-= T2i / 550D users UNITE! (4) =-

A couple more that I'm not afraid to show:

Nice shots Jam.
How did you do the first one? Was it the old zoom out as you press the shutter trick or was it PP?

Yarik wrote in post #14777841
Wish I had the finances to buy more lenses like some people here
Especially when I click on some of the "Gear" links in signatures, (man, don't know why i do it), just makes me sad seeing 20 items, almost every one of them costing a lot more than all of my gear combined

Don't be sad man.
Half of the people with those long lists don't even know what they're doing anyway.
Plus a lot of those lenses end up gathering dust whilst their favourite lens remains glued to the camera.
You don't need great lenses to take great shots, trust me.
One of my favourites was taken with the kit lens! Also seen shots taken with the nifty-fifty which is £80 worth of lens!

Yarik wrote in post #14777919
A couple more that I'm not afraid to show:
Seem to have a hard time taking sharp images with my Sigma. Happens, so I know its possible, but not as often as I'd like. Especially hard to do really close up macro, out of a dozen, one or two will be sharp enough. Though its likely my fault, so I'm better off to just keep practicing
Or its that I'm comparing my stuff to a lot more experienced peoples' pictures taken with better lenses^^

Are you comparing your macro shots to images taken with dedicated macro lenses?
If so you're never going to win that one.
A macro lens will always be sharper than a zoom lens.
Secondly macro photography is HARD. There's a much lower keep ratio, you're going to bin probably 80% of the shots you take purely because they're OOF.
Lots of reasons: the DOF is brutally thin, insects never stop moving, camera shake etc. etc.
Whereas with landscape photography pretty much 90% of your shots will probably be in focus.

Yarik wrote in post #14777841
jamganz

Like the first picture a lot, makes me dizzy looking at it, but really cool.

Wish I had the finances to buy more lenses like some people here
Especially when I click on some of the "Gear" links in signatures, (man, don't know why i do it), just makes me sad seeing 20 items, almost every one of them costing a lot more than all of my gear combined

Thanks, Yarik. Dont' worry about gear. keep shooting. once you figure out what stuff you like to shoot and what lenghts, that will help determine what gear you may go for in the future. we all started at the beginning at some point.

Peter2516 wrote in post #14777873
Great series jam, these are all excellent. Bravura.

Thanks, Peter. Appreciate it.

grumpy366 wrote in post #14777884
Great Series Jam - really like the perspective in number 4

Thanks, Grumpy. I wasn't doing 75 when I took this...I was standing still !

Inchpractice wrote in post #14777956
Nice shots Jam.
How did you do the first one? Was it the old zoom out as you press the shutter trick or was it PP?

Thanks, Inch. I did this in post. I've done the zoom out before and found that for similar shots, post is a bit less hassle and i'm more likely to get the shot right.

jam: nice use of the zoom effect there!

Yarik: keep pushing your skills, and build your gear bag slowly to address specific needs. Note: everyone has some gear they're hoping to buy next, so this feeling won't go away. Just become an expert with the gear you have. Also, with a tripod and Magic Lantern's focus stacking, I can't help but wonder if you might be able to cheat your gear's macro abilities a bit (not a macro guy, so I'm not sure what the implications are -- I suppose it's min focal distance, so stacking is no use?)

Thanks for the support Inchpractice, jamganz, and waterrockets.
Will just keep practicing.
Now just gotta talk the wife into letting me wander further away from the house on my own. She's always scared that I'll get robbed walking around with a DSLR here. (on vacation in Ukraine).

Jamganz, nice series!

Yarik, there is a guy or two around here who create phenomenal stuff with a kit lens.

Monkey Mash Button wrote in post #14778335
Jamganz, nice series!

Yarik, there is a guy or two around here who create phenomenal stuff with a kit lens.

Thanks, Monkey Mash.

waterrockets wrote in post #14778067
jam: nice use of the zoom effect there!

Thanks, Rockets!

Just took this at work...

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/71540785@N02/7​658123000/

Yarik wrote in post #14777841
jamganz

Like the first picture a lot, makes me dizzy looking at it, but really cool.

Wish I had the finances to buy more lenses like some people here
Especially when I click on some of the "Gear" links in signatures, (man, don't know why i do it), just makes me sad seeing 20 items, almost every one of them costing a lot more than all of my gear combined

Dont be too impressed with gear lists...examine people's work. Having said that I recently started experimenting with vintage lenses as some guys here can corroborate. I got a mint Asahi Pentax Takumar 50mm f/1.4 lens which is awesome, much better than the nifty fifty (which I also have). With these old lenses you need to focus manually but once you get the hang of it you will love it.

Just two examples:

brandrum wrote in post #14778682

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

girrafe by brandrum, on Flickr

any suggestion on how to fix the funkyness around the clouds?

I just played with the saturation and luminance pertaining the blue channel as well as adjusting its hue a little.

Great work everyone, liking the B&W on this last page.
Marm, awesome looking sky........I would like to comment more but I'm not great with words and the spell checker would probably not cope

Marm O. Set wrote in post #14778598
Just took this at work...

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/71540785@N02/7​658123000/
speck by Marm O. Set, on Flickr
EF 40 STM
1/800th shutter
f/8
ISO 100

That's a seriously great shot man, epic!

Brain Mechanic wrote in post #14778714
I just played with the saturation and luminance pertaining the blue channel as well as adjusting its hue a little.

Is that what you meant?

That did the trick. Thank you very much!