A ShoutOut to all Photogs!

[GhoSt-X]

Just wondering who else here is into photography... not being a "designer" in profession i do enjoy doin web proggring as such .. photography however is a hobby i quite enjoy.

Just wanna know who else here is a photo nut!

I dont have gear of my own . but i use what my brother has ...

Canon eos 20D with grip... 580ex ... n other lenses ... still yet to get an L...

$_$

If you like photography.. come say hi!

(random people.. not me)

 

[Cativa Carni]

For me, photography is no further than the camera on my phone and my webcam, when it's on xd

 

[rogue_designer]

About half of my income comes from photography. I use a pretty good mix of film and digital - tho most of the film is drum scanned in at this point.

My rigs: a Wisner Traditional 4x5, a Horseman LX 4x5, a Horseman VHR 6x9, a Rolleiflex 2.8CIII (Planar - w00t!), a few Nikon D100's (with a bag full of assorted lenses), a minox C, a YashicaMat 124-G, a few Polaroid SX-70's, and an old Olympus XA pocket camera.

The minox is the only one I don't regularly use because I hate having to send film halfway across the country to get it processed (can't do that one myself, even if I wanted to).

The Nikon's are my only digital cameras right now. But I'd say I shoot about half digitally right now. The convenience is hard to beat, and for color work, unless I need the depth of field and perspective control of the view cameras, I rarely see a need to shoot film.

Hoping to upgrade to a few d200s soon... but who knows.  

[Catani]

photgraphy is big part of my intrests...

i own two cameras: traditional - Practica 1000TL (about 20 year old 35mm film camera) and a digtal - fuji finepix9500

i'm taking photos traditionally for about 6-7 years so not very long but it's quite some time, i used to do only color films and 1,5 year ago i started doing bw photos and developing them at a bw photography classes - not too good at it still

the practica is quite old and not an amazing camera but takes decent photos

and the digital is my newest toy and a compromise between a click-shoot digital camera and a dslr - i had a choice i could buy a canon 300d (rebel) with a rather shtty lens and not being able to afford a better one or buy something like the fuji which isn't the best at quality but has a very big range of abilities - i wish i was able to buy a rebelXT with a good lens but i'm just not able to aford it sad - oh well still being happy with what i have ^^

ps my photos in my signature *points* - attention whore xp  

[GhoSt-X]

Yay! photogs!

OOOo D200 ey rogue ... wish i had money to spend on cameras myself ^_^ ... should really go do a course some time .. but ti will always remain as just a hobby for me ^_^  

[SilverVixen]

I've been wanting a real digital camera (the one on my phone does NOT count!!!!) for a long time, but haven't been able to decide what to get. Any advice? I'd like one of the smaller ones that can fit in my pocket or purse, but I was looking at the ones that are between the little ones and the full out huge cameras... and those looked neat. So yeah. I just want to be able to take good quality pictures when the mood strikes, not necessarily start making a living off the photos. biggrin  

[rogue_designer]

SilverVixen

I've been wanting a real digital camera (the one on my phone does NOT count!!!!) for a long time, but haven't been able to decide what to get. Any advice? I'd like one of the smaller ones that can fit in my pocket or purse, but I was looking at the ones that are between the little ones and the full out huge cameras... and those looked neat. So yeah. I just want to be able to take good quality pictures when the mood strikes, not necessarily start making a living off the photos. biggrin

For a good - somewhere in between size, with good optics, a nice sized sensor, and good override controls, I would look for a Canon G5 on the refurbished market.

It's a better camera than the current G6, cheaper, and performs better in low light. Not terribly small, but not a big pro camera either.

the A95 is also a great performer.  

[GhoSt-X]

if you want a compact .. im loving my ixus 55 ... but there ixus 750 is also quite nice ... <3 Canon! <3

btw ... what sort of shooting do you make money off ? i hear that wedding shootings are really stressful... the part of the reason why i dont want to try and make photography a means of makin money is i dont think ill enjoy it as much if i relied on it for income... so just out of curiosity... has business dulled you passion for it any bit rogue ?  

[rogue_designer]

GhoSt-X

btw ... what sort of shooting do you make money off ? i hear that wedding shootings are really stressful... the part of the reason why i dont want to try and make photography a means of makin money is i dont think ill enjoy it as much if i relied on it for income... so just out of curiosity... has business dulled you passion for it any bit rogue ?

I've worked with and for a few very good wedding photographers. That is as much an exercise in people manangement as it is actual photography. It is not something I do well - and I have the utmost respect for those who can make wedding (or children's portraiture) into a viable and good living. It's hard. I won't even try anymore - happy to refer people to other photogs.

I make most of my professional commissions off of architectural and product/still life photography (hence the use of the view cameras - which are indispensible in these fields).

I try to seperate my professional work and my personal work - that allows me to keep some semblance of sanity, and passion. But I cannot deny that once you take a hobby and turn it into a career, it changes permanently the way you view it. For some people its great and works well (ie. making money off of something you love). For others, it takes something you love, and turns it into a chore. Its a risk. And I've seen it happen both ways without any good way to predict which way it will fall.

For me, I've been lucky. Keeping my personal work seperated - even so much as to force myself to use different camera's and formats, has worked so far. *fingers crossed*  

[GhoSt-X]

ive never had any real life experience with 4x5 cameras ... they look rather interesting .. why would you use one of these as opposed to a square format camera say such as a rolei... ?  

[rogue_designer]

I also use a rollei... they do different things. I pick which camera according to the needs of the shoot.

First and foremost, the view cameras allow you significant control over the perspective and focal plane of your image. This is critical in architctural work. It allows for some corrections to be made in cameras, and to extend the depth of field significantly beyond what is achieveable in smaller formats. A photograph like this one ( http://gallery.photo.net/photo/2596354-lg.jpg ) would be nearly impossible to duplicate with any non-view camera.

There are some medium format cameras that allow similar movements, but IMO, there is better wide angle support for the 4x5 - and it's slightly less expensive for similar functionality. Plus I can shift between color and black and white film from shot to shot, I'm not limited to swapping backs or having to run out a whole roll of film. And if I really want to use 120 film - there are adapters for the 4x5 to do so.

Also - its hard to beat the amount of image data in a 4x5 (or 8x10) sheet of film (equivalent to about a 128 megapixel digital - which doesn't exist at any price point yet) wink

But if I was going to go out on the street to make portraits, 9 times out of 10, I wouldn't grab the 4x5. I would use my rolleiflex, or my d100. It all depends on what you are shooting.  

[GhoSt-X]

oh dayem thats nice ...

too expensive for me to use tho ~_~  

[Catani]

Rogue thanks for the insider - i haven't had any contact with such a big format cameras - and probably won't have much if any - but still those are things worth remembering, especially the depth of field, that really suprised me...  

[rogue_designer]

GhoSt-X

oh dayem thats nice ...

too expensive for me to use tho ~_~

Nice thing is, there is a huge used market for alot of that equipment, even in really really good shape. It's all mechanical, so it can be repaired pretty cheaply too. Start up costs can be significantly less than for pro level digital.

Of course, the film processing and enlarging requirements get harder. But anyway. It's fun. smile

Catani - yeah, it adds to the flexibility of what a photographer can do in certain situations. Either extending the depth of field significantly, or the ability to make it razor thin too... even without changing the f-stop. Just by changing the relation between the lens and the film plane (but having a lense that can stop down to f64 or f90 is interesting too).  

[GhoSt-X]

oh my ... f64 ... just out of curiosity .. wat sort of iso film do you use ... ive seen ISO 7 shots on a kodak DCS pro... would you have any films with ISO's lower then 50 ?