|
Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
10-17-2015, 11:29 AM
|
| |
I'm stunned by these pictures and asking us to pick the best is kind of mean...��
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
07-27-2015, 07:10 AM
|
| |
A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird posturing. K-3 DFA 100mm WR.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-21-2015, 01:30 PM
|
| |
If I could do it again it would be an 18-55 WR, a DA* 60-250, and the FA 100 WR. That would do it.
|
|
Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-13-2015, 11:08 AM
|
| |
Two toes sloth, Costa Rica.
|
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
06-26-2015, 04:35 AM
|
| |
Yep, $80 is a small price to pay for the US warranty.
|
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
06-25-2015, 06:51 PM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Pentax Price Watch
06-21-2015, 07:38 AM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Photographic Technique
06-16-2015, 08:02 AM
|
| |
I have this problem on my K-3 with a particular species of red flower but not all red flowers. I wonder if the flower is reflecting light outside the visible spectrum that is messing with the sensor. Just a guess. Does not appear to be a problem with my Nikon coolpix or iPhone,
|
|
Forum: Post Your Photos!
06-03-2015, 06:22 PM
|
| |
Dogbane beetles. Similar to June bug but mostly green.
|
|
Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-29-2015, 05:37 PM
|
| |
Agree completely. The EVF's are terrible though the Canon does have split focus for manual tuning. Otherwise, terrible. If you have realistic expectations, superzooms can be great. I would have paid extra for RAW and weather sealing. I think Nikon just wanted to get the 83X out ASAP for the wow factor.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-29-2015, 11:40 AM
|
| |
That Lumix is an awesome camera. The upcoming Olympus Stylus 1s may be good too as it's f2.8 out to 300mm.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-29-2015, 10:43 AM
|
| |
It does macro quite well for a bridge camera, can focus on subjects less than 1cm. There are better handling cameras, like the Canons and Fuji, if you don't feel you need the 2000mm reach but the image stabilization in the P900 is incredible.
|
|
Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-29-2015, 08:04 AM
|
| |
I finally decided to get a Nikon P900 to handle anything 500mm and beyond. I get a lot of heat from photographers for this decision but at 2 lbs and $600 it fits in my kit and gives reasonable results. I definitely get shots I wouldn't get with the bigma. Like the moon (2000mm eq or the cedar waxwing 1000mm eq and handheld). I know there are a lot of drawbacks but lugging around giant expensive glass isn't always that great either.
|
|
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-28-2015, 03:45 PM
|
| |
He's a white Maine coon. Yes, there is such a thing. Our old cat is Frank so we thought Beans would compliment him well.
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
05-28-2015, 02:57 PM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-28-2015, 02:51 PM
|
| |
The camera is 24-2000 f2.8-6.5 (35mm equivalent)
The starling (3rd shot) was taken in very low light through my kitchen window and the flowers were taken at the long end (2000mm from 80 ft away handheld).
The moon was on a tripod and the second bird was handheld in better light.
Overall, it's for when a mediocre picture is better than nothing at all.
|
|
Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-28-2015, 10:33 AM
|
| |
Decided to try a P900 for those hard-to-reach places. The zoom and image stabilization are incredible but there's also some real bonehead problems. Like an analog zoom scale with no markings and a display that says "iso" without the actual iso number. I don't understand this at all, I know there's 'iso' in my picture, what I want to know is the number. Who decided to go to the trouble of putting the word there but not the number? No hood for a giant lens. Manual focus is painfully slow, almost unusable. No split image feature to help focusing and zooming to manual focus doesn't let you scroll around on the image. So if what you're trying to focus on isn't in the middle of the screen, you're SOL. And if you're trying to manually focus at 2000mm (eq), then you're on a tripod and it's not so easy to move the camera around and keep your image composed. Finally, there's no RAW support, the most painful of all my gripes. I don't blame Nikon, however, because I'm sure there's a lot of image processing going on to make the resulting jpgs look OK. The RAW images would probably be really distorted. All that said, it has proven to be very useful when I need to get that extra distance and when I'm in a huge hurry and have the wrong lens on my K-3. The Canon superzooms have better features and are more usable (I have the SX40) but I'll take the optical zoom and stabilization on this new Nikon any time. It's quite possible to shoot handheld at full zoom in reasonable light.
FYI
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
05-28-2015, 09:46 AM
|
| |
A friend shoots gymnastics and dance professionally and says the Tamron 70-200 2.8 works on about any camera. She's not tried a pentax body specifically but if it works on a Nikon 3000 series, it should certainly work well on the pentax bodies you mentioned (for gymnastics specifically). As was mentioned, the 55-300 is not an indoor lens. I found I could use it for indoor archery but only using manual focus. I can't imagine trying to use it for focusing on or tracking fast moving subjects. Since you can't use flash for these events, you have to rely on a fast lens. I tried my 100mm 2.8 Pentax macro lens and it's just not long enough, so something longer than 100 (f2.8) is probably what you need.
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-24-2015, 10:40 AM
|
| |
Spider nest found in the woods. Copious babies.
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-21-2015, 03:58 PM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-21-2015, 03:57 PM
|
| |
Hello Folks! I'll get to the results after a quick disclosure. I feel that I'm not in a position to judge the quality of other people's photography because I'm pretty new to the scene. Thus, I judged them on how well they represented the theme. My comments are mainly to offer an explanation of how I interpreted your photos. Finally, please excuse the brevity and typos, I've got a stomach bug so I'm not running at 100%.
Outis- a boar with antlers (horns if you're from the city). What could be better. It fits the theme with three deer and the boar as outlier.
Simon_199- some Star Wars fans that stand out from the crowd (definition 2). That's a damn fine land speeder and I like the expression on Obiwan's face.
Charliezap- a clear outlier by either definition. The balloons make a practical addition to the hat. I like the color and expression of the subjects.
SpecialK- If I understand, the mushroom is the outlier against a backdrop of headstones sticking out of the ground. Aside from being different, it also stands apart from the rest. Excellent. I also appreciate that the roundness of the background parallels the roundness of the mushroom cap.
Chmance- a beautiful shot all around. Love the flowers, composition, and creamy bokeh. The single flower opening makes it the outlier.
Atupdate- everyone loves baby animals, especially a terra cota pot full of puppies. Here the outlier is prominently displayed on top of the rest of the litter. You did a great job of isolating the subject without creating a lot of harsh shadows. Not easy with four squirmy subjects.
Ramseybuckeye- crabby Abe Lincoln is clearly the outlier here ( definition 1 and 2) I like his menacing look and what appears to be a blackjack in his left hand. He means business.
K David- I love the rich colors and the fact that you were likely lying prone the take this shot. That's dedication. Here the outlier is the purple flowers against the grass. Overall a great shot.
Slowpez- a firm outlier based on definition 2. Is this a joke location? There was never any water there. Love any shot of people acting crazy.
Tamia- gorgeous shot of something I'm interested in personally. Never occurred to me to use monochrome to highlight outliers. Great shot and idea.
Geomez- a shot of a cardinal being robbed by starlings. The cardinal very clearly the outlier in this group.
Tessfully- a beautiful and excellent example of an outlier, clearly the flowering lily. I haven't seem so much color in lilies before, this is just great, period.
Hattifnatt- I believe the idea here is the row of bushes terminating in buildings. As such the buildings would be the outliers. If this is the case, then we see two outliers here.
Jchorst- very clear depiction of TWO outliers here. I would be happy to play against you guys sometime.
Perspicador- the ugly duckling and its beautiful parent. Not sure which is the outlier but I hope it's the duckling.
Asp1880- a very clear representation of the concept. Your first thought is that a single subject is set apart in this image. Very shallow DOF.
Madmathmind- here we have a mostly natural landscape with the subtle exception of the road and the significant exception and the sign. Thus, the sign is the outlier here, correct?
Sealonsf- I'll be honest here, I'm not sure what the outlier is here. I apologize if I'm being dense. I'm sure that's it. Sorry sealonsf.
StephenHampshire- very clear demonstration of the theme and I love the composition and color here. A man with a bunch a sheep is always an outlier.
Dieterson- another nice picture of a relatively unique flower against a backdrop of a different species. The color here is particularly nice.
The Winners!
#3. Asp1880- Instant and obvious depiction of an outlier.
Attachment 269365
#2 tessfully- like #3, clear representation of the theme with an amazing array of color.
Attachment 269366
#1 StephenHampshire- amazing composition, color, and adherence to the theme. Loved the picture from the moment I saw it.
Attachment 269367
This images below are in order from #3-#1. Late entries, sorry! I don't usually care about rules but it's not my forum so I stuck to them.
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-20-2015, 05:19 AM
|
| |
Thanks everyone for your excellent photos. This evening I'll get out my best box of crayons and continue to pretend to know what I'm doing as I judge these submissions. I expect to have the results up tonight or tomorrow at the latest.
Cheers!
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-19-2015, 06:18 PM
|
| |
We're in the home stretch. Loving these so far.
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-13-2015, 06:47 AM
|
| |
Hi Folks and welcome to Weekly Challenge #324 – “Outliers and the (un)familiar.” I’d like to thank chmance for hosting the last contest and warn everyone not to expect the same level of sophistication from me because I am a complete amateur. Thus disclosed, I would like to share this week’s theme “Outliers and the (un)familiar.”
From dictionary.reference.com: Outlier – (1) something that lies outside the main body or group that it is a part of, as a cow far from the rest of the herd, or a distant island belonging to a cluster of islands and (2) someone who stands apart from others of his or her group, as by differing behavior, beliefs, or religious practices:
Sometimes a photograph will include the group to give context to the outlier. In the definition above we see it takes both a cow and a herd to make the case for an outlier. Other times, a subject that is both universally familiar, yet somehow different, can represent an outlier. For example, a green stop sign is an outlier because we know stop signs are red. Hence addition of the term (un)familiar to represent those images.
I’ve included a couple pictures that aren’t particularly interesting but serve to illustrate the point. The first image was made with a Canon powershot, which is pretty uncool, but's it's just for illustration.
This Weekly Photo Challenge will run until midnight next Tuesday, May 19, 2015. That's midnight of the time zone you are in.
Rules:
1. Post ONE photo (max 1024x1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme (especially if it's not obvious).
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and choose one of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus an additional day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Photos from any Pentax camera (film, compact, DSLR, etc.) -- or a Samsung DSLR -- are allowed.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.
9. In case the winner of a challenge is unable to become the judge for the next challenge, they will PM the #2 winner for that person to be the judge.
|
|
Forum: Weekly Photo Challenges
05-10-2015, 03:26 PM
|
| |
Wow! I'm truly and pleasantly surprised! Thank you chmance for the great theme and thoughtful comments, you set a high bar for judges. There were excellent photos in this week's contest, so much so in fact that I wasn't planning on entering anything until I noticed Frank the Stray stalking me. We were, as you suggested, deeply engaged in co-stalking and I have many soft and one-eyed pictures. This adequately sharp, two-eyed shot was an outlier* (foreshadowy music).
Thanks everyone for the kind words and great pictures. I'll put the next theme up tomorrow.
Matt (DoctorX)
*Outlier | Define Outlier at Dictionary.com |
