Greetings from a newbie

[Paul Watts]

Hi all,

I am a relative newcomer to Digital Photography but have had a Canon EOS50 for quite a few years and have just purchased a Canon G5.

I'm looking forward to being a regular member on this forum and learning from you all plus sharing what I have learnt as time goes on.

I live in Brisbane Australia, 47 years young :-), and my main obsession is computers and in particular Flight Simulation (since 1980) and an IT professional since 1979.

I have already learnt a lot just reading through this forum and it seems that there a lot of very nice helpful people here.

[pradeep1]

Welcome. You will find a lot of dumb people here. You will find a lot of smart people here. You will find a lot of people who know a lot of things. You will find a lot of people who know nothing. But they all sound the same, so be careful.

Fortunately, those of us who know something will usually point out those who know little and you should be safe. Nonetheless, I could be someone who knows nothing, and therefore am leading you astray.

:)

Have fun -- we are a small, proud, and obsessive community of Gx series users.

[phili1]

Pradeep! I like your style, that's really funny.

I would like to say that some of us think we know the answers some of us do but we all try to help the best we can.

There is an old saying there is more then one way to skin a cat and that applies in photography as well.

The most important thing is to have fun and practice.

Welcome to the forum.

[dicky109]

Paul,

Welcome to the forum. The 2 posters who have already greeted you are pretty knowledgeable, so they probably won't lead you astray (unless I'm leading you astray).

I've been coming to this site for some time, & have learned a lot. Like you, I'm far removed from puberty (only a bit more so) & have an EOS 50 (Elan II here in the US), & I entered the digital world with a G-1. I sneak into this forum since its pretty quiet over in the G-1 forum, but I'm sure you won't tell anyone.

I hope to visit the land of Oz in April. Never been there, but have some family in Perth. Everything I've read about it, & everyone I've met from there is awesome, & I'm looking forward to the trip (except for the 30 hours of travel each way).

Good luck to you.

[sdommin]

Welcome, Paul. Seems like Australia is a real hotbed of digital photography. We're looking forward to seeing some of your photos. Australia has always been sort of "exotic" to me, because its about as far from my home in New Hampshire as you can get, and still be on Earth!

P.S. - I'm into flight sims, too.

[PeterS45]

Welcome frome the Netherlands. Just like you (and also about the same age) I moved on from the Elan50 to digital photography, and I don't have any regrets.

I hope you'll share some of your work soon. Have fun!

[phili1]

Wow what places to live, the photographic possabilities are never ending and I live in new jersey not many historic or nature opertunities. I envey you guys.

[pradeep1]

phil1, how can you say that New Jersey does not have anything historic or nature places to photograph? I envy you; you have access to great cities with lots of history and Northern Jersey towards Nyack, NY and the Peekskill area are are just absolutely beautiful.

Here's a picture from your neck of the woods phil1:

http://sprakash.home.att.net/photos/bearmountain.jpg

"Bear Mountain Sunset", Bear Mountain, NY
Copyright (c) 2003 Pradeep Satyaprakash

[dicky109]

phili1 wrote:
Wow what places to live, the photographic possabilities are never ending and I live in new jersey not many historic or nature opertunities. I envey you guys.

Phili,

What part of the state do you live in? I'm up north in Passaic County, & while we don't have the awesome scenery of the west, or Australia, there's some pretty good shooting opportunities up our way. There's a number of dams, lakes & resevoirs, The Great Falls in Paterson, a number of hilly areas with beautiful vistas, incredible views along the Hudson, and many places that George Washington slept in for the historic angle.

We're a lot more than the Turnpike and chemical plants

http://www.richpix.NJArea.PhotoShare.co.nz

[sdommin]

dicky109 wrote:We're a lot more than the Turnpike and chemical plants.

New Jersey gets a bad rap, but there really are some beautiful places there, if you take the time to look. That's a good thing for us all to remember: you can take great photos anywhere.

[phili1]

I agree we have photographic opertunities, but some of the buildings I see or kangaroos & Q bears, canyons unclutered landscaapes with no phone wires, bridges built 200 years ago. I have seen some animal, butterflys that unless you go to a zoo you cant see here.

So forgive me for wanting to travel to these far off lands, I still love new Jersey as I have lived here most of my life.

BY the way I inttend to vistit every reserve new jersey has in the next two years.

And beside it was supposed to be a compliment to the poster.

[twl845]

:) While we're talking about New York and New Jersey, I'm from the catskill region of NY and there is some great scenery here.

[pradeep1]

I agree we have photographic opertunities, but some of the buildings I see or kangaroos & Q bears, canyons unclutered landscaapes with no phone wires, bridges built 200 years ago. I have seen some animal, butterflys that unless you go to a zoo you cant see here.

So forgive me for wanting to travel to these far off lands, I still love new Jersey as I have lived here most of my life.

BY the way I inttend to vistit every reserve new jersey has in the next two years.

And beside it was supposed to be a compliment to the poster.

Yes, you were complimenting the poster and I too, like you, want to travel to far off spaces. Yes, I have to admit, Australia could be a cooler place to photograph than New Jersey. I feel the same way about Georgia, although a lot of good photographers like the variety here in my boring state.

Take Care,

[dicky109]

So forgive me for wanting to travel to these far off lands, I still love new Jersey as I have lived here most of my life.

BY the way I inttend to vistit every reserve new jersey has in the next two years.

And beside it was supposed to be a compliment to the poster.

Phili,

I hope you didn't take my comments as a "NJ & You...Puurfect Together" rant. I don't know what area you live in, but there are some pretty non-photogenic spots in our state, & I just didn't know if you were aware of some of the better areas up my way.

Do I compare the Great Falls of Paterson to Niagara? No. Nor would I compare a skyline of NYC on the Hudson to the Grand Canyon vistas. Just tried to point out some places of interest locally in the absence of these world famous areas.

Sorry if my intention wasn't clear.

Rich B

[civis]

I envy you; you have access to great cities with lots of history and Northern Jersey towards Nyack, NY and the Peekskill area are are just absolutely beautiful.
I used to live up by Wappingers Falls. You couldn't have thrown a rock to the Hudson from there, but you could have shot a cannonball in it. I'm a sucker for Revolutionary War battlegrounds, among other things. Other than some Spanish buildings on the West Coast and the Southwest, you probably wouldn't find any older standing architecture (in any quantity) in the USA than that in the Northeast.

[phili1]

I did not mean to start what happen, so let me restate what I meant.

Yes there are some very interesting things in new Jersy to photograph and I am not sure why I have not other then my business and wife have kept me from doing it.

Now what I meant was I have had this desire to photograph in the wilds of africa and austrailia, kind of live with the Apes type thing. Now I view sunsets some people have taken in other areas and cant remember seeing that in New Jersey or New York. Older magestic buildings we have long since torn down for progress. That type of thing.

I was not knopcking my state.

As far as minding, you guys can say anything to me, I do not have all the answers and learn from you everyday. The one thing I have found with photograpy is there is more then one way to look at a shooting situation and yours might be a way I have not thought of.

Hey I responede to a guy who was going to trash his G3 because the AV mode wont go below 1 sec, I didnt think he had a valid complaint so I tried to convince him that AV was for DOF and whats the big deal if it doesnt, Manual does. He had the right to complain and I didn't trying to convince him.

So Sorry I complained New Jersey.