STICKY:  Member introductions

Howdy Y’all!

My wife and I are National Parks enthusiasts. We particularly enjoy the western and southwestern parks; seems we have been somewhere out west in a park at least once a year for the past decade and hopefully there is no end in sight. We spend our time out on the trails marveling at the wonders of nature and looking for critters. Hiking is our main activity but photography is a close second. We are day hikers; we’ll start early and stay out all day, but at the end of the day we prefer a shower, a nice meal, a cold IPA and a comfy bed. I reckon I’m a minimalist when it comes to photography. I’m very happy just carrying a superzoom (currently a SX50 HS), maybe a couple filters and rarely a tripod. This equipment gets me what I’m looking for, mostly documenting our travels, but the occasional shot with some “wow” factor. I bet 95% (or more) of my shots are taken outdoors…the other 5% are probably of our cats!

BTW, I found this forum when it was referenced in a photography discussion on a travel website that I frequent (Trip Advisor). Glad that I did! After just reading a couple of threads I realized that this is a site that can really be of great value. I’m sure I’ll be in a learning mode here for a long time, but hopefully I’ll be able to contribute in a positive fashion at some point.

Allen, aka OhioHick

Hello everyone

My name is Randall , im from nyc, born and raised in queens currently living in Brooklyn.
i've always had a curiousity about photography, bought i camera once from home shopping network,, it was a plastic pos.. lol . which broke in about a week,, and then messed around with a Yashica i found at a beach ,, but i had absolutley no understanding of photography and it was way too complicated for me. this was all in high school years..

Fast forward 20 years and i've bought myself a canon t4i(about a year ago), messed around with the 18-55 kit lens it came with , learned a little some thing about using it in manual mode .

Ive bought a canon 50mm 1.4 about 3 months ago , and am really loving the lens.
And i just got the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 a couple of weeks ago and am very satisfied with it as well.
when i'm shooting portraits or landscape or anything still or posing for me i think i'm doing ok ,, however,
I've become a fan of street photogrpahy latlely and there its a differnet story ,,i have been going out and trying it out myself ,, i'm using the sigma 60% of the time usually at 35mm , how ever its weight compared to the 50mm is definelty tiresome on the wrist after a while..
Ive been mostly shooting with shutter priority and again i'm still very new to this so most of my shots end up over exposed , and i def need to work on compostioin, oh and focus is often off, so yeah im quite the noob..

but thats why i'm here, to learn and gain some inspiration from the Awsome photos i've seen here

Welcome! I'd suggest reading a good book or browsing the net on shutter speed, aperture, and ISO and how they all relate. If you're getting overexposed shots with shutter priority, then you're likely using too slow of a shutter, which is causing your cam to max out at the highest f-stop of your lens. Or you inadvertently are using exposure compensation and overexposing your shots.

Focus-wise, make sure you're using single-point AF and not letting the cam select what it wants to focus on. Also, too slow a shutter will prove to be an issue here as well as camera shake or motion blur are definite possibilities.

Keep playing with it, you'll get it.

Edit: check your ISO setting too. Again, all three are important and it's critical to understand them.

Well, after I wrote some posts, I discovered this thread now... hope it's not to late to say hello

My name is Dennis, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Germany (so I'll do my best to write something that everyone can understand :lol. Since I've got my first camera, a cheap point-and-shoot round about 7 or 8 years ago, I was totally into photography and there was no holiday where I took less than 1000 pictures They weren't that nice, I have to admit, but it was my first experience with taking photos. Then I bought a better point-and-shoot, which took surprising good pictures, and used it until summer 2012. That was where I got my Canon EOS 600D
In the past few years I read a lot about photography and learned a lot by trial and error. And now I am here, after joining some German forums.

I hope everything I wrote was understandable See you guys!

Peeped your site...looks like you're well on way. Welcome to the forum bud.

Thank you!

Hi, VosAmour!

Just wanted to say hello.... I'm From New Orleans.

Welcome SwampDog! What are you shooting?

Boone13, Just purchased my first Canon (T3i). Absolutely love it. I have a daughter that is into Pageants and what not. Figured I'd jump on board and get a nicer camera. Thanks for asking.

SwampDog35 wrote in post #16892830
Boone13, Just purchased my first Canon (T3i). Absolutely love it. I have a daughter that is into Pageants and what not. Figured I'd jump on board and get a nicer camera. Thanks for asking.

My first cam was a T4i (basically the same as T3i but with a swivel screen) and I still use it regularly even though I have what specs would say are better cameras. The T3i will serve you well. You'll learn a ton from this forum!

Just wanted to stop in and say hello - I've been here for a while now but I just stumbled across this thread

Saw this post after some while. Have been lurking around for quite some while now.

I am Gautam from Bombay, India. I am reaching 30 [not yet there ]. I started into photography around 7 years back with a Canon PnS. Learnt a bit of manual controls and graduated to a Canon 500D. Upgraded to a Canon 60D recently, just because I got an excellent deal on the body.

I love shooting landscapes. I do shoot people and second shoot weddings as well. Pretty much dabble with light and composition everywhere.

Do visit my Flickr page as mentioned in the signature. You are also free to add me on Facebook as my signature shouts out.

Hi, I'm Allison from a western suburb of Chicago, IL. I just signed up on POTN today but have browsed helpful posts for quite some time now. I started to seriously focus my time on photography back in 2006 when I started college. I learned the basics in a classroom setting and graduated with an associates in photography technology. I started out with a Rebel XTi and the 18-55mm kit lens, then purchased a 50mm 1.8 shortly after. Two or Three years ago I purchased my 7D and just recently got a 70-200mm f4L IS. I mainly photograph cars/drag racing, nature and engagement sessions.
I work full time for Whole Foods Market as a Customer Service Supervisor and have been with the company 10 years- my first job. It's not my ideal job but it pays the bills and funds my photography hobby.