Coming Out Party - Lurker Group#2

Yay for lurkers coming out! I'm so glad you guys were open to staring another one of these groups. I know that it was from posting here on this board and getting so much feedback that I began to feel more at ease with my camera. I hope the same will be true for all of you.

Let's start with a little intro - let us all know who you are, what kind of camera you use, how long you've had your camera, and what you'd like to learn or how you'd like to see your skills grow. Please include a couple of photos - SOCC (straight out of the camera), if possible. Once we have a feel for where everyone is at, we'll start with some assignments and posting for CC.

In this group we have:

rachelrazzle (Rachel)
Jokr (Jo)
reeveslady (Suzanne)
lizzib45 (Sara)

Thanks for playing, ladies!

Best,
GiGi

Hi all :)
I guess I'll get the ball rolling here.....

I'm Jo, I have a Rebel XSi, I've had it for 2 or 3 years, and is it bad to say I'd like to improve all my skills?
I've taken a few photog courses, but it seems that as soon as I finish with them, everything they teach about the f-stops, shutter speed, etc all fly's out my head and I can never remember it. I do put my camera on manual quite often and play with it, but only if I'm shooting a still subject - if I'm out and about I prefer to keep it on auto (I know, it's the big bad 4-letter word of photographers) because I don't want to miss a good shot because my settings are all wrong.
My best pictures (at least I think they are) have all either been landscapes or candid shots - I'm not very good at portrait pictures, but I'd like to improve them. I'm always curious to see what it would take to take a good shot and change it to a spectacular one.

I'm at work right now so I have no pictures to upload, but I will try and do that later tonight.

OK, so here's some pics - both straight out of the camera, and after editing:

My brother's wedding this summer:
SOOTC:
[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...2774-small.jpg[/IMG]


Edited:
[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...74-1-small.jpg[/IMG]



Wedding pic 2:
SOOTC:
[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...2786-small.jpg[/IMG]


Edited:
[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...86-2-small.jpg[/IMG]



And this one I managed to overwrite the original image and I only have the edited one:
[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...95-1-small.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks for doing this!

Hi Jo! Thanks for jumping in. It's more than OK to say you want to work on everything - I think a lot of us feel that way. And I think in general, we'll try a wide variety of topics, subjects, and techniques as to cover as many things as possible as part of this group. If nothing else, perhaps it can help you to find where your photography passion lies.

I look forward to seeing your photos!

Best,
GiGi

Yay! I'm excited for any tips I can get, in any area. ;) And I mostly shoot on auto, and occasionally on portrait mode. I play with the settings when it doesn't matter (meaning not with live subjects), but always nervous about missing a good shot because I'm fiddling.

I'm Rachel, SAHM to four: Brilee (10 next week), Tucker (7.5), and my twin boys Abram and Wyatt will be 3 right after Christmas. :) I like mostly taking photos of children, mine, nieces, nephews, etc. I do it in trade or for free for family, but its nothing awesome. :)

My camera is not super awesome, but it better than what I have had before. I have a Canon SX30IS. Unfortunately it is broken right now, but I think dh is taking it to the shop (its way downtown) for me tomorrow, so for a week or two I have my old point and shoot, Canon PowerShot A90 (I think lol).

I'll work on uploading some photos. I am better at posed photos, but not great with positioning people. But I like to take photos of everything. Some challenges and tips would be great, and just anything! :)

Looking through the photos makes me miss my nice camera even more! lol. Anyhow, I have a few from both (well, I uploaded a ton... hard to choose what shows my style, etc)

Okay, posed of my nephew, unedited (not best lighting, sunlight streaming in)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8448/7...63445c7762.jpg

Lightly edited (somehow missed uploading the unedited)
My sis, bf and baby
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8179/7...593aed438e.jpg

(I have lots more from this shoot that I love. But I'll stop there lol)

My son and his tooth
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8461/7...bbb6a9a979.jpg

My daughter (the taller one) waiting in the wings at the dance rehearsal. This is super zoomed, and w/o flash, so color is strange, but I don't know setting wells enough to play with them quickly.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8029/7...0669a9caf3.jpg


Action shot of another class of dancers that I thought turned out decent
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8313/7...9b1de56c7e.jpg

These next two are from my old Canon A90 (or whatever it is lol)
My sis and her fiancee,
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8309/7...747e02ddeb.jpg
and edited (lightly, because I really don't know much there either. lol)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8179/7...434e4eddcf.jpg
(posing help... he was so not listening to most of my suggestions and I caught so many goofy looks on his face, or just weird stuff, and though I noticed some of it before the shots, when I tell him to sit a certain way, and he doesn't listen, what do I do? I think that is why I prefer shooting kids, they listen better, of it they don't it doesnt turn out goofy. lol)

Sister and nephew
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8451/7...4f533f0390.jpg

some candid shots
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8032/7...5ab966eca2.jpg
(I'm sure if I knew settings more I could have made this better...)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8301/7...f012fab12a.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8300/7...5e8207521f.jpg

And a few nature shots I like
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8296/7...0ba32f7041.jpg
(This one could have been helped by setting familiarity for sure, it just feels eh. But I like the next two.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8314/7...ae16d76c52.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8320/7...86db0e6a68.jpg

For fun
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8309/7...4ee7ce2bb3.jpg

(oh these shots range from April to Aug of this year)

Thanks for doing this, Gigi! I?ve been admiring your martial arts action shots for a while now. I love how you capture the spirit of the action. Maybe you remember me. I?ve been posting on and off (OK, mostly just lurking) since 2008.

So, I?m Suzanne, mom of 3 (Sean?6, Luke?4, and Eve?2), and I currently have a Nikon D7000. I?m no stranger to DSLRs, as I started out with my first one back in 2007 (it was a Nikon D50). I got into DSLR photography because I wanted to capture moments quickly (remember how you?d press down the shutter button on a point and shoot and it would take forever to snap the shot?). My first son was probably around 10 months old when we got that D50. I didn?t fully go into manual mode until a year later, when I bought Peterson?s Understanding Exposure, which helped immensely. I also shoot in RAW now. I don?t really remember when I flipped the switch there, but I love how I can easily adjust the WB and exposure and get rid of some noise with it. Still, 4 years after discovering Peterson, I struggle with exposure (many times I still don?t quite get things right and end up underexposing), composition, and just plain not being able to translate my vision into a photo. I?m probably better at nature than portrait but still feel inadequate in most of my shots.

Without further ado, here are some recent SOOC shots, not even sharpened for web (or probably if flickr did it) :
Sean, on his first day of school. I was trying to follow an ROT with my Son, but I don?t know if that necessarily works here. ISO 400, f/4.5, SS 1/80, Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5 at 18mm

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8182/7...87bfaa9727.jpg

Luke, dancing around celebrating a great first day of pre-K. Very underexposed, and the aberration from the lens at 18 mm is pretty evident, as things in the background are all leaning (I could also be ever so slightly tilted here too, although the doorway in the back looks pretty straight at the top. ISO 900 (needed to be bumped higher), f/3.5 (that?s as open as this lens gets), SS 1/30 (I know, too slow for active kids :-) ), 18-200mm @ 18 mm.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8462/7...0c4442b18c.jpg

Lady Godiva (aka Eve) horsing around! Totally impromptu, and the den is seriously a cave, and my speedlight didn?t have charged up batteries, so I relied on the camera?s built-in flash. I was just trying out this angle, and I think I kinda like it. It makes her look long and lean. ISO 400, f/3.5, SS 1/40, 18 mm on my 18-200 mm (yeah, that thing is just permanently attached even though I have other lenses) with built-in flash

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8460/7...af89702996.jpg



Same settings, different angle

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8035/7...c42462693d.jpg

And this was just yesterday morning, outside of my house. It was grey outside, meaning the house was pitch black. And you?ll see by the settings, it was dreary and dark outside too. ISO 1600, 56 mm on my 18-200, f/4.8 (I think that?s the widest it goes at that mm), SS 1/50. Yeah, it?s dark even at that slow an SS and high an ISO.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8445/7...f4d20d1ba5.jpg

So, looking at these numbers and these results, I think I need to switch to my nifty 50 prime. It lets in more light, so I can increase my SS and hopefully keep my ISO down too. Also, I need to charge up my batteries for my speedlite. It?s obviously a bit dark where I live LOL!

Oh, and because I mentioned nature photography, I thought I?d add this in, as I just saw it again on my flickr account. It?s definitely lightly edited, but it at least shows I?m capable of an OK shot every once in a while :ROFL: It?s from February 2011 and taken with my old D200. ISO 100, SS 1/320, f/5.6, 300 mm on my old Sigma 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5056/5...360fa74ef9.jpg


Thanks for reading what turned out to be quite a book!

Crikey! Sorry about all the question marks up there. I copied and pasted from Word, and it translated my -- and ' to question marks :ROFL: Seriously, it took me a whole day to write it and I didn't want to end up time-out'd with loss of work. Crazy forum software.

Also, hi, Jo! Hi, Rachel! I hope to learn a lot with both of you :-)

Hi there!! I am sure excited to learn. I would also say I have not retained anything from a local photog- did a 1-2 hour session with a friend and the photog, but she was more about landscapes and didnt really shoot in manual. I also think I am too worried about missing a moment so I have been shooting in Portrait or landscape. But again, I feel like I am just fumbling my way and really not recalling what settings worked and what didnt.
I have a Canon Rebel T3i. I have two lenses 50 and a bigger 250. Never used the 250 though. I would love to take good shots while in action with my 2 yo DS-Tommy. And portraits. I seem to do decent with non moving objects-LOL! I also have zero editing skills. I do have photoshop but honestly it confused the heck out of me so I have no photos that have been edits by me personally.

Currently Photobucket is NOT my friend.... I am going to try again shortly.

OK Yay, PB is being nice- for now. Except the resizing. Sorry so big!

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...uly2012160.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...mas2011109.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...7132010155.jpg

HI Rachel! Sorry to hear your main camera is on out of the loop right now. Hope you are reunited soon. :) Looking at your shots, you've got quite a bit of experience and already have a good feel for where your passion lies. I hope we can help you refine that and make you more comfortable coming off of Auto mode. Thanks for sharing and jumping in!

Hi Suzanne! I *do* remember you and I'm so glad you're joining our group here. You're another with a lot of experience and I feel confident that we, as a group, can help one another grow to the next level in our photography. It's really great to have you on board!

Hi Sara! Glad you were able to join us as well! I'm looking forward to getting to know you and seeing more photos of your adorable little boy. If you are not happy with photobucket, you might want to try flickr. I know most of the ladies here on the board use it. I use a paid service called Fotki. They do have free accounts, if you want to check them out (Fotki: Share and Print Your Photos | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.). I've got one year left on my membership, but I am not sure I will stick with them after this year and may go to flickr myself.

Looking at the pictures that have been posted and your intros, I can honestly say I'm pumped about getting the ball rolling with you guys! We've got a good range of experience and interests and I think that together we really can build our skills and get even more comfortable with our cameras.

We are going to cover a really wide variety of topics and as we go and find out those areas were we feel less comfortable, then we'll delve in a little deeper and see if we can't really push through any barriers.

For now, I want to start by making everyone feel at home. And I guess that should come with a short bio from me as well. :D

I'm GiGi and I've been on this board in one form or another (I too started as a lurker) for the better part of 5 years, I think. I have been a member of pg.org since the birth of my son in October 2001. He is my one and only and is my primary photo subject. My passion lies in action photography, but I really want to improve my portrait work. I love landscape and nature photography and would like to experiment a bit more with that as well. I've been playing around with photoshop since about release 2.0 and while my editing skills are not the most advanced, I really enjoy creating with my photos by making posters and cards and that kind of thing.

I hope you will all get to feel at home in this group and on the board. I think we have a lot of fun in store for us! :D

Best,
GiGi

Gigi (or really anyone who might be able to chime in), my DD is taking her very first dance lesson tomorrow, and I was wondering if you have any tips on how to get a good action shot (not that a two year old would be taking leaps or anything :lol: ). I'm not sure if I'll be able to be in the studio with her or if I'll just be behind some glass, looking in.

I have a 50mm f/1.8, 70-300mm, 18-200mm, and the old 10-55mm kit lens. What do you recommend using/taking with me? If I'm allowed in the studio, is there a preferred location where I should be? I'm not sure if flash photography is allowed. It might be very distracting (it's only a class for 2 to 3 year olds).

TIA for any advice!