Photography Showcase Thread!

[NSEP]

They made the superflat world from minecraft into a real thing???!???

Jk its just the Dutch countryside.

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

They made the superflat world from minecraft into a real thing???!???

Jk its just the Dutch countryside.

That could just as easily be the province of Saskatchewan (Canadian prairie)

[cubinator]

30 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

That could just as easily be the province of Saskatchewan (Canadian prairie)

Or South Dakota.

[StrandedonEarth]

Went to a hangar dance last night, with a mini airshow ahead of today's Flight Fest. I wish I had brought my Canon. I suppose I should have gone back today, but had other things to do (like sit here and browse the KSP forum...). This was about the best my iPhone 7 could do with the flying at dusk...

Although some of the static shots were okay...

Spoiler

It was cool to see the last pilot roaming the dance (a weathered older fellow with a long history with the RCAF, including as a trainer on the Tudors). I overheard him at the bar saying "Now I'm done flying, I can have a drink! I'll have something cold, wet, and tasting like barley..."

Edited August 25, 2019 by StrandedonEarth

[XB-70A]

1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:

 

A Yak-18T!! One of my best flying memories 

The CJ-6 seemed to be in a beautiful shape too.

[qzgy]

On 8/25/2019 at 1:38 AM, NSEP said:

They made the superflat world from minecraft into a real thing???!???

Jk its just the Dutch countryside.

Oh yeah in the Netherlands now. Sooooo flat and dull. And I thought central NJ was flat.

At least you have canals and stuff. 

[XB-70A]

Pictures taken the 3rd and 4th, right before and following the pass of Dorian out of the coast.

With an iPhone X, so not really great...

 

 

 

Young gull is "playing" with a turtle's egg.

 

 

Same place, after the storm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Delay]

I bought a "new" camera today - a Nikon D3100. In spite of manufacturing starting as early as 2010, as far as I can tell it's a good camera.

However, par for the course for a Nikon is that exposure is not simulated in previews. You either get it right or you have to retry until you do. Lots of guessing.
But I wouldn't call that "bad". It's a chance to learn what the settings actually do and how to use them efficiently!

Edited September 14, 2019 by Delay

[IncongruousGoat]

Here's some pictures I took a couple weeks ago at Snow Lake/Gem Lake in the Cascades:

... and then some other ones taken (with a different camera) last week at Mount Rainier NP:

 

On a more general note, does anyone here have any advice about buying a camera? I'm considering getting more serious about landscape photography and the phone camera(s) I've been using so far aren't very good.

[tater]

@IncongruousGoat

Those are fantastic. (no reactions, so that'll have to do )

Bag any peaks?

[IncongruousGoat]

1 hour ago, tater said:

@IncongruousGoat

Those are fantastic. (no reactions, so that'll have to do )

Bag any peaks?

Thank you!

As for peak bagging, the answer is "not yet". Not on this coast, anyways. I only got back into hiking after the move out west a few weeks ago, and while Gem Lake is beautiful, the trail doesn't go over any summits. And I'm nowhere near fit or skilled enough to even consider trying to climb Mount Rainier. Though, I've heard St. Helens is doable as a day hike...

[purpleivan]

Here's a few more from round where I live.

10 minutes after taking the last of these I dinged my camera, jumping up some 30-40cm cut stone blocks, instead of using the steps. Tripped and the thing just just caught the ground. No visible damage done, but the focus was thrown off and wouldn't come back.

The cost of of repairing it was going to be about 90% the cost of buying a new one of the same model (which I've done), so not too happy about that. At least I've got a spare battery and lens cap now.

[qzgy]

17 hours ago, Delay said:

However, par for the course for a Nikon is that exposure is not simulated in previews. You either get it right or you have to retry until you do. Lots of guessing.
But I wouldn't call that "bad". It's a chance to learn what the settings actually do and how to use them efficiently!

Im curious what you mean by "simulated in previews". I know that on a Nikon I had used before, when using the viewfinder there was a thing at the bottom that would say how relatively under or overexposed the image was, which was helpful. Wonder if youre talking about the viewfinder or something else.

[Delay]

5 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Im curious what you mean by "simulated in previews". I know that on a Nikon I had used before, when using the viewfinder there was a thing at the bottom that would say how relatively under or overexposed the image was, which was helpful. Wonder if youre talking about the viewfinder or something else.

It has that bar, but what I mean is that you can't see the over/underexposure. It only shows up when taking the photo.

Other cameras, like the one I used before, show wrong exposures on the display. You can see exactly what part of the image is over/underexposed and get direct visual feedback after changing the settings.

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, Delay said:

It has that bar, but what I mean is that you can't see the over/underexposure. It only shows up when taking the photo.

Other cameras, like the one I used before, show wrong exposures on the display. You can see exactly what part of the image is over/underexposed and get direct visual feedback after changing the settings.

Oh I kinda understand now. Seems like a handy feature. Something to learn though through experience.

[Delay]

Just now, qzgy said:

Oh I kinda understand now. Seems like a handy feature. Something to learn though through experience.

You don't have that privilege with film cameras, so it must be possible in digital photography!

[tater]

2 hours ago, qzgy said:

Im curious what you mean by "simulated in previews". I know that on a Nikon I had used before, when using the viewfinder there was a thing at the bottom that would say how relatively under or overexposed the image was, which was helpful. Wonder if youre talking about the viewfinder or something else.

SLRS (and DSLRs ) used to have an Aperture Preview Button which would stop the lens down when you held it---normally the aperture stops down as you take the picture so the small viewfinder can gather more light for you to see---this would do it while you were looking through the camera. It was hard to tell at f5 or something, but at high f stops it was pretty obvious. Some don't have this now.

9 hours ago, IncongruousGoat said:

Thank you!

As for peak bagging, the answer is "not yet". Not on this coast, anyways. I only got back into hiking after the move out west a few weeks ago, and while Gem Lake is beautiful, the trail doesn't go over any summits. And I'm nowhere near fit or skilled enough to even consider trying to climb Mount Rainier. Though, I've heard St. Helens is doable as a day hike...

Rainier is serious, true. That peak in the Snow Lake images looks a lot like the Crestones in Colorado... beautiful country.

Edited September 15, 2019 by tater

[tater]

[Scarecrow]

Seeing as how this is a space related forum, I thought it would be appropriate to post some space related images.

 

 

 

Orion Nebula

[Cydonian Monk]

Some sort of mutated Little Boy or Fat Man or something like that is in Texas this week..... 

No, wait, that's the Big Boy from my home town in West Virginia.

Wait, let's see.... Ah. Here we go.

UP 4-8-8-4 Big Boy 4014, the second heaviest class of steam locomotive ever built. Probably considerably less heavy than the C&O Allegheny now that they removed the coal bunker and the auger system and replaced it all with an oil tank and the bunker crude (aka "love potion #4") they use now. Still, I'll concede that the Big Boy was both "larger" and more powerful than the Allegheny... just not heavier. The 2-6-6-6's tractive effort was at least measurable without causing permanent damage, while the 4-8-8-4 managed to destroy the dynamometer cars that tried to measure it. (They tried and failed? No. They tried and died.) Lord save the drawbars and coupler knuckles of anything that dared oppose it.

Anyway, here it was drifting into Eagle Lake, TX. Lots of crowds and school kids and looneys with cameras and cellphones and iPads and whatnot. Really great weather for November in Central Texas, and most of the schools let out early for the occasion too. Really cool experience.

Yes, I was out with the foamer parade on Wednesday, chasing from just east of Schulenburg over into Richmond, TX and contributing to traffic and frustration and the general chaos. Some other folks' "perfect" shots were ruined by the mere existence of humans, and trees, and bracken, and clouds, and the universe itself. And there were yet more folks who had no idea what was going on and either wanted to see a big steam train or just wanted to get out of the way and go do their job so they could go home. And I won't talk specifics about those who should have been arrested for their antics, because they don't deserve the attention. Guess what? We all lived. In general folks were very Texan-ly and curious and friendly, especially out in the farmlands and on the prairie. 

Here's a parting shot at Richmond, where I gave up the chase for the day. City folk just aren't my cup of oil, and east of here it was all Houston crowds and congestion.

There's a few more shots (14 total) in this here fancy Smug-Flickr album thingymajig, if you're so inclined to click or want to see more: 2019 UP Big Boy in Texas - https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJeAxsL

Cheers,

Edited November 8, 2019 by Cydonian Monk

[XB-70A]

Back at it after two months, with salt and sand floating into the air and ruining the definition.

 

 

 

 

[tater]

That bird, though!

Edited November 11, 2019 by tater

[cubinator]

59 minutes ago, XB-70A said:

with salt and sand floating into the air and ruining the definition.

It really does get everywhere...

16 minutes ago, tater said:

That bird, though!

A falcon, by the looks of it.

[tater]

3 minutes ago, cubinator said:

A falcon, by the looks of it.

Quite possibly for that area. Raptor for sure with those tip feathers I'd think (our vultures here also have those spread wing tip feathers, but I'm not much of a bird ID person).

[XB-70A]

23 minutes ago, tater said:

That bird, though!

 

7 minutes ago, cubinator said:

A falcon, by the looks of it.

 

The white one with burned marks? Yes, a falcon, but the "other" one is just another of those Turkey vultures. Some peregrine falcons and merlins are living around the area too, but they are far more widespread around Port Canaveral and the Banana River.

Here is another one I caught in last November while waiting for Es'Hail 2.