Photography

[Roger H]

A couple more from Alaska

Mount Drum from Copper Center, and Denali through the clearing clouds... both taken with my Canon G-5!

And the MacLaren River taken with my Olympus E-20...

Roger

[Penney H. & Mike E.]

Beautiful shots Roger! If you can do that with G5 I should be able to learn how to take good pics with the 'new and improved' G11!

Don't want to side track this thread to photo lessons for Penney......appreciate the advice Brian (I should just drive on down to Texas and take a few lessons! , maybe Roger in Iowa would be closer ) I use iPhoto which has been all I needed to sharpen pictures for smaller prints, i.e. my photo cards. Thinking of getting photoshop elements however. I'm trying to discern the advantages of shooting RAW vs JPEG right now, some shots I can see how JPEG distorts colors from the true colors of RAW, but in some shots it is an improvement. G11 will shoot both at the same time but it uses up computer memory quickly to store both.

And to think many of us (over a certain age!) started out with Brownie box cameras!

Penney

[Jon Vermilye]

I'm trying to discern the advantages of shooting RAW vs JPEG right now, some shots I can see how JPEG distorts colors from the true colors of RAW, but in some shots it is an improvement. G11 will shoot both at the same time but it uses up computer memory quickly to store both.

And to think many of us (over a certain age!) started out with Brownie box cameras!

Penney

I feel the major advantage of a RAW file is that it is much like a photographic negative. When you shoot jpgs, or even TIFFs in camera, you & the camera have to make decisions that are pretty much "burned" into the image. Although software such as Photoshop or Elements can make some adjustments after the fact, it can be difficult.

In the case of a RAW file, everything the sensor recorded is there. If your editing skills improves, software gets better, or you want to change things like color balance, images size/resolution, with a RAW file you still have all the original data. RAW editors don't change the original file - your corrections or changes are recorded in a separate file. If you change your mind you can always go back to the original.

Another advantage of the RAW file is that with many cameras it has a wider dynamic range than an 8 bit jpg can record. Your editing software can often recover blown highlights or add shadow detail that the in camera jpg can't capture.

The down side is that with RAW files you must use software to create a printable image. Until you develop good editing skills, it is possible to end up with an image that is not as good as an in camera jpg. Still, it doesn't take long before your editing skills will create better images that the in camera jpg can produce.

Shooting both jpg + RAW may use more memory, but it gives you the advantage of the in camera jpg processing as well as a file that can be saved for future refinements. Memory, both as storage cards or on hard disks is getting very inexpensive - I feel it is worth the minor additional cost to store the originals.

[brian m.]

What Jon said!

A JPEG doesn't really distort color from a RAW, it's just the RAW hasn't been "processed" into a final form like a TIFF or a JPEG with a specific color space attached to it. You have to do that, just like you set up your camera to shoot into a defined color space (like sRGB or Adobe 1998), then print it in the same color space. This way you eliminate colors "distorting".

Keep it simple and it will all work out. Good luck!

[Roger H]

Penney, thanks for the kind thoughts on my shots. As I'm sure you well recognize, "being there" with a less expensive camera is always better than "being there" while leaving your expensive system camera at home. These were just such a case! I had the G-5 and it performed admirably.

Elements 8 is definately worth buying, especially for your use. At $70 or whatever the current price is, Elements 8 is a full-featured photo editor and RAW processor. It takes some time to master, but it's worth the effort. Gimp is a free photo editor with most of the features of Elements, but is a little more difficult to use (not that Elements is intuitive by any means either).

I have all of my pro work printed at a pro lab and typically allow them to adjust the colors according to their calibrations for their equipment. I don't do the "art" kinds of things that you shoot tho, mine is almost all portraiture and weddings, so I can shoot .jpg and get away with that very easily.

[Roger H]

In looking at the photos that have been posted I am struck by
1. how well photography fits with fiberglass trailering (you can take pictures of your trips and interesting things you see)
2. how well photography fits with other crafts and hobbies (you can take pictures of crafts and hobbies too)

There also seem to be degrees of participation in crafts and hobbies -- some of us enjoy other people's skill and ability in crafts and hobbies, and simply record what we see.

Attachment 28167



Brian

Brian, I've been around fiberglassrv.com for a number of years now, and AirstreamForums since '03. I have noticed how, particularly the Boler clones and Airstream shape tends to attact buyers who have an eye for style and art. I've sold a couple of trailers now to artists who wanted to use them specifically as rolling studios. There are also many, MANY pro photographers who use these little guys. I think that we tend to see them as much as rolling art in and of themselves as just a travelling convenience.

I've had great fun over the years taking photos of my various fiberglass trailers as close to landmark features as I could get them (although I haven't done that for a while now...) but here are a few I've gotten over the years...

A list of these for captioning:

My Bigfoot 17 at the Grotto in West Bend, IA
My Burro 17 at the Frank Lloyd Wright Stockman House in Mason City, IA
My Burro 17 at the World's Largest Frying Pan in Brandon, IA
My Burro 17 at the Pocahontas statue in Pocahontas, IA
My UHaul CT-13 at the Pocahontas statue in Pocahontas, IA
My UHaul CT-13 at the Gateway Arch in Kearny, NE
My UHaul CT-13 with the wire buffalo sculptures at the Gateway Arch
My UHaul CT-13 at the tipis at the Gateway Arch.

Fun stuff!

[Carol H]

: ........ I'm trying to discern the advantages of shooting RAW vs JPEG right now, some shots I can see how JPEG distorts colors from the true colors of RAW, but in some shots it is an improvement. G11 will shoot both at the same time but it uses up computer memory quickly to store both.

Penney

Penney I'm pretty new at this hobby and when I got my camera I was told to shoot both. Like you I was worried I was going to be keeping two copies of everything on my computer and using up space fast! After a couple of months I've since come up with a system of keeping the file size down to a reasonable level.

I shot both JPG fine and Raw and download both to my computer and then quickly go through the photos and look for the ones that look like they could be classed as a good photo by someone other than myself :-) I keep the raw file for the ones I really like and delete the raw file on the others. I created another folder on my computer where I move the keeper Raw files to. Hope that as I get better - or I hope I do, I will be able to go back to just one folder and quickly delete out the Raw files that in hindsight were not really long term keeper. :-) I have a small portable drive - about $100 that I back it all up to.

Was recently introduced to using Adobe Lightroom 3 for processing my Raw files. At first Lightroom was a little over the top for my skills but once I took a 4 hour cource on it I discovered it was actually a lot easier to use than Photoshop and for 95% of my Raw photos its all I need for processing. Lightroom 3 allows endless tagging making it easey to find your photos and it has a lot of free plug ins for creative stuff and it will create slide shows and allow you to upload directly to Flicker etc. It will do a lot of the creative stuff but for over the top creative you will need Photoshop.

One feature of Lightroom I have not used yet but thinking I might start trying it is that you can shoot in Raw only and when you import the photos to Lightroom you have a number of options and one is to import as a DNG which will in addition to moving the Raw file off the camera it will also create a JPG version of the photo while it does the import which means you can save space on your camera card and only shoot raw.
I think Adobe has a 30 day free download you can try out.

Carol

[Carol H]

For my American friends here are a couple of photos I took during the 2010 Olympics at Whistler BC. Both are of Lindsey Vonn - one while she was inspecting the Downhill track and the other taken a couple of hours later on the way to a gold medal.

Both taken with a Nikon D90 - kit lens DX 55-200/4-5G. Would have loved to have a longer lens during the Olympics and suffered seriously daily seeing all the pros out with their big guns. One day the money tree will pop up in the back yard. :-)

[Penney H. & Mike E.]

thanks Carol for all the good suggestions and encouragement - in fact thanks to you all!

I do have a system, sort of, for storing and storage of photos, but I need to improve upon it.

I use a Mac and thus far iPhoto has been an excellent program for me in terms of making adjustments in focus, lighting, and color. I am not sure it is set up to be as effective with RAW format, though it does download them. I will play with it more, and try the free trial offers for both Elements and Lightroom.

Also going to talk to Epsom, I think there might be an upgrade driver for my printer that would make the computer/camera/printer work together better - I'm hoping.

We should have a photo/egg rally for us shutterbugs! I agree with Roger, I think a lot of Egg owners are photographers and artists, whether professionally or as a hobby, because we have an eye for the aesthetic. A common thread on this forum is we all think our trailers are cute, pleasing to the eye........and we probably photograph them more than most trailer owners!

Penney

[Raya]

Attachment 28224
I take stereoscopic (3D) photo pairs....

See if you can view this "parallel" pair in 3D! If you can make the left eye focus on the left image and the right eye see the right image, you will see it as a normal two-eyed person would see it... in true depth. It can take some practice... I learned to "freeview" 3D pairs like this by placing a long sheet of paper from my nose to the screen to act as a septum, forcing each eye to be able to see only its own view.

Hi Michael,

I see you posted this a while back, but I just read the thread for the first time. When you are "free viewing" them, are they supposed to merge into one image? Or stay as two images but look more 3D? I tried the "septum" technique but they stay as two images - just wondering how it is supposed to work (not sure if it is possible for them to merge together with a septum in there).

Raya

[Brian Van Snell]

We should have a photo/egg rally for us shutterbugs! I agree with Roger, I think a lot of Egg owners are photographers and artists, whether professionally or as a hobby, because we have an eye for the aesthetic. A common thread on this forum is we all think our trailers are cute, pleasing to the eye........and we probably photograph them more than most trailer owners!

Penney

Penney:

Great idea to have a photo/egg rally! I have been thinking that there are some wonderful National Parks that would make good subjects. How about [b]Yosemite? http://www.nps.gov/yose/

Perhaps we could ask people to nominate locations and see if we can get enough interest to launch such a rally.

Brian

[Jon Vermilye]

The "Pride of Baltimore" at Oswego's Festival of Sail.

[brian m.]

Very nice work Jon! I also see you've done some writing on photography.

[BruceG]

... We should have a photo/egg rally for us shutterbugs! ...

Penney

For the photographers in the bunch - There is a photography and camera club conference going on in La Crosse, WI (Sept 16-19) the same weekend as Eggfest/Scamp Camp. It is sponsored by the North Central Camera Club Council. More information here - http://www.n4clacrosse2010.com/

Eggfest/Scamp Camp at LaCrosse, WI, September 15- 19 http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/in...howtopic=39326

[JenPB]

[quote]The "Pride of Baltimore" at Oswego's Festival of Sail.


Attachment 29472


Super nice shot! Certainly worthy of large printing and frame!

[Jon Vermilye]

Super nice shot! Certainly worthy of large printing and frame!

Thanks! I have a 16" X 20" on my wall.

[Doug P.]

This was shot (picture taken) at Puntzi Lake BC a couple years back.
It was one of those once in a lifetime shots that came together for me.

[Brian Van Snell]

A brave Bandon pebble was standing up to the blast of wind and sand.

Brian

[Vickie B.]

You are making me want to get on the road to just LOOK at beautiful things. Thanks for the breathtaking photos!

[Joe N]

Hot Springs State Park Thermopolis, WY
Swinging Bridge Panorama