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[Waumbek]

I've had my purple lupine-Lafayette avatar for awhile, and I was hoping to change it to white lupines with Cannon this season. I'm heading out for a week tomorrow so I thought I'd better get over to my favorite lupine field today and shoot my picture. The lupines could be gone by when I return; they've been taking a battering in all these t-storms. I got there around 4 to find that the lupines are not very profuse this year, few white or pink ones for some reason, and the mountains, while visible, continue to be shrouded in the pea-soup haze of the last five days. Here's three of the best I could do. I think I'll stick with the old for another year and see how it goes in June 06.

 

[sli74]

Really? I think the new picture is beautiful. Change it up, you can always change it back?

sli74

 

[mavs00]

Just to be different, I'd go with the "Rainbow over the Kinsmans" . I absolutly LOVE the contrast in it. But it might be tough to see and really appreciate it on the small sized avatar.

Only one way to find out. Post it and let us decide

 

[Rick]

Wow!!! That Rainbow over the Kinsmans is smokin' hot (or wicked good, as I learn the lingo.). YOu should enter it in a picture contest. You have my vote!!
Rick

 

[Sherpa John]

I love ALL of the new pics you took... but the 3rd best. Change it up!

 

[Mark Schaefer]

I agree with Seema. Don't underestimate these new photos. There is much to be said for flower photos on a slightly overcast day. There are no distracting harsh shadows. Also with the mountains somewhat subdued in the background the lupines stand out better - they are the real show in these photos. I would go with #1 of 3 as it is the most concentrated view of the three, and has the best visual impact IMHO. Great job!

edit.. OK, After much debating with myself, and much flipping back and forth between 1 and 2 -- I changed my mind. I find the foreground of #2 more satisfying and cleaner. I also like the greater sense of motion in the flowers in #2. My only problems with #3 is that the white tree on the right draws attention away from the lupines. Sorry, you brought out the photo contest judge in me. Again all great shots.

 

[Waumbek]

Only one way to find out. Post it and let us decide

Help! Don't run one of those polls on me while I'm gone.....

 

[Neil]

Those are truly beautiful pictures. However (so sorry ), I prefer mug shot avatars. I know its not very creative but I like to be able to stick a face to the posts that I read.
If you can't decide which photo to use then why not create a .gif file that rotates thru all 3?

 

[SAR-EMT40]

They are all very good but I am a sucker for a good rainbow.

Keith

 

[darren]

the lupines are not very profuse this year, few white or pink ones

The humid skies in Franconia were killing me too. No big vistas with the lupine this year.

I had to settle for the intimate landscape:

shot 1

shot 2

shot 3

There were some pink lupine around, but for the very rare purple and yellow combo lupine I had to go all the way to my front yard.


- darren

 

[spencer]

I'm always so jealous when people post really good pictures. I take a lot of pictures with the hopes of getting a few good ones, but I never get ones like these.

what do you have that I don't have?

spencer

 

[chomp]

what do you have that I don't have?

A really big camera?

 

[bobandgeri]

A really big camera?

A good camera helps, but someone with good skills and a less exspensive camera will end up with better pics.

 

[chomp]

A good camera helps, but someone with good skills and a less exspensive camera will end up with better pics.

Yup - I was joking.

 

[darren]

I'm always so jealous when people post really good pictures. I take a lot of pictures with the hopes of getting a few good ones, but I never get ones like these.

what do you have that I don't have?

spencer

I shoot with an SLR, so you get more control over the shots. Some of the new point and shoot cameras have a lot of manual control so you can get some good shots with them too.

Mostly though it takes an understanding of optically how the camera works and what the human eye likes to see. You need to know the effect you want before you take the shot and you need to know how to set up your camera to get the effect. These shots certainly aren't my best but a little camera knowhow helped to make them a little better than snapshots. Waumbek's shots show that he planned the images before he shot them. Everything is well thought out, foreground, background, and overall composition.

By composition, you have to understand how the human eye and brain perceives photos. A great photo traps the viewer's attention and there are composition "rules" on what achieves it. It's almost like basic psychology, you have to anticipate how the brain will respond.

I have never taken any photography classes, but I have read several books. Most photo books go into how the camera works but the better ones go into how the mind reacts to images. I find that part very interesting.

- darren

 

[dr_wu002]

I shoot with an SLR, so you get more control over the shots. Some of the new point and shoot cameras have a lot of manual control so you can get some good shots with them too.

I agree. I only recently got into photography and have a $200 Canon A510 which gives you good manual control (shutter speed, F-stop, ISO etc.) and I use a circular polarizer (and adjust it for most shots I take). I've also never taken a camera course but I've read books and also I struggled a lot trying to figure out and understand the basics & took lots of bad pictures in the process. I will sometimes meter a shot and then set the camera to "auto" just to compare them afterwards. The difference is striking! Auto only captures an outdoors shot correctly about 10% of the time.

I was happy with the Iceland pictures I took but I still feel like I have a lot of work to do in terms of becoming a good photographer.

-Dr. Wu

 

[DougPaul]

A good camera helps, but someone with good skills and a less exspensive camera will end up with better pics.

To paraphrase the Baron von Richtofen: "Its not the camera but the person behind the camera".

That said, my "hit rate" is better with my film SLR than with my digital point-and-shoot (with manual overides). The extra control (and 28mm lens) of the SLR helps. (Said the other way--the automation in the point-and-shoot screws up too often and is too hard to get around.)

Doug

 

[GeorgeFitch]

Composition

One of the simplest rules I try and use is the rule of thirds. Waumbeck's avatar is a perfect example. If those lupines were in the center of the shot, it wouldn't look nearly as nice as it does with them in the left third of the shot.

If you are photographing a person, don't have them looking out of the frame, or to the short side. Have them looking into the frame, it draws the viewers eyes into the rest of the picture.

An odd number of persons is better than an even number, which tends to look "flat".

Natural frames are also good, like a tree near the edge of the photo, or an overhanging branch across the top of the photo.

Waumbeck also has a nice balance of foreground and background.

 

[MichaelJ]

There are two specific things I find that give my dSLR an advantage over my point-n-shoot.

One is the shallower depth of field I get from my longer lenses. I can focus on someone or something, open the aperture up, and throw the rest of the image either a little or a lot out of focus. An example (but a lousy picture otherwise) is here.

The other is the better control I have over lengthening the shutter speed to blur a waterfall or stream picture. I can do it with the little camera, but it's trickier to control and manage; with the dSLR it's much easier to get a good shot out.