Nice Photos of Sarah Palin and Family

If I ever upgrade to the 5D or other in that class, one of my lenses won't work. I had more lenses than I really needed, did upgrade to the more expensive ones (L glass), started out cheap.

So I got my gdaughter a 40D for graduation and let her have my 28-135. I noticed she was getting reliably sharper photos with it than I was but it's not fast for indoor, low light. I decided it was probably hers is 10mp while mine is only 8mp, so it captures detail better. I also gave her my 50mm fixed because I seldom use it since I got a 24-70 for general purpose. The 40D does have a much nicer lcd. She's got my wa 10-22. And made off with my new wacom. Once I got it, I didn't want to bother with the learning curve, but it's still mine. Then I even let her use my really expensive ones on a very controlled basis. She's already doing pro work on the side, but she needs more experience, and I don't like some of the subjects she chooses, dark themes a lot, but tends to see more creatively than I. I like cheery, colorful subjects if possible, hate white sky days.

Anyway, be of good cheer. I'm kind of sloppy about composing, and a really good photographer gets all or most of it right the first time, still don't know how to meter very well, some of it is the camera. I compose by cropping so often which is not good. Who cares? Most people like them when I'm done. Don't get discouraged. I mainly shoot AV and have got a pretty good feel for it, don't know how it would be with Nikon. I suspect you're doing better than you say. I quit posting on dpreview but that's where I learned everything, not mad at anybody or anything, but everybody jumps and gets the latest upgrade, so I feel out of it.

I don't want to upgrade every year and won't. Suppose I could if I wanted, just am satisfied with where I am knowing how to handle most situations even if I get my share of bad shots.

It's fun to talk to you. Do you have a gallery anywhere? I've got a bunch of stuff in slideshows, not all of it is my best, but some guy at the UI spotted some of my photos and wrote and asked if he could use them, said their budget was low. So I just give my stuff away, trying to help him get model releases now. I get a $2 8X10 of things I think would be meaningful for people and just give it to them. They really seem to appreciate it.

Sorry I got carried away, one of my favorite subjects. Those photos of Sarah & family are just great. I don't know if people know you have to left click on some of them to make them expand out.

Most of the people on the photog sites are “artists” so they are hard core left. I don’t waste my time arguing with them becasue they rely on emotion and can’t be bothered with facts and logic.

WELL you’re right of course...go to David Byrne’s (Talking Heads) website (brilliant artist but whackjob liberal politically) and in his journal links about his recent road tour he just can’t help himself. They politicize everything and then project and assert that it’s the conservative/Republicans that “politicize” everything.

It’s actually quite surreal the level of hypocrisy and mental illness the godless displays for all to see routinely.

amazon bought out dpreview a couple years ago. You have to be careful what you post there. A certain amount is tolerated, but I've been in entire threads that ended up getting yanked, especially gay parades, I don't say snarky things but am kind of put off by them. But too many step over the line, and whoosh, it's gone.

Over the years, I've seen more conservatives there than I would have thought. Many are family types, go to church.

Quite awhile back, someone with a tele lens got a some nice shots of Bush and posted them. People feel proud when they get nice photos of celeb types. It didn't get too ugly as I recall, but there were some snide remarks.

I needed help with a photo of my granddaughter and her friend with Hillary so posted it. She had handed her camera off to somebody, and it was basically an excellent shot but needed some retouching. I tried to duck (remain neutral) about comments that followed as I have never been for Hillary but life is what it is when you have family.

I don’t have a gallery, but I also just upgraded to the DSLR. I just bought the D60 a couple of months back and was doing P&S digitally for the last 6 years. Before that, I did have film SLRs, and I had a few shots that I liked.

Composition is where I think I could use some improvement, too. I also crop sometimes to fix it. My 11 year old daughter used my first digital P&S at Yellowstone this year, and I thought her composition was better than mine a few times. I need to up my game! ; )

I like dpreview, and use it extensively when shopping but then drop it. You are right, they have the upgrade all the time mentality.

Do you have a link to your slideshows?

Just keep practicing with your composition, you will get much better at it, take time to plan the shot if you have it. I should talk, I get too much in a hurry. Sometimes you just have to take your chances and seize the moment. Plus I have trouble seeing through my viewfinder and many don't get centered. Plus I'm often off horizontal axis which bugs the heck out of me, so I always straighten those.

My granddaughter took a course in a regular college and shoots full manual. I only do that for night shots and with my hot shoe flash.

I need a lot more practice and experience, too. I FReepmailed you some links, don't want to put them on the board.

If I need help or plan to buy anything more, I'll go back to dpreview, too caught up in other things now. Overall, people were very good and helpful, and not always complimentary which is good except one guy was kind of arrogant which I resented. There are still advanced techniques I don't understand, rear curtain flash, circle of confusion for estimating dof, fill flash in the daytime, studio shots, lightboxes, things like that. But I usually find a simpler workaround with decent results. One guy did this neatest shot of a falling leaf where he dragged the shutter; the leaf left a blurry trail. He told me how he set up the shot and settings. I put my camera on a tripod and went out and tried it, spent the better part of an afternoon trying to get it. Just couldn't get it to work worth a darn.

There was a guy on the Nikon forum from Quebec, cannot remember his name, did spectacular work, and I so enjoyed his posts. I try to stay out of the Nikon-Canon wars.

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