The "everything but gear talk" thread. What's your project, what's your take on it?

**bkpix** · 03-17-2018, 04:41 PM - **1 Like**

Norm: Great idea for a thread! This is what the whole forum should be about.

I'm in a retrenching/consolidation stage right now, looking for new landscape approaches that (1) don't look like they got stolen from someone's calendar but (2) are compelling enough not to require explaining. I spend a lot of time in the Oregon forest, and may start exploring the boundaries between different patches of woods: the edge of an old-growth tract, for example, or the boundary between two plantations of significantly different ages.

normhead · 03-19-2018, 07:17 AM - **1 Like**

Those framed moon images are really cool... there's something I never would have though of myself.

Here are the the results of my current project to date. We rearranged the furniture. Tore out some built in cabinets, bought a 55 inch 4K tv, The screen can be tilted so it can be viewed from the kitchen (open concept). I like it a lot more than I anticipated. It's inspired me to go through all my files and find all the keepers for display, so far, I have over 400 images rotating a few seconds at at time with plans for more folders on different themes. It's not leaving me a ;lot of forum time, but when Is it down time at night, and I'm sitting watching while having a beer and watching the pictures go by, it's worth it.

The frame is 48" x 26". Personally, I have never printed that big. The native resolution of each image, cropped is at least 3740x 2160, the resolution is fantastic and I don't need an overhead lighting track to illuminate the images. You can see the wall behind was going to have a huge landscape and overhead track lighting. We like the 4k TV images so much it's possible that will never happen.

MikeStnly · 03-19-2018, 07:44 AM

Took a year off from photography just by accident. Now I am back and working on three things:

1 - learning how to use manual lenses better - both M42 and Pentax-M.
2 - learning how to use flash - both indoors and out - using some modifiers - sto-fen, gels, eventually some remote triggers - a lot of reading here.
3 - there are about 30-40 churches in the county that I live in - it is a large area - and I was thinking of taking the time to photograph each one. Not documentary shots, but something creative with sunrises, sunsets etc. depending on the location.

normhead · 03-19-2018, 12:35 PM

Originally posted by MikeStnly

Took a year off from photography just by accident. Now I am back and working on three things:

1 - learning how to use manual lenses better - both M42 and Pentax-M.
2 - learning how to use flash - both indoors and out - using some modifiers - sto-fen, gels, eventually some remote triggers - a lot of reading here.
3 - there are about 30-40 churches in the county that I live in - it is a large area - and I was thinking of taking the time to photograph each one. Not documentary shots, but something creative with sunrises, sunsets etc. depending on the location.

There are some in the area I've always wanted to photograph. But we are always driving by, and we are always late for something or tired.

MikeStnly · 03-19-2018, 01:13 PM

Originally posted by normhead

There are some in the area I've always wanted to photograph. But we are always driving by, and we are always late for something or tired.

OMG! Stop and take a photo. What if it burned down the next day! LOL. I know what you mean, but I passed two moose on the side of 118 one day last spring and didn't stop. Haven't seen them since, but hope to see them again this spring. I read something recently that said - take the photo. The sun will never be the same, the light will never be as good, the tree might fall over, the water might dry up..... and so on.

**savoche** · 03-19-2018, 01:24 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by normhead

There are some in the area I've always wanted to photograph. But we are always driving by, and we are always late for something or tired.

Too easy to do that. What we have done a couple of times when driving longer trips, like the 6-7 hour drive to visit relatives on the west caost, is to plan for a two-hour detour to one of those "we really should stop and visit" places along the way. And it works. After 15 years of driving past we have actually managed to stop at a few places - and been very glad that we did!

Same thing when commuting to work. So many times I have seen something through the bus window that I would like to photograph. A couple of years ago I actually started to jump off at the next stop, walk back, and take the darned picture. It felt immensely good

I have changed jobs since - a shorter commute through a more boring area.

bigted · 03-19-2018, 03:36 PM - **3 Likes**

I've been lurking but I thought it was time I posted. At my best friends instigation I am putting together my first sale of some of my prints. It's not big show by any means and I am really only testing the water to see if people are as interested in my prints as they pretend to be. For the last few years i have put together some prints as fundraisers for some groups I support and more and more people have asked of I would sell them. I decided to get a few printed and frame a small number and offer the rest without frames. Nothing terribly expensive. What I don't sell I can use in the fall as fundraising prizes. So far the hardest part is coming to a price that reflects my costs and is fair to both myself and my possible customers. I don't want them too cheap nor do I want t price myself out of the market.

MikeStnly · 03-19-2018, 04:32 PM

Originally posted by bigted

So far the hardest part is coming to a price that reflects my costs and is fair to both myself and my possible customers. I don't want them too cheap nor do I want t price myself out of the market.

I have seen local artists sell framed prints in Ontario for around $65 to $100 - this is for photographers that don't yet have a big name. And these aren't big prints, maybe 5x7 or 8x10 for the most part. I hope you do well with this.

normhead · 03-19-2018, 06:06 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by MikeStnly

OMG! Stop and take a photo. What if it burned down the next day! LOL. I know what you mean, but I passed two moose on the side of 118 one day last spring and didn't stop. Haven't seen them since, but hope to see them again this spring. I read something recently that said - take the photo. The sun will never be the same, the light will never be as good, the tree might fall over, the water might dry up..... and so on.

You know how it is I et. The sun isn't right, the parking lot is dirty, we need to get here right after a fresh snow, Tess doesn't even like churches....

I do have a few though... Young's point, on the way to Peterborough from here. i was in the car by myself.... no one was inconvenienced.

MikeStnly · 03-20-2018, 04:37 AM

Originally posted by normhead

You know how it is I et. The sun isn't right, the parking lot is dirty, we need to get here right after a fresh snow, Tess doesn't even like churches....

I do have a few though... Young's point, on the way to Peterborough from here. i was in the car by myself.... no one was inconvenienced.

There are cars parked in front, there are too many people..... so many things to ruin a good shot.

Nice shot this one, I love the colours.

Unregistered User · 03-20-2018, 08:29 AM - **2 Likes**

I've been working on San Francisco images for my blog:

phone 2

I’m trying not to overthink the process by just letting the images speak for themselves.

normhead · 03-29-2018, 06:23 AM - **3 Likes**

Well, I'm back from Tess' niece's wedding.... I shot over 800 images, with close to 300 keepers, just going through and doing white balance was ridiculous. It wasn't supposed to be a project, but it's become one...

It was good to be out working with a camera again.... but I'm too old for this kind of stuff. It's going to take me days to recover.

biz-engineer · 03-30-2018, 10:04 AM

Spring wildlife series: finding places and figuring how to get close... not an easy task.

**robgski** · 03-30-2018, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by biz-engineer

Spring wildlife series: finding places and figuring how to get close... not an easy task.

It is just like hunting, check out a few places, sit and wait in the most likely one, and wait, also, observing which anmals are them most active at certain tmes of day helps. For example, In my current location I se a lot of waterfowl flyng overhead in the first hour after sunrise, but not at other tmes.

**monochrome** · 03-30-2018, 05:09 PM - **1 Like**

The times I have available to work on my project are weekdays 4:30am - 5:45am, some lunch hours and roughly 6:30pm until sunset (not counting intentional night shooting). Then Saturday and Sunday morning and evening. Of course there’s always some problem with the light or the rain or getting up even earlier to drive somewhere, shoot and get back or someone else needs me, or, or, or, .

I conclude I should just put the names of all my K lenses in a hat, put whatever lens I pull on the K-1, carry it with me everywhere and shoot with only that lens until I’m finished with a representative album. And finally man up and sell the KP.

03-19-2018, 07:17 AM - 1 Like	#77
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451 Original Poster	Those framed moon images are really cool... there's something I never would have though of myself. Here are the the results of my current project to date. We rearranged the furniture. Tore out some built in cabinets, bought a 55 inch 4K tv, The screen can be tilted so it can be viewed from the kitchen (open concept). I like it a lot more than I anticipated. It's inspired me to go through all my files and find all the keepers for display, so far, I have over 400 images rotating a few seconds at at time with plans for more folders on different themes. It's not leaving me a ;lot of forum time, but when Is it down time at night, and I'm sitting watching while having a beer and watching the pictures go by, it's worth it. The frame is 48" x 26". Personally, I have never printed that big. The native resolution of each image, cropped is at least 3740x 2160, the resolution is fantastic and I don't need an overhead lighting track to illuminate the images. You can see the wall behind was going to have a huge landscape and overhead track lighting. We like the 4k TV images so much it's possible that will never happen. Last edited by normhead; 03-20-2018 at 03:10 PM.

03-20-2018, 08:29 AM - 2 Likes	#86
Unregistered User Guest	I've been working on San Francisco images for my blog: phone 2 I’m trying not to overthink the process by just letting the images speak for themselves. Last edited by Unregistered User; 03-20-2018 at 08:45 AM. Reason: typo

03-29-2018, 06:23 AM - 3 Likes	#87
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451 Original Poster	Well, I'm back from Tess' niece's wedding.... I shot over 800 images, with close to 300 keepers, just going through and doing white balance was ridiculous. It wasn't supposed to be a project, but it's become one... It was good to be out working with a camera again.... but I'm too old for this kind of stuff. It's going to take me days to recover. Last edited by normhead; 03-29-2018 at 05:19 PM.

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03-17-2018, 04:41 PM - 1 Like	#76
bkpix Site Supporter Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Creswell, Oregon Photos: Albums Posts: 568	Norm: Great idea for a thread! This is what the whole forum should be about. I'm in a retrenching/consolidation stage right now, looking for new landscape approaches that (1) don't look like they got stolen from someone's calendar but (2) are compelling enough not to require explaining. I spend a lot of time in the Oregon forest, and may start exploring the boundaries between different patches of woods: the edge of an old-growth tract, for example, or the boundary between two plantations of significantly different ages.

03-19-2018, 07:44 AM	#78
MikeStnly Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Algonquin Highlands Posts: 249	Took a year off from photography just by accident. Now I am back and working on three things: 1 - learning how to use manual lenses better - both M42 and Pentax-M. 2 - learning how to use flash - both indoors and out - using some modifiers - sto-fen, gels, eventually some remote triggers - a lot of reading here. 3 - there are about 30-40 churches in the county that I live in - it is a large area - and I was thinking of taking the time to photograph each one. Not documentary shots, but something creative with sunrises, sunsets etc. depending on the location.

03-19-2018, 12:35 PM	#79
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451 Original Poster	Originally posted by MikeStnly Took a year off from photography just by accident. Now I am back and working on three things: 1 - learning how to use manual lenses better - both M42 and Pentax-M. 2 - learning how to use flash - both indoors and out - using some modifiers - sto-fen, gels, eventually some remote triggers - a lot of reading here. 3 - there are about 30-40 churches in the county that I live in - it is a large area - and I was thinking of taking the time to photograph each one. Not documentary shots, but something creative with sunrises, sunsets etc. depending on the location. There are some in the area I've always wanted to photograph. But we are always driving by, and we are always late for something or tired.

03-19-2018, 01:13 PM	#80
MikeStnly Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Algonquin Highlands Posts: 249	Originally posted by normhead There are some in the area I've always wanted to photograph. But we are always driving by, and we are always late for something or tired. OMG! Stop and take a photo. What if it burned down the next day! LOL. I know what you mean, but I passed two moose on the side of 118 one day last spring and didn't stop. Haven't seen them since, but hope to see them again this spring. I read something recently that said - take the photo. The sun will never be the same, the light will never be as good, the tree might fall over, the water might dry up..... and so on.

03-19-2018, 01:24 PM - 1 Like	#81
savoche Master of the obvious Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Lowlands of Norway Posts: 18,311	Originally posted by normhead There are some in the area I've always wanted to photograph. But we are always driving by, and we are always late for something or tired. Too easy to do that. What we have done a couple of times when driving longer trips, like the 6-7 hour drive to visit relatives on the west caost, is to plan for a two-hour detour to one of those "we really should stop and visit" places along the way. And it works. After 15 years of driving past we have actually managed to stop at a few places - and been very glad that we did! Same thing when commuting to work. So many times I have seen something through the bus window that I would like to photograph. A couple of years ago I actually started to jump off at the next stop, walk back, and take the darned picture. It felt immensely good I have changed jobs since - a shorter commute through a more boring area.

03-19-2018, 03:36 PM - 3 Likes	#82
bigted Moderator Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Jessica Lake, Whiteshell Provincial Park, or Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,593	I've been lurking but I thought it was time I posted. At my best friends instigation I am putting together my first sale of some of my prints. It's not big show by any means and I am really only testing the water to see if people are as interested in my prints as they pretend to be. For the last few years i have put together some prints as fundraisers for some groups I support and more and more people have asked of I would sell them. I decided to get a few printed and frame a small number and offer the rest without frames. Nothing terribly expensive. What I don't sell I can use in the fall as fundraising prizes. So far the hardest part is coming to a price that reflects my costs and is fair to both myself and my possible customers. I don't want them too cheap nor do I want t price myself out of the market.

03-19-2018, 04:32 PM	#83
MikeStnly Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Algonquin Highlands Posts: 249	Originally posted by bigted So far the hardest part is coming to a price that reflects my costs and is fair to both myself and my possible customers. I don't want them too cheap nor do I want t price myself out of the market. I have seen local artists sell framed prints in Ontario for around $65 to $100 - this is for photographers that don't yet have a big name. And these aren't big prints, maybe 5x7 or 8x10 for the most part. I hope you do well with this.

03-19-2018, 06:06 PM - 1 Like	#84
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451 Original Poster	Originally posted by MikeStnly OMG! Stop and take a photo. What if it burned down the next day! LOL. I know what you mean, but I passed two moose on the side of 118 one day last spring and didn't stop. Haven't seen them since, but hope to see them again this spring. I read something recently that said - take the photo. The sun will never be the same, the light will never be as good, the tree might fall over, the water might dry up..... and so on. You know how it is I et. The sun isn't right, the parking lot is dirty, we need to get here right after a fresh snow, Tess doesn't even like churches.... I do have a few though... Young's point, on the way to Peterborough from here. i was in the car by myself.... no one was inconvenienced.

03-20-2018, 04:37 AM	#85
MikeStnly Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Algonquin Highlands Posts: 249	Originally posted by normhead You know how it is I et. The sun isn't right, the parking lot is dirty, we need to get here right after a fresh snow, Tess doesn't even like churches.... I do have a few though... Young's point, on the way to Peterborough from here. i was in the car by myself.... no one was inconvenienced. There are cars parked in front, there are too many people..... so many things to ruin a good shot. Nice shot this one, I love the colours.

03-30-2018, 10:04 AM	#88
biz-engineer Pentaxian Join Date: Feb 2015 Photos: Gallery Posts: 12,232	Spring wildlife series: finding places and figuring how to get close... not an easy task.

03-30-2018, 12:45 PM	#89
robgski Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 8,798	Originally posted by biz-engineer Spring wildlife series: finding places and figuring how to get close... not an easy task. It is just like hunting, check out a few places, sit and wait in the most likely one, and wait, also, observing which anmals are them most active at certain tmes of day helps. For example, In my current location I se a lot of waterfowl flyng overhead in the first hour after sunrise, but not at other tmes.

03-30-2018, 05:09 PM - 1 Like	#90
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	The times I have available to work on my project are weekdays 4:30am - 5:45am, some lunch hours and roughly 6:30pm until sunset (not counting intentional night shooting). Then Saturday and Sunday morning and evening. Of course there’s always some problem with the light or the rain or getting up even earlier to drive somewhere, shoot and get back or someone else needs me, or, or, or, . I conclude I should just put the names of all my K lenses in a hat, put whatever lens I pull on the K-1, carry it with me everywhere and shoot with only that lens until I’m finished with a representative album. And finally man up and sell the KP.