nick76

Congrats J. Thanks for all the help in the Photography thread.

I am with you. My wife has between 50 and 60 pair. The new rule is that for every pair she gets new she has to get rid of a pair. She finally is following the rules. I cannot be too hard on her though.....I think I have between 20 and 30 pair. I am a shoe junkie as well.

That is a whole different shot from a completely different day. I sit on the back deck drinking Arnold Palmer's and shooting the birds. Those little suckers are aggressive and I have actually had close encounter with them many times. I had one hit the hammock one day while I was napping in it. Fun, but my wife has this fear that one of them is going to fly into her face and stick that long beak into her eye. She always wears sunglasses on the deck for that reason.

Well, if you insist. Got lots of birds to shoot.

From my bird feeder setup out behind the back porch.

Yeah......those pics are crazy similar. Nice smallies though.

I'll give it a try.....let you know how it goes.

I might just have to play with the settings to get the f-stop lower and see where that takes me. Like I said, I am still learning this whole camera thing. When you shoot in low light do you use your tripod or free hand?

Ok......still new to this and am looking for a lens for a canon EF series lens that will be better to shoot with in Low light conditions. Any preferences or suggestions. I have tons of athletic events for the kids and it can be difficult to get a good shot without blurring of the image. I also like to shoot the wildlife in the back yard and usually they come out at dusk when the light is low. I have a 75-300 cannon lens that has an Aperture of 4-5.6, and think that is probably the issue. I have tried running the ISO up as high as I can, any help???? Thanks in advance.

Just an FYI......I had this happen to me so here is some info as I was told by my Bank Manager. If you use your debit card that also has a Visa or MC logo on it there are times to use it as a debit card and times to use it as a Credit Card. If you are making small purchases you can use the debit feature and it makes the transaction simple. If you are buying larger items then you are need to use the Credit Card feature. It covers you the same as if the purchase was actually made with a credit card even though the money is withdrawn from your account. There are special rights you have with a CC purchase that you do not have with a debit purchase. Just an FYI. I bought a camera lens from a company on line....when I got it they had switched it for a different brand of lens and the one I received was broken (suspect that this was done intentionally). When I called to return the lens for both of the reasons they wanted me to pay to return it and then pay to have the new one shipped to me again (at an extreme shipping cost). When I said I want the correct lens I ordered they gave me the run around about a restocking fee and more shipping and then a large wait time for the actual lens to be in stock. All in all, it was going to cost me more than what the lens was worth and when I pointed out that they were scamming me the gentleman on the line said, "Yeah we got you on this one!". This is a direct quote, not made up. So I called my bank and did a charge back through Visa with my Bank Card. It took 2 days and I had to provide proof I sent the original back, but I got all my money back including the return shipping. So keep this in mind.

Had one of my credit card companies call me urgently one time about 3 or 4 years ago. Come to find out someone had bought about $6000 worth of online music purchases all at once and it triggered an alert. I confirmed that I did not purchase them and confirmed the last known purchase and they took care of the rest. Lucky they were watching or I would have been stuck with the bill.

As it is with most anything, Change is the easier part.......sticking with it for the long haul is the Hardest!! Nice to see him doing what he does best, playing football. Hopefully he understands what is expected of him and that he is fortunate to have gotten a second chance at not just playing football, but also at life. Be positive.

You just ruined my day!!!! Living on the west side of Michigan we do not have Chic-Fil-A. My wife seen me click on that link and she instantly started pouting!! Thanks for the headache!!

I might have missed it, but what kind of camera are you shooting with? I have two of them....I shoot with a canon rebel xt and then I also shoot with a d30. Both are nice, but less options on the rebel xt.

I have been using Firefox for over a year now with no problems loading. The only real issue is when there is a Flash Advertisement.....once in a while it will not load. I am using 3.6.10 also. Might want to clear your browser history and such. I know about a month ago I had an issue with another site that it didn't recognize all of a sudden. I had to manually type in the address and then resave my favorite to that address......almost like the former one was corrupted.

You can also use the online program picnik. Just go to www.picnik.com There are a variety of things you can do there for free or you can get a membership and have access to more.

I agree with the whole playing with the program thing. I search for little blips here and there and it is amazing what you can do with the software now. I will check that site out for sure. The subtle changes in that picture really make the difference. Thanks for the quick Tutorial. Much appreciated.

Do you have a before shot of that photo....and BTW- thanks for the info. Nice to know. It is always nice to learn little tricks for those of us just starting out. I am trying to find a new hobby and since I have a camera, time, and CS5 why not give it a go. Not to mention that my daughter (who is 16) is infatuated with this kind of stuff too and she is currently taking a little course on PS.

I found myself sitting at my desk around the seven minute mark with my hind quarters clenched so tight you would have thought I was on that tower with him! That is unreal. I am surprised his arms didn't fall off after that climb.

Was that someone you knew Baluga or was it one of those happen to be there for the moment shots? it is a great shot that defines a man and his desire to fish!!

That is very similar to what I was trying to do. I was shooting for more of "burning in" effect like you see in portraits. I read about it in one of Scott Kelby's Down & Dirty tricks books. I do like the Vignette idea too though. Will keep that one in mind. More like this one is what I did. I found some easier steps in the book for how to do it and it works just as well though. http://www.tutorialkit.com/tutorials/Create-A-Burnt-In-Edge-Effect-In-Photoshop-10744.html

Here is my youngest catching a nap on my wife's lap. Just used CS4 to black and white the image and then remove the B/W from the bow in her hair to add a little color to it. Then cropped in the edges and faded them in to darken and soften the edges of the photo.

Thanks for all the input here. This is some great info, and thanks J. That site is sweet. That mansion picture is fabulous as is the Bluffs picture. If I had some glycerin water available I would have done it. I almost went and got my wife's squirt bottle to make it happen, but it was getting late and we had company over. It is supposed to rain this afternoon and tomorrow so I will see if it can still happen. Love this thread!!!

From the Garden on sunday. Waiting for some early morning rain to see if I can get the web to glisten.

Love the HDR Image. We ought to add what software the image was done with and how it was done. Kind of a mini tutorial of sorts. There are some good photos here and some excellent editing.