phipck

The duck was in the Forrest of dean sculpture trail. My lense was at it's full extent and through the viewfinder I couldn't tell how it was going to turn out, so I was just pleased to capture it. As far as cameras go, as a general rule canon and nikon are almost always good and definatly usable for beginners. I have the Sony a200 which is great for how I take photos and a good size for my big hands. But they revised the design since and it's better suited for average hands now

indeed they are very good, what range lenses are you using? short on funds im limited to the stock 18-75 and an old minolta 70-300 lense for my Sony A200. its a nice range but still limited for what i wish to do. i did come across this charactor recently and heres Twiglet, doing what he loved best. He sadly passed away this last year, all the more important to capture those charactoristic moments when you can

looked alright to me

thanks guys! As i said. im always a little cautious about posting things online, i take photos for my satisfaction, but if other people like them i may put a select few up as and when i take them. manual focus on a dslr is when you physicaly rotate the lense dials to focus the lense, half pressing the trigger on a dslr only functions in auto focus mode where it focuses on what your aiming at. I suppose you can cheat and prepair the auto focus by half pressing while aiming at something thats the correct distance away then keep the button half pressed and wait for your subject. Manual focus realy helps with subjects that move on a pre-established path, you can set the focal length, trace the subject and take the picture at the correct moment where it will be in focus. tricky but rewarding, i dont know if your camera will have a manual focus, normally a switch on the front of the camera.

i do not use any photo 'doctoring' for my photographs, what you see in my pictures is what i shot in that moment. I do sometimes check the lighting levels of a photo and trim them for exposure, i class this as 'editing' as it does not change the content of the image, but i have been critisized by some photographers for doing any alterations at all, while others seem to comfortably be willing to remove whole buildings or people from pictures to suit their vision. I would never do this. an area of debate here, should a photographer actively use photoshop to 'doctor' their photos, does altering light levels constitute 'doctoring' or should we just leave the images as we find them?

the peacock was one of those moment shots, he walked from about 40 foot away straight towards the bench i was sat on then carried on behind the bin and past the bench on my left. i snapped about 20 shots in total as he did his walk by, i put the camera on manual focus just before he reached the bin as the camera kept tripping between the bin and the peacock, lucky moment of forethought as that was the only pic i took through the bin hole and if i hadnt of changed to manual focus i would have posted a lovely picture of a black plastic bin! you are absolutely right about viewing on the camera being difficult, i now only use the camera screen to check how well i have "framed" the subject, i ignore whether i think it looks in focus or correct untill i pop them on the pc. just make use of the american aproach when taking photographs. there is one area of discussion i almost put up, but now we have a nice shiney new photography forum, i will pop up in another thread

your right to be impressed with yourself, tackling full manual mode can be very rewarding when you get results the likes of which you have. i rarely take pictures of plants or flowers because the macro on my 2 lenses are limited, most of mine tend to be animals, people, cars or unusual angles of things, i havent many examples as i dont have much on my work pc but will have a look when i get home. ive only ever posted snap shots for DIY guides on the mr2 forums, ive never posted any of my creative shots online, strangely they have always been just for me, i feel a little peculiar about showing people my pictures, possibly some kind of inferiority complex about my work, but heres a few bits that i do have to hand on image shack for the sake of joining in

if you pop up the details for the two example shots of the pinky pics, we might spot something different between them that could be the cause in full auto as the camera might be using different settings for both pics

if he ain seen a storm like this before he cant have been living in oklahoma long

just takes practice, having played with an slr and moved on to a dslr it took some getting use to. but its all time and repetition. regards the reds, the pic does look a little over exposed, in full auto, try half clicking the trigger while aiming at a neutral colour like the tarmac then still half pressed re-aim and take you photo. see if it makes any difference. it might be the light values the camera is giving when auto detecting on the red. experiment with red in bright light, see if its just your camera that has a quirky distaste for ferraris or whether it was simply a combination of lighting and settings on the day.

Great resource as you say for a starter. But there's nothing quite like setting something up and taking progressive shots to see the differences :-)

simular reason my local "specialist" couldnt work out my weird camber then, when i checked what they had done (because they said they couldnt get the passanger side front wheel correct) they had rotated the washer tab to the wrong side of the bolt and couldnt get the camber. i really am going to have to save a few pennies and get my mr2 up to you.

haha, ive only been here about 10 days and already i feel im contributing lol yeh in this case the blur is more from the motion than from the apature (but they do intreract much like any adjustment in geometry!). i think the issue your having is your trying to use the apature instead of tracking the cars, taking a quick look through your pics, theres a few pics that the car is slightly blury and the background is crisp. It suggests to me that your either standing still and snapping as a car goes past, or tracking the car but stopping as you take the photo.....just keep tracking during the shot and a little after....the car will be crisp and the background will be blury. Even better if your camera can take a few quick shots in succession, rattle 2 or 3 shots off as you track the car, your likely to get atleast one out of the three that your happy with. you will suffer a little with zoom limitations because of the camera type, the easiest option here is to choose your shooting location carefuly, make sure that where you stand you can zoom slightly closer than you need for the the shot you want, that way you know you camera is within its range and you know you will be able to track the car cleanly. im gunna shut up now as im taking the thread over a little and that wasnt my intentions sorry

thats great to hear......again! you seem to be constantly proving your personal business stratagy of moral over material wealth. In my books that puts you way ahead of the game. what was wrong with the way they installed the EZ camber bolts? ive seen them put on the bottom bolt hole before which im sure must cause some issues!

youve done well to get the pics you have only playing with those two ive had a look at that camera before, quite simular to my stepdads and theyre a great step between compact camera and dslr. If your wanting to up the anti on motion shots like the cars passing on the track, i would look at the shutter speed. Your camera has all the modes a full dslr has and you will get great shots with the right combination, i dont want to repeat things you probably already know but for anyone else who might be interested having seen your pics, the modes on your camera work like this: M is full manual mode, you get to change the apature, shutter speed, iso, white balance and focus......best used if you have a tripod and are shooting a stationary subject, it does mean that you can get the exact charactoristics that you want in your photo though but through lots of trial and error. S is shutter speed priority, this varies how quickly the shutter returns to closed, the camera will set the rest of the settings appropriatly for the shutter speed you choose, very fast shutter is great for capturing birds in flight, cars on track, rain falling etc kind of freeze frame life shots or alternatively if you slow the shutter down you can get smudgy images like car lights on the motorway at night or when the light levels are low you can get an exposure as if it were daytime. A is apature priority, the apature varies how much light fits through the lense at any one moment, it creates a "bubble" of focus or depth of field. This can help highlight a subject you are focusing on by bluring out everything but them. Its ideal for protraits or engine details, or on the other extreme if you want lots of detail from differing distances having the apature more open gives a bigger "bubble" and more light detail from things further away, ideal for holiday photos when somone is in the forground and you want to capture the background too like standing in front of the leaning tower of pisa. P is a combined mode, you set the apature for instance and the shutter speed will raise and lower proportionaly, equaly if you change the shutter speed the apature will raise and lower proportionaly. all the other settings are calculated for you. i tend to find myself in M mode for stationary things, or S mode for moving items. And if in S mode, a great trick for taking motion photos, is to think "sniper" and trace your target before you take the picture, while your taking it and also after, all in one clean sweep. it means the subject will appear crisp and the background will "speed sweep" a little. hope this helps

very well put together......love the javlin!

how long have you been taking photos for? what camera have you got? you have some good shots there chap. I was into photography while at college 10 years ago then got back into it again about 2 years ago when i got a new digital slr. it kind of never goes away and it highly addictive!

great information, i learnt this the hard way when changing the lower arm on my girlfriends mk1 clio, i tightened the bushings while jacked and the car held its height when put back to the ground. thankfuly being so obviously high i reaslied what was needed, but on the mx5 with only 15mm i doubt i would have spotted it!

i think its a vauxhal with large fog pods......and a sun roof in the hood?! so dont worry about any evos being ruined and this one... is just epic, if all those lights work i want one! could it be a new evolution in rat-look...the light rat

this was the first one i saw of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE8f0IBMQQk...feature=related it would appear that people dont learn from others mistakes

thats a fair reply to a non specific question i suppose i was simply looking for an educated persons nod of approval as far as far as the technology goes. im no track day driver so my interests are much the same as mr2big on the mr2oc, with his light ferrari blue v6 mr2. a comfortable but adaptable gran tourer (or as close as you can get in an mr2) theres certainly a lot of improvement to be done to my geometry and unfortunatly in rural Herefordshire i dont know of any great places to take my car to achieve this. but im redirecting this thread so i'll start my own to keep this on topic.

just to unearth an older thread, Ive installed hsd coilovers to my mr2. Ive heard great things about wheels in motion but havent had the opertunity to bring my mr2 down yet. personaly having gone from k-sport (dont think you need to ask why they arnt on anymore) to hsd i have to say its a world of difference. I was looking for a slightly tighter feel to the car without the typical bone jarring race coils that seem to be in abundence for the mr2. Hsd seem to fit the bill. since the last post have you had any experience with the hsd coilovers?