Pretzel's learning curve...

Pretzel

Senior Member
And, as promised... here are those sunset pics. :)

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Pretzel

Senior Member
We were sitting casually in the park at one of our smaller communities, waiting for the AMAZING fireworks display they put on every year, when everyone started looking up and pointing. Then I heard the ROAR... the old war planes were about to do their flyover. HOW COULD I FORGET!?

It was nearing dusk, so I already had the ISO cranked up, so out came the camera as I pretended to know what I was doing. I got some decent pics for a novice with a new 70-300 VR. By the looks, guessing these were the old AT-6? (not sure though, anyone ID and correct me if ya can!)

C&C welcome to help prepare me for the next time it happens. :)

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Practicing portraits today... here's a few that stood out.

First a couple that caught a bit of the wife's "personality". ;)

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Then, the rare decent pic of the boy. You know how teens slump and grumble...

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This next one, to me, was the capture of the day.

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Then a bit of fun! A candid shot of mom reminding her son that she's allowed a kiss anywhere, even in PUBLIC!

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All in all, I discovered I need a lot more practice shooting portraits, but it was a fun day!
 
Practicing portraits today... here's a few that stood out.

First a couple that caught a bit of the wife's "personality". ;)

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Then, the rare decent pic of the boy. You know how teens slump and grumble...

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This next one, to me, was the capture of the day.

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Then a bit of fun! A candid shot of mom reminding her son that she's allowed a kiss anywhere, even in PUBLIC!

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All in all, I discovered I need a lot more practice shooting portraits, but it was a fun day!

#2 & #4 are great of your wife. #4 - been there and done that. My baby boy is 28 now and actually asked me to take his picture this week. Even wanted one of his mom and him and then one of me with him There is hope for your boy yet. We found that kids finally become human at about 25 years old.
 

Marilynne

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#2 & #4 are great of your wife. #4 - been there and done that. My baby boy is 28 now and actually asked me to take his picture this week. Even wanted one of his mom and him and then one of me with him There is hope for your boy yet. We found that kids finally become human at about 25 years old.

I'm with Don, 2 and 4 are the best.
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
Couple more "critter" pics from my random wanderings...

These giants start raiding the 4 O'clocks around... 4 o'clock!

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...and I found this wee fellow on a wildflower down near the river.

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Pretzel

Senior Member
I'll spend the next few days posting a few eye catching tidbits of interest that I stumbled across while randomly wandering around our downtown area...

Fell in LOVE with the color scheme and composition of this little pretty. The pic, when I got home to upload, did not disappoint!

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Had some fun messing with an old sign for a parking garage to start... Went with a filtered black and white with a vignette to get away from the BRIGHT blue and white "Chase" bank sign that glared out between the U and L.

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Then went to a local graffiti hotspot and found this talent. The artist kept a persistent design going despite the different colored sections, making it look like a "Cleaning" or "Scrubbed" effect. All with spray cans. Amazing.

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Pretzel

Senior Member
I'll diverge, for a moment, to share two pics that I loved from today's dabbling in using my 70-300 VR for some (from 6 feet away) macro shots. Both were "4 O'clock" blooms, and have undergone the "infrared" treatment to get some cool B&W effects. Kinda wish I had taken one of these in time for last month's challenge!!

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Back to more "wanderings" pics tomorrow with some more of the amazing graffiti I found!
 

Pretzel

Senior Member
There's nothing "phenomenal" about these pics, but rather just some fun. The 1st is a picture of the "Center of the Universe" right smack dab in the midst of downtown Tulsa, OK. It's an unintentional acoustical wonder, as when you stand right in the middle, the decorative bits of wall and stone all around it echo your voice back to you from all directions at once. It's fun to play around with, as just a few inches in any direction will cancel the effect. The most laughs come from people in active conversation as they walk across it. It almost always causes them to jump and look over their shoulder because they think someone has snuck up on them. :)



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A pic of the photographer's foot, along with the wife's and son's feet, standing right in the middle of the "Center". ;)

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Back to a couple of graffiti shots...

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This one was rather a cool thing I noticed while snapping the pic just above. Nature worked itself right into the beauty as if saying, "I still win."

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Made the mistake at looking into some of these macro threads... now I want the 105mm Macro lens!! At the very least, I think I'll look into some of the Macro add-on lens kits.

Until then, I used the 70-300 VR to zoom way in from about 6 feet away. ;) (then cropped, of course)

Who knew flies had BIG red eyes? Apparently, my Nikon does!

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Added a bit of the built-in flash to provide fill light, as the two fly photos were taken in late afternoon shade.

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Then, the easiest to capture "critter" of them all, moved to a section of a tree trunk bathed in late afternoon light. At this scale, this guy looks like he could've fought Godzilla!!

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Ok, after all the disappointing attempts at the moon with my 18-55 kit lens, I finally got a chance to take a shot with my 70-300. It's still not as sharp as I would like... :( My cheap little tripod isn't built for a 6'4" dude OR extreme sky angles, and I was sweating out in the summer evening humidity with my eyes struggling to see the focus through the viewfinder as I manually dialed it in, so I was getting frustrated. I might try again soon with a new reserve of patience.

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EDIT: Here's a 2nd handheld shot I took leaning up against the car. With this one, I wasn't having to stoop over awkwardly trying to set the tripod and focus all at once. Does it look a little cleaner to you folks?

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Isn't it crazy how, in just a matter of an hour how the moon can change locations (expected) AND angle in the sky, so it's a brand new shot? Maybe I'm just easily amazed...
 
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