Official Random Photo Thread

[TerryMiller]

We took a two week vacation to the Colorado Springs area the first part of October, and we ran across a sight that I had to go back to, verify what I saw, and take a picture. For a long time, I've believed that the hippies all moved to Colorado, but now I've found evidence of rednecks being there as well.

 

[Okie4570]

McAlester Western Sizzlin apparently was a happening place while we were there for our MCAAP hunt, lol!

 

[TerryMiller]

Heh...

...the wife did some "Black Friday" shopping today on E-bay. Normally, I don't like buying used online, but this deal may be too good to pass up. It's a "full frame" digital SLR with about 10,000 shutter activations. Images of the sides, top, back and bottom look as pristine as the front. It should arrive somewhere around "Black Friday."



As we are retiring the first of July and moving to the Colorado Springs area in our RV, this is the site we have reserved for a lengthy stay. I have if from a reliable source (summer worker at the RV park) that the deer come down about every evening and walk right through the RV park, and likely right through the area of this site. So, the above "weapon of choice" (from my signature image) will likely get used a lot in the future.



Of course, where there are deer....

 

[tRidiot]

I'll bite. A few pics of a freak hailstorm in late March of 2007, I think. At my house at the time in Greenville, NC.

 

[TerryMiller]

I'll bite. A few pics of a freak hailstorm in late March of 2007, I think. At my house at the time in Greenville, NC.

View attachment 33938

Oh, Man!!!! The Giraffe took it bad!

 

[tRidiot]

I'm not quite the photog some of you guys are...

I guess these are a couple of my favorite shots that I've personally taken. No fancy equipment or any training at all, so it's amazing I manage to get any pics without my finger in them, covered in mustard or BBQ sauce.

 

[TerryMiller]

I'm certainly not a professional, but I still manage to get some great shots every now and then. Other than one "formal class" that I took to better understand the "fancy camera" I have, I've never had any photography classes. I adhere to the quote of the famous Ansel Adams, well known landscape photographer. His quote: "There are no rules to good photos. There are just good photos."

I had the good fortune to have a mother that taught herself to paint with oil paint. Watching her and her students over the years, seeing their end results and the "studies" from which they worked, I learned a lot about composure for pictures. I still spend a lot of time on photo sharing websites, specifically Pbase, where there are photographers that are both rank amateurs and professionals. From viewing their photos, one can learn what "makes" a photo and eventually to be able to pick out what "destroys" a photo.

One can learn a lot by just looking with an objective eye. Also, if one is looking for sample images taken with specific cameras or lenses, one can use Pbase's "Cameras" link to find those specific items. Then one can see photos that are taken by "normal" people instead of what one sees on manufacturer's websites that are taken by professionals only.

Using the "Cameras" feature of Pbase is what helped me choose my last three cameras.

 

[tRidiot]

Anyone here who knows photography care to offer me any critique on this shot?

This is my favorite shot EVAR I have personally taken, and it was, I suppose, pure luck that it turned out so well... I mean, maybe the really semi-pro kinda guys out there aren't impressed by it, but it was taken with a 5MP Panasonic camera, and I'm really just pretty gol-darned proud of it. I wish I had the eye to catch more like this!

For anyone who is interested, it was taken in a park in Salzburg, Austria. I believe it was probably the gardens at Schloss Schönbrunn, in my mind one of the modern marvels of the world. I am not the most well-traveled Okie out there, but I have been around and that palace and the surrounding gardens are absolutely incredible!

On a side note, I tried to capture another one, the most beautiful rose I have ever seen... here is the picture...

Unfortunately, the image did not in any way manage to capture the beauty of this rose. I noticed it while simply walking along a street in Venice, Italy and thought I would try to get some good pictures of it. It was early morning, with an overcast sky and a strange glow that made this rose growing simply along someone's fence stick in my heart and my mind's eye, but though I took a good half-dozen pictures, not a one of them was able to capture even a tiny fraction of it's beauty. I am saddened to this day, to the point my heart hurts to look at it, knowing I will never be able to share its glory with my friends. But it will forever be in my heart, and to this day is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever beheld... but I was not able to capture it as my eye perceived it to share with you.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Been a while so excuse the dump. All film (Nikon FM2, Fuji 400 prints). I've barely shot digital since 2010. A shot that would be ordinary or boring with a DSLR *pops* on print film, IMO.

Weyerhaeuser logging truck pulled out of the river after Mt. St. Helens eruption.

One of the merchants was hassling me for taking pictures, until he took a second glance at my camera. "YOU'RE SHOOTING FILM!?! AWESOME." Fun place to shoot with all the color, and I like pictures where you can't identify anything from recent decades in the shot. They frown on photos, but if you're nice and pretty like me, you can get away with it.

I was pretty happy with this one. I saw the dude on the longboard coming down the hill and hoped I could catch hm exactly in that spot with no other pedestrians in the shot. When the film came back I was surprised I did.

 

[338Shooter]