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Landscapes / Re: a road less traveled
« on: May 08, 2013, 09:07:55 AM »wonder where this leads? i love exploring roads like this...Not sure where it leads, but I'm sure Freud would have something to say about it.. lol
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- May 25, 2013, 11:04:53 AM
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2 February 2013 - Hey gang, check my post in the General Discussion area for info about a VERY slick piece of software I ran across.
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2
General Discussion / Re: Calibration
« on: May 07, 2013, 05:43:49 AM »
I do not, but I've seen very good mention of it on sites like Cambridge in Colour and the Luminous Landscape. Before you spend the money, though, make sure your monitor and card can support the necessary tweaks and adjustments. My old 23" Acer monitor was a cheapie, and doesn't have a really good adjustment/calibration process, just brightness/contrast and color temp, and then some dumb presets for "text", "graphics", and "text/graphics"...
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General Discussion / Re: I'm having a lens issue...
« on: May 07, 2013, 05:40:23 AM »I'll try that. I figured that to be my first solution. Don't know why they'd be so dirty...never touch them and they're always covered.You'd be surprised at how dirty electrical contacts on things like camera mounts can get, and often it's not even visible - just gunk and grunge from the atmosphere. It doesn't take much for one of those little tiny copper contacts to get enough grease film or something on it to interrupt electrical flow. Like Rocko advises, a little bit of rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip is best. I don't use the pencil eraser trick any more, too much likelihood of miniscule pieces of rubber getting pulled someplace they don't belong.
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Nature / Re: tu tulips
« on: May 02, 2013, 05:26:51 AM »
Wow! Excellent res on the front one. Our tulips here are just about done for the year - they came out late, as our spring just started yesterday.
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Nature / Re: the Bangor Flower Show 2013
« on: April 27, 2013, 03:15:50 PM »
Very nice shot, Ray. Frame-worthy! Karma given.
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General Discussion / Re: Simply asking
« on: April 27, 2013, 02:56:42 PM »
The Hiker is right about sensor and pixel size. Within reason, fewer, larger pixels translates primarily to less noise, which is, after all, electronic in nature, and comes from electromagnetic interference which becomes harder to handle at those miniscule dimensions.
Less noise then means that you can shoot at higher ISOs before it becomes a problem.
The downside is that you can't enlarge a file from a 10mp sensor as large as you can one from a 20mp sensor.
If you really want to be able to enlarge to 60 x 40 or larger, and shoot at 12,800 without appreciable noise, you need to do two things:
1) Sell your Nikon gear,
2) Get a Canon 6D
Less noise then means that you can shoot at higher ISOs before it becomes a problem.
The downside is that you can't enlarge a file from a 10mp sensor as large as you can one from a 20mp sensor.
If you really want to be able to enlarge to 60 x 40 or larger, and shoot at 12,800 without appreciable noise, you need to do two things:
1) Sell your Nikon gear,
2) Get a Canon 6D
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Landscapes / Re: What Spring?
« on: April 10, 2013, 09:13:23 AM »
It's amazing you have that much snow still on the ground up there, barely 200 miles north. We got maybe an inch and a half all season long, and even Philly and the NJ communities 30 miles north of us got 6 or 8 inches during the winter, on three or four little storms. But we got rain instead, so at least they are worried about drought conditions too much.
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Nature / Re: Happy Spring!
« on: April 04, 2013, 01:47:07 PM »
We got daffodils opening up finally - at least two to three weeks behind schedule.
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Architecture/Cityscapes / Philly's famous Art Museum
« on: March 25, 2013, 08:11:30 PM »
Saturday dawned bright, cool and with a nice cloud set overhead. I tried to get some different perspectives on the old pile, but mistakenly took almost all the shots in M jpeg mode instead of my usual raw. One of these days I'll get out there and not screw up an entire session because of some boneheaded move on my part....
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Architecture/Cityscapes / Philly's famous Boathouse Row
« on: March 23, 2013, 09:02:53 PM »
Spent a couple of nice sunny but cool hours around the Art Museum area today. You know, Rocky and the steps and all...
Nowhere near done all the processing (380~ shots) but here's one of the first dozen or so - these boathouses are owned and used by various rowing clubs that scull up and down the Schuylkill ('skoo-kill') River here just north of Philly. They're on the edge of Fairmount Park, the largest city park in the world. Down river a bit is the Fairmount Water Works, and the Art Museum.
Nowhere near done all the processing (380~ shots) but here's one of the first dozen or so - these boathouses are owned and used by various rowing clubs that scull up and down the Schuylkill ('skoo-kill') River here just north of Philly. They're on the edge of Fairmount Park, the largest city park in the world. Down river a bit is the Fairmount Water Works, and the Art Museum.
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Birds / Re: mama merganser
« on: March 17, 2013, 12:36:19 PM »
Cool Duck, man. We get quite a few Merg's in the river behind us during the winter, but they seem to disappear around March 1.
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Architecture/Cityscapes / Philadelphia Skyline
« on: March 10, 2013, 09:03:12 PM »
Finally, a nice sunny day. Almost TOO sunny, actually. Drove up I-295 to Camden waterfront. The aquarium, a decent sized concert venue, and the USS New Jersey dominate the landscape. Took about 200 shots, and then when I got home to start to check them out, I about pizzed myself. I'd been playing with the White Balance Shift/Bracketing, and doofus me forgot to set it back - almost every shot looked like it had been taken through a dark blue filter...arrrgh... They were down around 3000K on the WB scale.
Well, thanks to DxO Optics I was able to recover some of them, and shave down the blue a bit, and recover the shadows that I had to work in.
Here are a couple of the skyline and the boat itself. The USS New Jersey is 887 feet long, 110 feet in beam, and drafts 30 feet. The 9 16-inch main guns can toss a 2700 pound shell about 28 miles. The 16 Tomahawk missiles, depending on payload, could hit a two-foot square as far away as Cheyenne, Wyoming or Key West.
Well, thanks to DxO Optics I was able to recover some of them, and shave down the blue a bit, and recover the shadows that I had to work in.
Here are a couple of the skyline and the boat itself. The USS New Jersey is 887 feet long, 110 feet in beam, and drafts 30 feet. The 9 16-inch main guns can toss a 2700 pound shell about 28 miles. The 16 Tomahawk missiles, depending on payload, could hit a two-foot square as far away as Cheyenne, Wyoming or Key West.
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Birds / Re: a couple more from the park yesterday
« on: March 10, 2013, 08:49:19 PM »
Jeeze Rocks - were you in there swimming with 'em? Fine shots - love how you froze the water in motion.
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General Discussion / Re: Disturbing Trend
« on: March 10, 2013, 08:48:05 PM »
Yes, it has gotten very quiet around here recently - not sure if we're all out celebrating the end of winter or what. Plus, there appears to be only about half a dozen of us that actually log in here anymore. Rocky, Erv, AH, OC, and a few others..not sure why the guys like Gessman and RenoMike stopped, I suppose it was just that there wasn't much going on here. I have it on good authority that they still post over on that "other" board with a very ugly name...I was up in Camden yesterday, on the USS New Jersey and taking shots of Philly - I'll shove some up here.
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Architecture/Cityscapes / Quick trip to Baltimore
« on: March 03, 2013, 09:10:42 PM »
My BIL needed an operation on his hand at the VA Hospital in Balto on Friday, so I drove down with him. Sunny all the way there, and then by the time I dropped him off and walked the 6 or so blocks to the Inner Harbor, it was clouded over. I did get some interesting shots of a few of the buildings along Pratt Street as the clouds rolled in. I went to the top of the "World Trade Center" they have there by the Aquarium, a nice panoramic view of damn near all of Maryland. Only $5 to ride up too, which is nice - the IH can separate you from your money nearly as fast as a Disney enterprise. 6D and 17-40L or 24-104L for the most part. Enjoy.