The Neverending Photo Thread

I decided to share some photos on this forum with you guys. Basically, I am new to photography, and got one of those really expensive digital SLR cameras last Christmas, and decided I should try it out and improve my photography skills. Hopefully, people can critique these photos and tell me how I can improve them.

Photo #1

Here is a picture of Alberta, just inside the city limits of Calgary. I snapped this while out driving, and stumbled upon a nice piece of scenery near an overpass. This pic is a little bit cheating, because I color corrected it in Photoshop.

Photo #2

Here is what the real photo looks like. Notice the color is washed out, and it just doesn't seem as rich. Should I be using a polarizing lens or letting it go full Auto? Right now, I am using the landscape mode.

Photo #3

Here is a pic of a lake on the way to Banff on the #1 Highway. I am quite happy with this picture, but again, it is on full auto mode, which is sort of cheating. I'd like to know how to take this picture manually and what settings I need.

Photo #4

A tiny island on the same lake. Someday, my dream is to live on tis, and build a lil' cabin, then live off the irradiated fish and wild raspberries that grow on the island.

Photo #5

This is a lil marsh about 15 minutes away from Calgary going to Bragg Creek. Again, I don't like that this pic looks washed out. I wonder why the Banff lake pics look good and these ones look faded. I think it has to do with the cloud cover. The marsh is dried out because it hasn't rained in awhile, but once it does, it looks much nicer.

Photo #6

This pic is of a small lake on Indian land. I wanted to take more pics, but that would entail me stepping onto a reserve, meaning I could probably get shot at. Again, I like the color of the leaves, but again, the sky looks washed out.

Photo #7

A lonely stretch of road between Calgary and Bragg Creek. Most of Alberta is like this until you reach the mountains. A lot of really green farmland with big blue open skies. The picture does not bring out the blueness of the sky, and again, it looks much greener in real life.

Photo #8

A picture of Banff Springs Hotel. This is the nicest hotel in Canada, IMHO, and being in it is like being in a castle. However, it costs about $400 a night to stay in the cheapest room.

Photo #9

Picture of the structure up close.



I am tired now, so I'll post more pics of the inside of the hotel later. Feel free to comment or post your own pics.

 

I've been to banff-ff!! It's still as pretty as I remember.

 

I have decided I'm definitely going to Canada after seeing those pics

 

I just looked in the manual, and yeah, it is a 400D. It's the EF-S 18-55 Kit, which, I am assuming, is the lens.

Pics 3 and 4 were taken with a different digital camera, and THAT camera's auto settings actually work.

When you mention F18, and F5-10, is that referring to the apeture?

 

I notice the simple modes seem to underexpose everything, but I still go with them for convenience sake. Except when I shoot my models, in which case I go Aperture priority, close it down to F32, and flood the subject with light so I get good depth of field. I should really get a remote too, so I don't jiggle the camera when I hit the shutter.

 

Do get a Circular Polarization filter and an ultraviolet filter. The circular polarization filter takes out a lot of "noise" light, and brings out color and detail. The UV filter will do something similar by removing UV haze from the image.

 

Ok, here are some more:

Photo#10

This is the back side of the Banff Springs Hotel shown above. They have designed it like a little villa filled with shops you can buy gifts at. It was a cloudy day and the sky was overcast. These photos were taken in April this year.


Photo#11

View of the hotel again where you drive your car to drop off your luggage.


Photo#12

The inside of the area where you drop off your luggage. This part is modern, and not the original part of the hotel that was built in 1803 or something. At the very far end of the hall, is where the overpriced convenience store is located, where you pay $5 for a bag of chips or $10 for a sandwich. It's called The Castle Pantry, but my friends and I call it The Castle Panty.

Photo#13

A nice stairway leading up to the rooms. By the way, those are REAL fresh flowers. They must spend a fortune every week on flowers.


Photo#14

A lil' bar located in the corner of the reading area (below). I read in the newspapers a few days ago that they just hired a world famous bartender to man this joint. Among his specialties is cocktails mixed with real fruit or something. Too bad I do not drink. :flow2:


Photo#15

The reading area. Anyone can come here at any time just to sit down and read, even if you are not a guest. Around Christmastime, you will usually find me, my sister and my cousin here, playing handheld video games or reading graphic novels. They took out the Cigar Room!


Photo#16

In the reading room, it also has a solarium (or whatever you call it) looking right out into the mountains. It may look like you want to sit here too, but too many people open and shut the doors to the balcony area, and your legs get the cold draft all afternoon. Bring a blanket.

Photo#17

This is what used to be the Cigar Room. Cigars are one of the few vices that I have now, and PCness ruined it. Also, notice that all the furniture is styled like Victorian Era stuff. This is evident throughout the hotel.

Photo#18

You can see the solarium on the bottom left of the pic, but once you walk out onto the balcony, this is what the hotel looks like. It reminds me of a castle in the middle of the mountains. Right below this, is a Hot Springs swimming pool. Hot Springs are common in this area. Water gets mixed in with the hot magma from volcanic rocks, and boils to the surface. As a result, you get these natural hot springs, like those found in Yellowstone National Park. They used to use this water to heat the swimming pool, but I am not sure if they still do that anymore.

Photo#19

The Southeast corner of the hotel. I've seen Ferarri's and other exotic sports cars parked here. Notice the bay windows. (The ones with the tic-tac-toe patterns.) I'll show you what's inside those when I update this thread.

Photo#20

Another view from the balcony area. Don't know why I included this picture, except for the fact that I had no other balcony pics left, and I didn't want to start a new theme with only 1 picture. To the right of this, you can see the golf course, but as I mentioned before, it is the middle of April, and everything is still brown and ugly up here.

 

On the first group of landscape photos (though it can apply to any photo): Don't compose the shot so that the horizon is in the dead center of the photo. Put it just above center or just below center for less "static" composition. Experiment with placing the horizon in different positions in the frame and see how it changes the feel of each photo.

Also, learn and live The Rule of Thirds. Composition-wise, it's the difference between a snapshot and a real "picture".

This is an excellent example of the rule of thirds:

 

Howzzis?

 

Also, it helps if the baby deer doesn't jump over a log just as you're trying for a low-light picture, and become a textbook example of Bugs Bunny squash-and-stretch

 

thanks.

 

[action=Chuck]is out of rep[/action]

[action=Chuck]thinks you should also make a stop in Arizona[/action]

 

I think it is time I updated this photo thread. This time, I will show you some pictures from my recent trip to New York City.

Photo #21

This is a picture of Times Square at night, facing south. All the cars only seem to go south here. They have a bunch of junk under construction, but I still think this is a nice picture.

Photo #22

Another photo of Times Square, still facing south. I like this photo a lot. The cool thing about this area is you can shoot a photo with low ISO settings, because there is so much light (and probably radiation :flow2: ) coming off those giant displays.

Photo #23

This picture here is facing north. I picked this photo because of the brightness of the signs and all the taxis driving around. But mostly, it's because it really captures the spirit of being there for the first time.

Photo #24

There are a lot of these guys selling hot dogs all around New York City. Hot dogs are mediocre. Where the hell are the world famous hot dogs they supposedly sell in NY? Hot dogs are $2 to $3 depending on who you buy them from. The Shish Kebobs are ok, but they need to offer more sauces besides hot, mustard, and BBQ. A vendor offering Seseme, Satay, or Peanut sauce would clean up. As for the phot, I like this one because, again, it captures the hustle and bustle of the city that supposedly never sleeps.

Photo #25

This is on the way to the 9th floor of Madame Tussad's Wax Museum, and personally, I think it's the best picture I've taken on my trip. I can't even believe I took this. What's a little bothersome is the reflection off the window, but it doesn't detract much from it at all.

Since I don't know how many photos Wordforge can take, I'll post the rest in a different reply.

 

Alright, enough about Times Square. On to the other parts of New York City...

Photo #26

This is in Rockefeller Center, facing NE. The streetlights give the whole place a warm, golden glow. It feels like a golden shower, but I wouldn't really know anything about that. :flow2:

Photo #27

This is the plaza at the bottom of Rockefeller. In the winter, they turn it into a skating rink. This November, they will have a big map with the up-to-the-minute election results. This summer, they turned it into a restaurant, which is lucky for me and my friends. The food is above average, but the ambiance is outstanding. Again, this is one of my favorite photos.

Photo #28

Another photo of the area around Rockefeller. The lighting is so pretty. I tried to take the photos as they look to me in real life, but normal settings just don't capture it. So I set the photos to show more vivid colors. It's a little bit TOO vivid, but not by much.

Photo #29

This is the view from Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center. I recommend skipping the Empire State Building because on some days, you could be lining up for 2 hours or more trying to get past all their security checkpoints. We went to both, and Empire State was a major pain in the ass to go to. Comparatively, we were waiting maybe 15 minutes total to get to Top of the Rock. Plus, they don't have an annoying steel guard railing all around the perimeter.

Photo #30

We also visited St. Patrick's Cathedral for Sunday Mass. Here is the best picture I took of this massive church. They have a bunch of construction going on at the base of the church, which is a shame. Still, it's tough to capture the whole building, and my camera did not have a super wide angle lens.

More pics to follow...

 

Photo #31

This is in the Cathedral. I am not going to show any more pictures of the interior, because none of them really do it any justice. My camera lens was not wide enough to capture the beauty and splendor of this church, so this is the best picture of several that just don't tell you how nice it is inside. I would recommend going in the daytime so the stained glass windows will light up.

Photo #32

This is a picture of another random church in the middle of Manhattan. I should've used my polarizing lens on this shot. It might have picked up a bit of the blue in the sky behind the buildings. Uptown Manhattan is beautiful, and filled with old buildings. Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn is pretty much a shithole.

Photo #33

Another picture of a random massive church. I couldn't believe all the intricate details they managed to carve into the building. If I wasn't so awestruck by how pretty it was, I'd have the Styx song "Too Much, Time On My Hands" stuck in my head on repeat. Sadly, we ran out of time and could not visit this place. Again, because I didn't have a super wide angle lens, I could not capture the entire front of the building. Then again, this thing was so massive and hidden behind trees from across the road, I doubt very many cameras can, even with super duper wide angle lenses.

Photo #34

I used a polarizing lens on this shot, and it turned out quite well, IMHO. Believe it or not, my "polarizing lens" was a pair of clip on sunglasses I got from Wal*Mart for $12. As long as it says the lens is polarizing, it will block out certain UV light from the spectrum and give you nice blue skies. So before spending $50+ on a polarizing lens, remember the cheap and easy solution, especially if you are just new to photography and don't expect to take it too seriously.

Photo #35

A few random photos upcoming. This is inside the Toys R" Us located in the middle of Times Square. I think it's 4 stories tall, and it has a ferris wheel built into the middle of it. This isn't one of the photos I'm really proud of, but because it's a freakin' ferris wheel in the middle of a store, I thought it was cool enough to show you guys.

 

Photo #36

This is looking towards Little Italy. We came here to find the Kid Robot store some people had recommended we check out. Little did we know it was an emo store that sold cutsey Japanese toys and products. Little Italy is a hole. But occasionally, it has a few scenes like this which make for semi-good photos. Even though Harlem, Brooklyn, and Little Italy were holes, (that goes without saying, being filled with Italians, and piss smelling Irish) nothing could prepare me for the immigrant infested blight on the Earth that was...

Photo #37

...Chinatown. Oh man, most Chinatowns in other cities are filthy, but the one in NYC takes top prize. This was a decent photo I managed to take while our tour bus was escaping via the Manhattan Bridge. If I panned down a little bit, you would see a big pile of garbage to the bottom right.

The tour bus we took through Brooklyn and Harlem were not the double decker open air buses the rest of New York City uses, but the single deck city buses with tinted windows. This gives the above photo a sort of surreal feel to it, since the windows on the bus were hazy. This probably also prevents the Irish, Chinamen and Blacks from seeing the expensive cameras the tourists are using and rushing us for them. And I'm talking about the not-so-nice blacks like Lt. Mewa, not the decent ones like Alphaman, Josieland, and Demiurge.

Photo #38

One of the last things we did was go to Central Park. This is a very cool park, right in the middle of the city. We had no time to explore it all, but it's definitely worth a day just to explore the entire thing. This shot was taken without a polarizing lens, and on the Uptown tour bus.

Photo #39

This is the part of Central Park they call "The Mall". It's in several famous movies, and where my friends made fun of me for actually liking the Jennifer Lopez movie "Maid in Manhattan". Oh shit, that reminds me of another favorite photo of mine....

Bonus Photo!!!

You may ask yourself, what is Lt. Mewa doing taking a nap on the park bench? I was quite surprised at the very tiny amount of dirty bums, hobos, vagrants, and other undesirables in and around New York City. I think the cops, (which were numerous) harassed them enough that they didn't feel quite at home around the really tourist-type areas. Now, if only they could reduce the amount of Jamaicans around Times Square trying to sell me authentic Rolex watches out of their jacket pockets, that place would be really cool.

Also of note in this picture: I had a 10x lens attached to my camera, and this photo would probably have not been possible without the very adequate zoom. My cousin, with his pocket sized camera with a minuscule 3x zoom, was afraid to get too close to the dirty beggar, and had heard they can get quite enraged and become very dangerous if you take photos of them without permission. So he was not able to capture this specimen in it's natural, slothful state. For you other aspiring photographers out there, remember that a good built-in zoom lens is just as important as a wide angle lens and a polarizing lens. With a good zoom lens, you can really get up close and personal like THIS:

Photo #40

Last but not least, my favorite photo of Central Park. I really like this area, and would hang out here all the time if I lived in NYC. The photo itself was very easy to take, and uses a low ISO setting. You can actually rent a lil boat and row along that river behind the fountain.


New York City was a really fun trip, and I hope to go back there again one day, but not any time soon. We did pretty much all we wanted to do. If I had any regrets, it's not buying a good full 1080p digital camcorder so that any recording could become a photo, and having a good wide angle lens to take some full shots of those amazing buildings.

Overall, over 1800 photos were taken, and only about 80 I would consider worthy of being called my "favorites". Of all those, the ones you see here are the ones I am most proud of. (Well, except the bonus photo.)


Any comments, critiques, and questions are welcome...

 

Ground Zero?

 

Dude, you were in NYC?

BTW, $3 for a hot dog is the tourist price. If you paid that much from a cart you got ripped.

Your NYC pictures are fantastic.

 

Its often a gay hang out area. 'Meet you by the fountain!'

 

I decided to go out for a walk in the park a few days ago, amid a busy day of collecting bottles. I also brought my camera. Here are some pics I took...

Parks01

This photo was taken with the sun in the background. It gives the picture a surreal look, which is why I like it.

Parks02

The sunshine hitting the yellow leaves is really pretty. This doesn't compare to what it looks like in real life.

Parks03

Autumn in Calgary. There are houses right beside the river. They are worth millions of dollars. This is right in the middle of the city, believe it or not.

Parks04

Along the pathway, there appears to be what looks like a secret passage. Perhaps, by chance, it leads to a magical world?

Parks05

By the lagoon, in Calgary's Bowness Park

 

Parks06

This is my favorite picture I took on this little walk. For some odd reason, the tree is bent towards the lagoon. Along the pathway, I ran into two friendly Canadian Geese.

Parks07

Another picture of the Lagoon in Bowness.

Parks08

In this park, they have a mini railroad track you can take your kids on during the summer. The train goes all around the park.

Parks09

Across the river, there is some sort of memorial for war vets.

That's all for the Parks. There are probably some mountainous ones I should try to upload one of these days.

 

You have improved tremendously since your first post! These are absolutely beautiful pictures!

I use an old 1970's Nikon EM. I haven't been able to use it lately due to the fact that there is some sort of glue coming off and sticking to the mirror. D: I'll have to find a local camera shop and see if they can fix it.

I have a lot of shots, none of them are digital though. And all of them have been developed by me. I'll have to take scans/digital pictures of them someday and post them.

 

I think the key, really, is to just take a goddamn load of photos. A few of them just have to be good at that point.

Digital is great for that, but I find there is a whole hobby emerging out there for people who still shoot in traditional film. It's definitely a talent that is fading.

 

Yeah, I've learned that as well. I go through loads of rolls and only pull less than 20 shots from those rolls.

And I agree on that. I've been thinking about when I develop rolls to have them put on CD, because I would love to try some HDR stuff and some touch ups.

But generally, the way I touch up is with photo dye. XD I have some great black and white shots where I hand painted in the color in some parts. I love doing that.