Siri Monthly Tread. September

[siriusly_invested]

You're scaring me a little bit with the photography jargon. I think you know a lot more than I do about it. I just started really getting into it last year. I have downloaded Lightroom but haven't played much with it. I am tinkering around with the settings as I take pictures to learn how things work and what they look like under different settings/environments. It's really a lot of fun. There are some wild turkey that come out from the nature preserve around 7:30am. I am hoping to catch them this weekend. I will post some pictures if I get some. Personally, I would love to see your photographs! Thanks!

No need to feel intimidated or threatened Midas. I gave my full disclosure when I said I had not gotten serious (about photography) until the end of last year when I purchased my Nikon D-7100. I have a "mentor" who's been in this hobby all his life and he has literally swamped me with information on "how to". One day I'll show you some of his work; in the meantime I offer this link:
www.flickr.com/photos/mike_pilgrim/albums for a peek at my earliest efforts. Please note that all these shots were during the first quarter of this year as I ventured out into some local protected areas. Since then, either I've been pre-occupied with researching and reading how to get the most from the camera and/or the birds have all migrated elsewhere.

If I've been consistent with my Flickr photo management, in most cases you can hover your cursor near the bottom edge of each photo to read what you are looking at. The Easter Sunrise outing was my first with a new D-5200 which has essentially become my "go-to" camera which I keep available for the quick, straight-forward shots. I'll be the first to say the quality of work represented here while looking okay to the beginner, leaves a lot to be desired in the eye of the seasoned shutter bug. Case in point: when shooting the Easter sunrise I had not yet read the information stating that I must strive to keep the horizon level........ One day I'll replace those photos with ones I've edited with Lightroom to correct that error.

I'll be happy to respond to questions from anyone as long as you please understand that I am strictly a beginner at this art.

[midas360]

Whoah... You are damn good for beginner! Those look more like professional shots to me. That baby owl pic is very cool! You live in a great place for nature photography. Everyone I've talked really likes Nikon. I've never owned one before. I may have to give it a try when I decide to upgrade. I will definitely be talking to you more about this if you don't mind. Understand too, that I am a beginner as well. I am in shot gun mode. I just take pictures of everything using different settings and then I go back and look at the pictures and what settings I used. Probably not the ideal way to do it. I really need to take a class. I took a beginner class which was taking pictures on all the settings and seeing what they looked like to get used to the camera.

No need to feel intimidated or threatened Midas. I gave my full disclosure when I said I had not gotten serious (about photography) until the end of last year when I purchased my Nikon D-7100. I have a "mentor" who's been in this hobby all his life and he has literally swamped me with information on "how to". One day I'll show you some of his work; in the meantime I offer this link:
flickr.com/photos/mike_pilgrim/albums for a peek at my earliest efforts. Please note that all these shots were during the first quarter of this year as I ventured out into some local protected areas. Since then, either I've been pre-occupied with researching and reading how to get the most from the camera and/or the birds have all migrated elsewhere.

If I've been consistent with my Flickr photo management, in most cases you can hover your cursor near the bottom edge of each photo to read what you are looking at. The Easter Sunrise outing was my first with a new D-5200 which has essentially become my "go-to" camera which I keep available for the quick, straight-forward shots. I'll be the first to say the quality of work represented here while looking okay to the beginner, leaves a lot to be desired in the eye of the seasoned shutter bug.

I'll be happy to respond to questions from anyone as long as you please understand that I am strictly a beginner at this art.

[siriusly_invested]

Hey Midas, I'll be most happy to dialog about digital photography with you any time. I also attended an Adult Education course several years ago but came away totally deflated as the husband/wife teacher team simply walked us through Adobe Photoshop Elements, step by step. I got absolutely no knowledge or appreciation for what opportunities in this hobby existed.

I would tell you not to be thinking of or concerned about changing manufacturer allegiance, especially with Canon having such a strong reputation in the industry. For whatever reason I landed on Nikon several years ago, and so I chose to ride that horse. Given that lenses are not interchangeable between manufacturers, it really makes no sense to change horses in mid stream. The best advice I can offer is to Google to locate Canon User group forums. I can tell you I gain a huge amount of helpful information at www.nikonians.com which obviously is a forum for Nikon users. I bet you can find a similar resource for Canon users, and that is where you need to establish a presence.

Best photography gear prices I've found are at Adorama.com and KEH.com. I purchased my D-7100 at Adorama as a "Nikon refurbished, certified like new with 90-day warranty" when the price was about 50% of new. KEH specializes in used gear. Either can be a very competitive place to shop your needs.

Anyway, let me know if I can help with your learning curve.

I also locate many answers simply by Googling on a particular question. For example, you could Google "best camera settings for shooting wildlife with canon D60"....... in my case, this past week I have been milking the Google data base to learn "best settings for Lunar Eclipse on Nikon d-7100". You would be amazed at how much information pops out.

[siriusly_invested]

Hey Midas, I just realized there may be a way for you to see some of the work from my mentor. If you go to my Flickr.com url, you should see in the header info an indicator of anyone "following me". If you see a link to + follower, click on it and see if it takes you to Jerry Herman and his shots of humming birds. If so, I think you will agree those seem like real professional shots, and indeed they should. Jerry has published wildlife photos in the tourist guide to the Grand Tetons. Other than that, the hummingbird photos are result of a $3000 Nikon D-800 using lenses priced upwards of $4000. Agreeably, I cannot compare to his quality due to my budget-priced equipment. Nonetheless, his work truly inspires me to improve.

PS. In case you did not notice, in the photos I posted on my Flickr account, you can achieve a zoomed in image simply by double clicking on the image. I think you will be rewarded to capture that view.

[midas360]

Hey SI... Here are a few more pics that I've take over the summer. I will put my pics online and post a link when I get time. Let me know what you think. Thanks! I did use iPhoto making similar adjustments like my other photos.

IMG_8472.jpg IMG_7228.jpg IMG_7463.jpg IMG_7376.jpg IMG_7275.jpg

[waldo29]

See ya guys it's been great. Lost interest in this board.

Don't leave me here alone.

[brian65PLS]

http://www.moneyflowindex.org/sirius...ate-2/3137473/
short interest.

[user34615145]

Don't leave me here alone.

No worries, cause I'll always be there for you Waldo!

[midas360]

Me too Waldo! I will be here forever.

Don't leave me here alone.

[siriusly_invested]

Hey SI... Here are a few more pics that I've take over the summer. I will put my pics online and post a link when I get time. Let me know what you think. Thanks! I did use iPhoto making similar adjustments like my other photos.

Nice work Midas. At first blush (still working on my first cup of java too), let me ask if you have ever shot in RAW (NEF) format. I'm not sure if your post processing will handle it, and if not, then .jpeg is the best option for you. I'm a believer in capturing all available data in a photograph, and that is the benefit of shooting RAW image capture and let the post processing have a more robust chunk of information to chew on, and therefore you should see a bit more sharpness in the finished product.

The moon really captured my attention since I am fully engaged in preparations for tomorrow nights' full eclipse. I'm guessing you relied on your Auto Focus in that shot rather than using Manual. You cannot rely on simply setting the focus on infinity either, as that may or may not be the best fine tuning on various lenses. For absolute best clarity when shooting the moon is to use a very stable tripod and employ a shutter control method which raises the mirror first to avoid camera shake in the image. My choice also is to use a remote shutter control, either wired or Infra Red control. Since I cannot see the meta data associated with your shots, I cannot see or comment on f-stop or shutter speed settings/recommendations.

Best technique I've learned for capturing birds in flight is to employ my multi-shot, high speed shutter function (I get up to 5 frames per second) while maintaining optimum focus with what is called "back button focus" whereby you assign your auto focus functionality to an alternate button on the back of the camera. It is not intuitively obvious at first glance but once you read about and start using that feature, you will find it quite effective for maintaining positive focus control. I have programmed each of my cameras for back button focus, and that's the way it is for all my shots.

If you've not gone back to my Flickr page and looked at the photos posted by my buddy Jerry Herman, take a look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jerryhermanphoto/