame, or if they are cut off, at least ensure it is done in an aesthetic manor. The truck for example, might have been better fully revealed, or not at all. Aesthetically you could cut it off at the back of the cab as well, but it's awkward cut off in the middle of the grille like that.

In the shots through the trees, try to reposition yourself so that the tree frames the subjects, but doesn't block them. I absolutely love using trees as framing devices.

The best tip I can give you is to move, move, move. Find different angles to take pictures, and don't stop snapping until you find one that is just right!

I'd almost say never quit pressing that button. You can always delete the shitty pictures, but the more you take, the more you have to choose from.

The 2nd one in the 2nd post is my favorite.

denim wrote:The 2nd one in the 2nd post is my favorite.

Ditto. A bit more zoom and it would've nearly been perfect (that's what I was talking about with the telephoto remark)

coming from a guy with no real S'Bugging experience, nice pics. I understand what you guys are saying though, kinda cool to hear ways on how to take the perfect picture

All good points, thanks guys! With these turkeys I just had to kind of take what they gave me. Every time I moved they would scatter so I just had to kind of take pictures as is. I guess that's why they always say don't take pictures (or make movies) with kids or animals.

Hopefully next time the animals won't be as skiddish. I do need to work on my angels, I can tell that. Some of the other pictures I took you can barely see the turkeys. I suppose I could crop the flying one and try to center (or off center) the subject a little more. I am impressed though at how clear these look.

If you guys are up for another round I'll post up some others that I took during a drive me and the wife took last weekend. Let me know!

Shit dood. Post 'em up!

And here are a few more, seriously guys let me know what you think. I'm seriously thinking about taking some classes or something to learn how the hell to work this thing.


This golden eagle was feeding on a dead deer on the side of the road. We flipped around to get some pics, but when we stopped it took off.

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Damn double post! I'll take this opportunity to tell you guys a little side story.

On our way back home we decided to go up a side canyon to try and find some eagles. When I spotted this one we stopped to take some pics. After sitting there for a while I spotted a few more eagles flying around in the distance. I got the scope out and there were about 5 more. I knew they were feeding on a dead carcass but the way they were acting, plus the magpies were all over. Well, as we are watching the eagles fly around and land I spotter a mountain lion moving towards the kill! This is only the 3rd mountain lion I have seen in the wild, pretty damn cool! I just caught a glimpse of him, but after that all of the eagles and magpies flew away to a safe distance. I couldn't see the carcass, but I knew it was there. After a few more minutes we spotted a fox sitting in a clearing looking down at the carcass waiting his turn. Pretty damn cool to see all of that wildlife in one spot!

#1 Getting exposure right in blinding snow is a bitch! Try getting the camera to measure light on darker items, like the bush, instead of the snow. That way the background won't look so dark by comparison. Of course the snow might just wash the picture out with too much exposure. In this case a polarizing filter can help a TON.

Again, with the eagle in front of the background, you can barely make it out. If you got it just a second quicker as it flew over the snow, it would be much better. And of course, telephoto would have been perfect here.

#2 Your icicle picture is a little underexposed. I would have shot that again at +1 or +2 even. Framing is pretty good, but I would take the lighter corner out of the top so that it's consistently lit.

#3 I would have just framed the snow, without the half cut hill in the background. Just the snow on it's own would have been more dramatic, while the background is much less thrilling.

#4 I like. It's framed well, exposed well... good pic

#5 I think this would have been perfect if you left all the tips of the grass showing.

#6 Damn that fence for ruining an otherwise awesome pic

#7 I like, but the trees on the left are awkward. I would have kept their tops in the picture or not included them

#8 Not sure if you could get more zoom, frame just beyond the deers asses, and maybe put them 1/3rd into the pic instead of smack in the middle. Very good pic nonetheless.

#9 A little busy

#10 Underexposed a bit, seems your camera likes shooting shade as shade... I personally would bump the exposure +1 or so

stipud wrote:#1 Getting exposure right in blinding snow is a bitch! Try getting the camera to measure light on darker items, like the bush, instead of the snow. That way the background won't look so dark by comparison. Of course the snow might just wash the picture out with too much exposure. In this case a polarizing filter can help a TON.

Again, with the eagle in front of the background, you can barely make it out. If you got it just a second quicker as it flew over the snow, it would be much better. And of course, telephoto would have been perfect here.

#2 Your icicle picture is a little underexposed. I would have shot that again at +1 or +2 even. Framing is pretty good, but I would take the lighter corner out of the top so that it's consistently lit.

#3 I would have just framed the snow, without the half cut hill in the background. Just the snow on it's own would have been more dramatic, while the background is much less thrilling.

#4 I like. It's framed well, exposed well... good pic

#5 I think this would have been perfect if you left all the tips of the grass showing.

#1 I liked this one better, but I have to crop out the mirror. The wife was actually taking these pics of the eagle because she was on the passenger side of the vehicle. I wish it would have been zoomed in some more.



#3 Kinda like this? I took a bunch of different pics here, I have many to choose from.



#5 Better? It's kinda out of focus or something just feels not quite right here to me.



And here is another one I shot just this morning. The clouds looked kinda cool against the mountains. I didn't quite know how to frame this. See, I need some damn classes!






BTW, does anyone have any suggestions on where to host pictures? I used Flickr for these, but they only let you upload 100mb free per month and I'm almost maxed out for this month already. I tried Photobucket, but it seems to only work at times for me. Any other suggestions?

#1 captured the eagle perfectly, more tele would be good as you said, also underexposed

#3 yes, better, but still a bit of crap at the top there

#5 I do like this one a bit better due to the effect from the sparkle of the water, but they grass is still cut off at the top on the left

Mountains... see about 1/4 to 1/3rd in to the left where the sky turns from dark to light? I would have put that at the edge and captured a bit more of the trailing slope of the mountain. To capture mountains I always try to get them from the base to the tip so that you can really see their size.

Alot of those last shots are pretty good. The second post of the grass has too much bokeh formations, causing a distracting pattern to happen in the back. I focus more on that then I do the subject. You may want to check out an editing program, such as lightroom or picasa. There are some shots that would look really well with some slight editing.

With the mountains I was trying to cut out the freeway that is at the very bottom of the picture and I didn't want to pan right because there was open blue sky there. I thought that would look a little too weird having the dark with the blue. And I couldn't pan down because of the damn highway.

I'm thinking joyride is right and I'm going to have to invest in an editing program. Also, any other suggestions on a hosting site?