First Art Shots With the New Nikon

Ned Bulken

Member
Messages
5,529
Location
Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
I'm going to be uploading to my photo blog twice a week in order to get my creative juices flowing. Here are some shots from this past week:

nmainbw.jpg


frozenintime.jpg


18mmfrozen.jpg


note the falls in the background, This shot was at 18mm, the falls in the previous shot was at 200mm. Love that lens!

nightglow1.jpg


snakes.jpg

this one was taken by my eldest son... showing what my mother calls 'snow snakes'

patrickportrait2.jpg

my first semi serious portrait with the new rig, my son Patrick.
 
Good stuff, Ned. :thumb:

Saw the first pic and was gonna give you a hard time about using a black & white memory card in your new DSLR. :D
 
You are off and running.
Consider joining DP Review. Maybe the largest discussion forum anywhere. Very good. Lots of good info and discussions. Only problem is narrowing your interests. You can spend your life on it.
 
I must have missed it. Whats your camera/lens?

Ron, I got the VR 18-200 zoom, so wide angle to way over there zoom. effectively a 27-300mm in '35mm' terms.
NIce Photos!!

Thanks Bob!

Good stuff, Ned. :thumb:

Saw the first pic and was gonna give you a hard time about using a black & white memory card in your new DSLR. :D

nmainc.jpg
:D

You are off and running.
Consider joining DP Review. Maybe the largest discussion forum anywhere. Very good. Lots of good info and discussions. Only problem is narrowing your interests. You can spend your life on it.

Frank, Thanks, I'll check them out! I'm actually considering taking a photo class at a local college, just to get up to speed on some of the new tricks etc for photoshop. DP review will probably be cheaper.
 
Ned, do use both. DP can be helpful, but, at times, confusing. Lotsa varying opinions, heavy use of acronymns, abbreviations, bad speeling, etc.
BTW, I reccomend PhotoShop Elements, lot less expensive than the pro version and does probably 97% of what the high priced version will do.
 
Ned, do use both. DP can be helpful, but, at times, confusing. Lotsa varying opinions, heavy use of acronymns, abbreviations, bad speeling, etc.
BTW, I reccomend PhotoShop Elements, lot less expensive than the pro version and does probably 97% of what the high priced version will do.

Duly noted, re DP.

PE is what I use daily already. I Might step up to the full boogie version if I need to, but as you say Elements is a very powerful imagery tool for under $100!
 
Ned, those all look very good. I thought at first the snowy outdoor pics were a bit blown out, but then tilted my monitor back and they were actually very good (tip for anyone else looking at them). You got a lot of detail in them for being so white.

You might check out some podcasts, which you can search for/watch in iTunes even if you dont have an ipod. There are a bunch of photography video podcasts available. One of my favorites is 'The Art of Photography' (http://aop.thepublicbroadcast.com/).

Another good site is Digital Photography School (http://digital-photography-school.com/), they have a tutorial section.

Also check out the Photography on the Net forum (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php), which is a Canon forum, but a lot of members use Nikon anyway. Photo Camel (http://photocamel.com/forum/) is another I recently found that has a large membership, too soon to give a recommendation

A comparable photo editor is Gimp (http://www.gimp.org), which is free and has a very comparable interface to PS.

A good local photography store is always a plus. We have a couple that I rent equipment from, one does small workshops that are about 2 hours long for $15 a pop and cover popular topics. The other always gives me priceless tips when renting the equipment, especially with lighting equipment. They always ask what I'm shooting and recommend a setup to use.

Looking good, can't wait to see more.
 
I was going to be like Vaughn and give you a hard time about the black and white snow pictures... till I scrolled on further down and saw the others... really good shots..

That's a very hansome boy.. he must take after his mother.

My step son, Ed, is an amateur photographer that should go professional.. he's that good..
I envy you guys that can make a camera do what you do.... no matter how good a camera I use, they never see what I see when I do photography... mostly now I leave it up to the wife and Ed to do the photography... I only use it for photographying my turnings.
 
Ned, at work we use a websight for online software education http://www.lynda.com/ VERY good. it is a pay site but you can browse thru the early parts of all lessons free to see what they are like. it covers just about any application there is for Macs and PC's including Photoshop and digital photography, literally tons of applications. Go there and browse around to see what is there, you may find it is what you need. I think it costs for a 1 year membership is $250.00, a little pricey but it covers SO much. And that is unlimited time for the term of the membership. there is also 1 month membership for $25.00 also. Best of luck with your venture:thumb:
 
Great looking pics Ned. I love that 18-200, wish I could afford one! I'll just have to get by with my 18-55 & 70-300 combo. Neither are the VR type. Do you see much advantage to the VR's?
 
Ned, those all look very good. I thought at first the snowy outdoor pics were a bit blown out, but then tilted my monitor back and they were actually very good (tip for anyone else looking at them). You got a lot of detail in them for being so white.

You might check out some podcasts, which you can search for/watch in iTunes even if you dont have an ipod. There are a bunch of photography video podcasts available. One of my favorites is 'The Art of Photography' (http://aop.thepublicbroadcast.com/).

Another good site is Digital Photography School (http://digital-photography-school.com/), they have a tutorial section.

Also check out the Photography on the Net forum (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php), which is a Canon forum, but a lot of members use Nikon anyway. Photo Camel (http://photocamel.com/forum/) is another I recently found that has a large membership, too soon to give a recommendation

A comparable photo editor is Gimp (http://www.gimp.org), which is free and has a very comparable interface to PS.

A good local photography store is always a plus. We have a couple that I rent equipment from, one does small workshops that are about 2 hours long for $15 a pop and cover popular topics. The other always gives me priceless tips when renting the equipment, especially with lighting equipment. They always ask what I'm shooting and recommend a setup to use.

Looking good, can't wait to see more.

Darren,
I got lazy on the snow shots... I simply gave elements' its head and then tweaked the levels just a bit on brightness, essentially bringing the highlights down a tad, and increasing the midtone contrast.

I'll be checking out the sites, thanks for the tips! Gimp might play a role, but I've been using PE for almost 3 years now, it is truly second naturecthese days.

I was going to be like Vaughn and give you a hard time about the black and white snow pictures... till I scrolled on further down and saw the others... really good shots..

That's a very hansome boy.. he must take after his mother.

My step son, Ed, is an amateur photographer that should go professional.. he's that good..
I envy you guys that can make a camera do what you do.... no matter how good a camera I use, they never see what I see when I do photography... mostly now I leave it up to the wife and Ed to do the photography... I only use it for photographying my turnings.

Thanks Chuck. Patrick is 'my' son, his father isn't around, and I have been since he was a baby. Encourage Ed if that's one of his passions, I've been doing it for 24 yrs now counting college.


Ned, at work we use a websight for online software education http://www.lynda.com/ VERY good. it is a pay site but you can browse thru the early parts of all lessons free to see what they are like. it covers just about any application there is for Macs and PC's including Photoshop and digital photography, literally tons of applications. Go there and browse around to see what is there, you may find it is what you need. I think it costs for a 1 year membership is $250.00, a little pricey but it covers SO much. And that is unlimited time for the term of the membership. there is also 1 month membership for $25.00 also. Best of luck with your venture:thumb:

Tom, the business will have to pay for that one, but I'll put it on the list to check out!

Which Nikon is it ?
Bartee; D300S.
Nice pics

Great looking pics Ned. I love that 18-200, wish I could afford one! I'll just have to get by with my 18-55 & 70-300 combo. Neither are the VR type. Do you see much advantage to the VR's?
Rennie,
BEfore I used it, I would have thought that the VR wasn't useful, but it sure does help. I wouldn't have tried those night shots without it. Actually I would have tried, but I wouldn't have gotten them. I'm just over a week into use, but it is the 'one lens' solution for me for the time being. I plan on getting a few primes for portraiture etc eventually, but got a bunch of things in front of them.


Ned, is that 18-200 F2.8 a Nikon lens? I couldn't find it on the Nikon website. I could only find the F3.5.
Frank, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1.35-5.6GII ED and it is a DX(half frame sensor) lens.
I'll second DP review. It'll make you lust for other gear though... At least it does me.

So what Nikon body you using?

Ron D300S. I jumped into the pool on the DP site already. I can see it might have that effect on me too. However, I'm so used to saying 'later' to my wood-porn that camera-porn is even easier to say no to.
 
Went out on a 'photo safari' today with a friend of mine. Mother Nature had other ideas, but we decided to run what you brung and shoot anyway, Just like when I was back in college in Potsdam NY. (1.5 hrs North of Lake Placid...)

A road less traveled:
roadlesstravelled.jpg


Primary Colors:
primarycolors.jpg


Perspective
perspective1.jpg

(bonus, there was Wood involved in this one!)

Waiting for Spring
waitingforspring.jpg


Lights O ut
out.jpg


There was just a 'little' snow. At least it was falling where Someone would appreciate it....
chairssnow.jpg


similar shot, tweaked to 'minimize' the snow
parkwaychairs2.jpg


I just had to play with SOME color today too:
slice1.jpg
 
Looks good Ned. I really like the perspective shot and the tweeked snow lift shot really cleaned up good. I had the problem with fogging as Glenn mentioned when I went out to shoot today. I didn't get a chance to try and figure out how to correct it. I suspect it would just be letting the lens come to outdoor temperature, which was around 17 degrees today. :eek: I wasn't going to stay out there long enough for that. I did play around with the macro today with some flowers we got for my wife yesterday. Also played around with exposure settings with some shots of the sun coming in across our living room wall.

P.S. I like the photo blog...
 
That looks OK I guess but all but a few of the pictures had white stuff all over them. Is the lens foggy? :rofl:
In CA that would qualify as a 'chain up' snowfall. Actually judging by the number of wrecks I saw it should have been in Utica today too.

Looks good Ned. I really like the perspective shot and the tweeked snow lift shot really cleaned up good. I had the problem with fogging as Glenn mentioned when I went out to shoot today. I didn't get a chance to try and figure out how to correct it. I suspect it would just be letting the lens come to outdoor temperature, which was around 17 degrees today. :eek: I wasn't going to stay out there long enough for that. I did play around with the macro today with some flowers we got for my wife yesterday. Also played around with exposure settings with some shots of the sun coming in across our living room wall.

P.S. I like the photo blog...

Darren, it was a balmy 10 to 12 today. No problem with temp differential.. or not that I saw today. Glad you like the blog. I'm going to try and publish Wed & Sat at least, more often if I get inspired. I was going to try and only use the Nikon for that, but the Canon might sneak a few shots in too if I see something intriguing during working hours.
 
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