Nebthet's Photography: Fall stars and quidditch - Nov.2011

[nebthet]

Last weekend, I ended up getting myself a well earned present after a year long battle which I won.

 

I was looking through different cameras and what not and saw some people selling theirs decided on getting the Canon T1i and while I felt bad for paying $790 for a camera at first, I sure don't now. Not after seeing the quality of the images it can take.

 

It took photography in college as part of my journalism training. I hated it then. We had to use the older 35mm slr cameras and develop film ourselves and it was just plain costly. No image preview, no auto focus and most often if something important was happening there was no going back to redo it if you scewed up.

 

Later on the digital point and shoots were nice to use for day to day stuff and taking some quick family shots but I realized I had been actually missing the ability to manually control the settings and be able to experiment with the images.

 

So after 10 years of being of being out of college, there is a lot I have to relearn about photography. The biggy is composition. I still have my big photo manual from college THOUGH I might have to pry it out of my dead friends hands if she refuses to give it back to me. Joking... but some days it feels that way.

 

What this thread will show is the random pics I will be taking from flowers to whatever. I would love to hear some advice from other photographers who have used this camera.

 

For my first assignment, while I was out at my stepfather's campground this week, were shots of the stars.

I had always wanted to do one of these shots, but living in the city I couldn't and old slr's didn't show you the results right away so I didn't want to waste film and precious college money at that time.

 

Here are a few of the pictures I was able to capture.

18-55mm lens, f3.5, iso 3200 at 30 secs. taken between 10:15pm to 11pm 08-05-2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I learned: While ISO 100 can take a pic of a star in the night sky on a clear night, ISO 3200 is way better and those forums where I gathered the previoius info need to be set straight. LOL. You also have to find a spot where there is no ambient lighting as best as possible. This includes those solar walkway lights or bulb lights in the distance. Also, the camera at 11pm will pic up the last remnants of sunset in the distance even if you can't see it. A sturdy tripod is a necessity. As is a good piece of plywood of you want to try shooting in the sand. Trying to focus for a good image with stars is impossible. I also learned taking sky shots was a great start because it made this a whole lot more fun that photography used to be for me.

[nebthet]

These next set of shots were taken before the star shots when I was just getting used to it

 

These are flowers and plants mostly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and finally all the kittehs in my life.

 

First, my two.. Ryn and Orden

Ryn

Orden

 

My mother's cat Lady Loo. She turned 18years old this year,

 

My stepmother's one cat Jasper. Ever cat she has is always fat.

[animalmaster6]

Great Pics!!!

 

I love the third pic on the second pic

[latazyo]

bandwidth exceeded

[animalmaster6]

Upgrade to Pro Today!!!

[nebthet]

Bandwidth no longer exceeded. LOL.. I am thinking I just might have to upgrade to Pro while I have the extra cash to do so. LOL..

 

The pic of the Dhalia is one of my favourites too, after the star shots.

I lent a friend of mine my photography text book from College and I really want to get back because it went step by step on a lot of the cool things SLR's are able to do and since it is a lot more convenient and fun to use the Digital SLR than it was the old 35mm Pentax I used to and still have in my closet somewhere, it would spruce up my knowledge.

[Jacobnano]

I like this pics! Now that I can see them lol.

[nebthet]

Yeah I am definately gonna upgrade to pro when I exceed my bandwidth again.. I am gonna have some wierd pics at the end of the month after going to FanExpo in Toronto. It is a sci-fi, anime, comic, horror expo. It will be my first time going so I am excited to see all the weirdos dressed up ..LOL

[nebthet]

Ok, well I have some pics from FanExpo in Toronto, Canada this past weekend. It was completely fun and man do my feet hurt. Taking pictures in an environment with a lot of people jostling around is definately a learning experience. I have to work on that. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

 

But I found Waldo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[animalmaster6]

Looks like a fun time

[disaster999]

there are too much noise in the last set of pictures. try shooting in lower iso, invest in a good flash, or use a lens with a relatively fast aperture.

[andykee]

For those indoor shots, dial the ISO back and open the lens up - some of them are way noisy.

[nebthet]

Yeah I know.. some of those last ones I had to take very quickly because the security there kept getting in my way, so I had to also take them without flash.

Most of the celebs there were ok with having their pics taken while they were signing autographs for people, but some of the other's weren't.

 

For next year I want to get a zoom lense to take with me, then I can use the flash and get a decent shot. I also had to switch over to manual focus to get shots to because of the throng of people in there the AF mode couldn't work properly with all the movement.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I will try that next time.

 

Animalmaster.... it was sooooo much fun. The most I have had in a long time. It is like Halloween for adults. Stan Lee was absolutely amazing and funny as heck. We even managed to get him to say the famous word. Excelcior. James Marsters was amazing. Funny, honest and a real good singer as well. I suprised at that. William Shatner was also funny. And doesn't speak in the Star Trek cadence in person. He actual stated the reason that happened during the show was because he was always trying to remember what his next line was. It was never done on purpose.

If you ever get the chance to go to one of these things, do. It is worth it, not only for the experience, but for the people you make friends with on that weekend alone.

[Orange Crush]

Yeah I know.. some of those last ones I had to take very quickly because the security there kept getting in my way, so I had to also take them without flash.

From one noob to another...in that kind of light you should be able to dial back the ISO quite a bit and still get good shots. I pretty much never use flash indoors since it's so harsh. Even if you don't have a fast lens, I've found I can easily get away with most indoor shots at ~1/40 sec & ISO 200 with a stock lens even with less light than you have in those.

[nebthet]

The lighting in there was really bad.. you almost had to use flash every time. At the autograph area though security would not allow any one to use any flash what so ever and it was darker over there then in the rest of the building. I tried several different settings and the ones I used was the best I could get while using only the stock lense on the camera. Had I not been bumped into constantly due the crowds I could have used a slower shutter speed and not worried about blur so much, but that was impossible.

 

They ended up locking people out of the building because the fire marshalls stepped in when they realized they were way over capacity and people couldn't walk comfortably around any where.

 

The autograph area pics were taken at 1/100 & ISO 3200

But it was a learning experience for taking them in that type of environment

Thanks for all the advise.. I am definately taking notes.

[andykee]

The autograph area pics were taken at 1/100 & ISO 3200

what aperture?

[nebthet]

I think that was set to change automatically as needed. It swung around 4 and 5.6.

[andykee]

in general, i find it easier to shoot in aperture priority (the camera picks the shutter speed) rather than shutter priority (the camera picks the aperture). you'll find yourself in more situations where the aperture matters a whole lot more than the shutter speed (for things like proper exposure w/low ISO, depth of field). Toss the camera on AV and keep an eye on the shutter speed - as long as it's 1/60 or faster handheld, you;re fine.

[nebthet]

Been a while since I posted in here... but today I went to my not so local LFS and decided to take some pics of his tanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nebthet]

I ended up getting a new lense about a month ago. A 75-300mm usm III. No image stabilizer on it. So I took it out this past weekend to give it a good test run on a nature walk and during a friend's son's football game.

 

Yes, I am aware that some of these nature shots are out of focus, but I liked them a lot.

 

 

I was bummed the head on this pick wasn't in focus.. but I like the pic anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think.. and someone please do so, as it won't let me post any more until someone else makes a comment. Stupid forum rules.. grrrr.

[nebthet]

Football was interesting to take pictures of. The last time I had been to a sports event to take pictures was ten years ago in College and at that time I had to use a 35mm film Pentax k1000. The main issue I found with the 300mm lense with the AI Focus. So the next game I am going to try to see what manual focus does.

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think.. thanks.

[nebthet]

bump.. really no one likes these?

[Pickle010]

bump.. really no one likes these?

 

 

Bunch of Soccer fans on N-R.

 

Seriously - they are all pretty good. I like the second to last one the most.

[nebthet]

Don't forget to check page 1 also. The nature pictures are on there.... page 2 is the football ones.

[nebthet]

I have some new football pics from the final game this Sat. Let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

 

This one is a bit blurry, but I loved the expression on the players face.

 

 

 

 

 

If you haven't seen my nature photos, you can click on the link here, or post#20 on page 1.

NATURE PICTURES - POST #20

 

 

I took the above football pics with a Canon 75-300mm usm III lense. No Image Stabilizer. Exposure 1250 iso 400. AWB.