Excellent Ginger Have you been doing anything different lately? You latest shots have been much improved over some of your earlier stuff.
Harry http://behret.smugmug.com/NANPA member How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
Thanks everyone! I just woke up after sleeping in from doing these in the wee er hours.
Actually, this is sooo dumb, I was there to photograph the shrimp baiters as the sun went down.
I always photograph interesting birds as the sun sets, I always photograph interesting birds almost any time, smile. But I don't usually photograph seagulls, not unless I am practicing on them, or for some specific reason which I did not have last Sat night.
But this bird was just there, and wasn't acting like a normal seagull. One way I see the birds is by using the lens as binoculars. I pushed the trigger on this one, as it just was not flying like a seagull. I shot the bird as I was following it. Could always chimp, you know.
Honest to gosh, I had no idea it was a hawk/vulture for most, if not, the whole time I was shooting.
Hehe, I think I got a kind of a prize there, myself.
I think I had set the exposure for something else, actually was worried I had exposed wrong, but it appeared that "wrong" was "right". Isn't that the way of the world sometimes, smile.
Yes, I have been doing something differently for a few (don't know how many, but certainly not enough) months. And I think it shows how much people can "NOT" know that we are not aware of them "NOT" knowing.
In Canon there are three autofocus modes. The shorthand for autofocus is AF, something I had never really thought about. There is one, the one I always used in the past where one can focus and recompose.......and that is all I ever used, didn't KNOW there was anything else. (It is called One Shot)
Then there is a new smart mode, I still don't use it, one has to trust Canon, the camera, to be smart and it seems I am not the only one who is afraid of that. If anyone has any good experiences with it, I would like to know. It is called, AI (or AL, I don't know that still) Focus Autofocus.
Then there is AI Servo Autofocus. I noticed that phrase being bandied about here by some people, at some times. I filed that away in my mind to look up in my manual when I had it in hand some sweet day.
Well, one day last summer or so, I was sitting here, and I remembered that I was going to go to all the work to look this thing up. Wasn't doing anything important, so I got my manual out.
UPON THAT MODE sits the only way to lock focus on a bird in flight.
See, I keep saying that no one knows what I don't know. I might appear to know something complicated where I am an idiot in a very basic thing that no one can figure out why, because none of us know what I don't know. If I knew, I would change it myself, if you all knew your frustration levels would go down some.
And I have learned this new thing, I now use that mode whenever I PLAN to shoot a bird in flight. Learning to use it is driving me nuts. When I am in that mode, the focus is in the center (I use the center point) and if I move the camera a tad the focus changes, and that is why so many of my shots are center focused lately. They are more apt to be focused in the first place, but if they are moving, or not, as long as it is on AI Servo, only the center spot is in focus, so I am slowly learning, even in the recompose mode, to keep my subjects in the center. I am just learning, so this is a learning curve, or something.
And I think it is a Canon thing as to how to handle it. When I have asked about it and been answered by Nikon people, I don't understand a word. I keep thinking that I am going to ask all the "smart" Canon people how they switch back and forth, but that has gone into procrastination now, too.
Learning something like this when around "smart" people, instead of taking a course from this point to that, is interesting. I think it is very uneven. I am enjoying it. But that is one of the pitfalls: there can be huge gaps in knowledge and it is so hard to sort it all out. Also, I cannot, do not want to, retain a lot of info at once, so I do not read to "know" a lot of info. I learn as needed, it has worked well for me with less stress than a job or school, so to speak. But it has left these gaps. Like the white balance problem I was having as the vegetation started affecting all of my shots in the green of summer, that was a big "difficult to solve" problem, too. I did not really know a thing about white balance. Andy, perhaps inadvertently, solved that one.
In fact, last night I was a bit thrown by that comment Andy made about your bird, Harry, being too warm. I had shot this hawk in "warm" light, and I wasn't sure what I should do about it. I started putting those poster things on the photos, that helped me not to be up tight about the WB, and I could just work these up w/o the worry fit I had put myself into.
Learning is an art I guess, as is teaching. I have never taught, never wanted to, not even my kids. I provide sources, but I am not a "teacher". The way I am learning this digital stuff could be used as an example of what idiots "smart" people can be, and how difficult it is to sort it all out.
Anyway, yes, I am doing something differently.
Sometimes it works better than others.
I still have problems on the exposure............maybe a light bulb will go off on that some day. In the meantime, I can get lucky.
I have never seen a turkey hawk worked up so thoroughly by someone who thought he/she was shooting a strange type of seagull.
I work backwards a lot
So I sort of understand what you are saying.
Also, by pressures of the job, I've had to learn how to do one specific thing immediately, managed to do it -- but never started from step one to the end. I had to rush and manage the end first.
So in that type of learning style/method I miss out on a lot of stuff -- some of it is important, some of it not.
I've then taken tutorials and tried to pay attention -- or read books and tried not to let myself get bored.
Often I pick up a real gem which explains how to do something easier or which aids my understanding of the process.
But when it comes to my camera, I try to spend a bit of time with the manual. Yes, it's boring to read thru stuff I mostly know -- but I'm still confused about my camera's focusing methods and why I should use one over another for a given situation.
And if I want to use multiple exposure, I have to pull the manual out of my purse and check that page.
Do you know I thought when I set the camera up for multiple exposure (one light, one "normal" and one darker" I just assumed the camera took ONE photo and processed them differently? Turns out As I tried this on a lighthouse with a seagull flying by -- that my camera takes 3 separate photos and if I'm hand holding -- guess what -- they are not exactly the same!
When I offloaded my pictures I saw the gull was in a different position in each photo.
So what does that mean? If I want to do some photoshop magic, I need to use a tripod -- and hope I have a fairly static image!
Then there's the burst mode, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I'm sure there's some connection with which autofocus method I choose too -- but it's stuff like this that I am NOT good in -- and sometimes that becomes a huge problem and hinderance.
And I just have a "point and shoot." Can you imagine me using a dSLR?
Throw in all the lens stuff, sharpness of the lens, best aperture of the lens, speed of the lens -- no wonder why I walked around with just ONE zoom lens (35-200) on my film SLR camera!
But as you are learning it's important sometimes to just have that manual with you and to take an hour to experiment with different settings and modes and apertures and speeds and ISOs... it's a lot to grok!
Comments
My favorite is with the prize
Cincinnati Smug Leader
http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
"Osprey Whisperer"
OspreyWhisperer.com
www.edhughesphoto.com
Whatever they are, these are good ones, Ginger.
My Galleries
Flicker
G+
Not that it's all that important but it is more correctly called a Turkey Vulture. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Turkey_Vulture.html
My Photo gallery- rohirrim.smugmug.com
Selective Sharpening Tutorial
Making a Frame for your image (Tutorial)
Actually, this is sooo dumb, I was there to photograph the shrimp baiters as the sun went down.
I always photograph interesting birds as the sun sets, I always photograph interesting birds almost any time, smile. But I don't usually photograph seagulls, not unless I am practicing on them, or for some specific reason which I did not have last Sat night.
But this bird was just there, and wasn't acting like a normal seagull. One way I see the birds is by using the lens as binoculars. I pushed the trigger on this one, as it just was not flying like a seagull. I shot the bird as I was following it. Could always chimp, you know.
Honest to gosh, I had no idea it was a hawk/vulture for most, if not, the whole time I was shooting.
Hehe, I think I got a kind of a prize there, myself.
I think I had set the exposure for something else, actually was worried I had exposed wrong, but it appeared that "wrong" was "right". Isn't that the way of the world sometimes, smile.
Yes, I have been doing something differently for a few (don't know how many, but certainly not enough) months. And I think it shows how much people can "NOT" know that we are not aware of them "NOT" knowing.
In Canon there are three autofocus modes. The shorthand for autofocus is AF, something I had never really thought about. There is one, the one I always used in the past where one can focus and recompose.......and that is all I ever used, didn't KNOW there was anything else. (It is called One Shot)
Then there is a new smart mode, I still don't use it, one has to trust Canon, the camera, to be smart and it seems I am not the only one who is afraid of that. If anyone has any good experiences with it, I would like to know. It is called, AI (or AL, I don't know that still) Focus Autofocus.
Then there is AI Servo Autofocus. I noticed that phrase being bandied about here by some people, at some times. I filed that away in my mind to look up in my manual when I had it in hand some sweet day.
Well, one day last summer or so, I was sitting here, and I remembered that I was going to go to all the work to look this thing up. Wasn't doing anything important, so I got my manual out.
UPON THAT MODE sits the only way to lock focus on a bird in flight.
See, I keep saying that no one knows what I don't know. I might appear to know something complicated where I am an idiot in a very basic thing that no one can figure out why, because none of us know what I don't know. If I knew, I would change it myself, if you all knew your frustration levels would go down some.
And I have learned this new thing, I now use that mode whenever I PLAN to shoot a bird in flight. Learning to use it is driving me nuts. When I am in that mode, the focus is in the center (I use the center point) and if I move the camera a tad the focus changes, and that is why so many of my shots are center focused lately. They are more apt to be focused in the first place, but if they are moving, or not, as long as it is on AI Servo, only the center spot is in focus, so I am slowly learning, even in the recompose mode, to keep my subjects in the center. I am just learning, so this is a learning curve, or something.
And I think it is a Canon thing as to how to handle it. When I have asked about it and been answered by Nikon people, I don't understand a word. I keep thinking that I am going to ask all the "smart" Canon people how they switch back and forth, but that has gone into procrastination now, too.
Learning something like this when around "smart" people, instead of taking a course from this point to that, is interesting. I think it is very uneven. I am enjoying it. But that is one of the pitfalls: there can be huge gaps in knowledge and it is so hard to sort it all out. Also, I cannot, do not want to, retain a lot of info at once, so I do not read to "know" a lot of info. I learn as needed, it has worked well for me with less stress than a job or school, so to speak. But it has left these gaps. Like the white balance problem I was having as the vegetation started affecting all of my shots in the green of summer, that was a big "difficult to solve" problem, too. I did not really know a thing about white balance. Andy, perhaps inadvertently, solved that one.
In fact, last night I was a bit thrown by that comment Andy made about your bird, Harry, being too warm. I had shot this hawk in "warm" light, and I wasn't sure what I should do about it. I started putting those poster things on the photos, that helped me not to be up tight about the WB, and I could just work these up w/o the worry fit I had put myself into.
Learning is an art I guess, as is teaching. I have never taught, never wanted to, not even my kids. I provide sources, but I am not a "teacher". The way I am learning this digital stuff could be used as an example of what idiots "smart" people can be, and how difficult it is to sort it all out.
Anyway, yes, I am doing something differently.
Sometimes it works better than others.
I still have problems on the exposure............maybe a light bulb will go off on that some day. In the meantime, I can get lucky.
I have never seen a turkey hawk worked up so thoroughly by someone who thought he/she was shooting a strange type of seagull.
Thanks so much for looking and commenting.
Ginger:D
So I sort of understand what you are saying.
Also, by pressures of the job, I've had to learn how to do one specific thing immediately, managed to do it -- but never started from step one to the end. I had to rush and manage the end first.
So in that type of learning style/method I miss out on a lot of stuff -- some of it is important, some of it not.
I've then taken tutorials and tried to pay attention -- or read books and tried not to let myself get bored.
Often I pick up a real gem which explains how to do something easier or which aids my understanding of the process.
But when it comes to my camera, I try to spend a bit of time with the manual. Yes, it's boring to read thru stuff I mostly know -- but I'm still confused about my camera's focusing methods and why I should use one over another for a given situation.
And if I want to use multiple exposure, I have to pull the manual out of my purse and check that page.
Do you know I thought when I set the camera up for multiple exposure (one light, one "normal" and one darker" I just assumed the camera took ONE photo and processed them differently? Turns out As I tried this on a lighthouse with a seagull flying by -- that my camera takes 3 separate photos and if I'm hand holding -- guess what -- they are not exactly the same!
When I offloaded my pictures I saw the gull was in a different position in each photo.
So what does that mean? If I want to do some photoshop magic, I need to use a tripod -- and hope I have a fairly static image!
Then there's the burst mode, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I'm sure there's some connection with which autofocus method I choose too -- but it's stuff like this that I am NOT good in -- and sometimes that becomes a huge problem and hinderance.
And I just have a "point and shoot." Can you imagine me using a dSLR?
Throw in all the lens stuff, sharpness of the lens, best aperture of the lens, speed of the lens -- no wonder why I walked around with just ONE zoom lens (35-200) on my film SLR camera!
But as you are learning it's important sometimes to just have that manual with you and to take an hour to experiment with different settings and modes and apertures and speeds and ISOs... it's a lot to grok!
http://www.twitter.com/deegolden