IT'S SPRING!

SELF | March 20, 09 | swampsniper

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I haven't done much the past few days. I was riding down a narrow residential street the other day and saw a little front yard surrounded by these lillies. The yard was shady but the flowers were glowing like hot coals. I shot these through the car window.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Pinglist

[George Smiley]

Woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground. SE PA.

[George Smiley]

Throgh the CAR WINDOW?

No S***T!

Great shot.

[nuconvert]

Beautiful

[doc1019]

More, more … we need more! Thanks for this beautiful calibration of life.

[tet68]

Nice photo.

Spring has sprung,
Fall has fell,
Now it’s summer
and hot as usual.

Well almost, we could still have some cold come through
yet.

[smokingfrog]

The bluebonnets are really starting to "spring up" this week.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The Leica lens on my Panasonic will pick out individual hairs an a bees butt from 20 feet out, flowers are easy, LOL

[kenth]

woot

[JoeProBono]

[George Smiley]

Yeah, I thought the lighting looked a little dubious for “outdoor” and esp. through car window.

Sorry, I was up til 3 AM yesterday and am more gullible than usual when half-asleep.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Gorgeous!

[Drango]

Very nice (as usual)

[George Smiley]

OMG.

My retinas!

You may have just cured my glaucoma.

It’s like Kinkade on acid.

(or is that redundant?)

[Islander7]

Yes, it is finally Spring! Next year I hope to have a pollen colored car.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Not only are you a talented photographer, but you also have a knack of keeping your car windows spotless!

Great shot, and thanks for sharing.

[Richard Kimball]

[JoeProBono]

;-}

[Dallas59]

Sparrow chick yesterday at the bird feeder..

[SouthTexas]

We have bluebonnet, as in one. Been dry.

[newhouse]

Bluebonnet as in one
Hey at least that is one more than I have.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The glass was down!

[SouthTexas]

LOL

I guess if I go lay down in the yard and get real close to it, I can imagine a beautiful blue field.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The EXIF data is in the image, no tricks involved. I take pictures, I don’t spread BS!

[newhouse]

I take pictures.....

You take absolutely breathtaking pix and they are the highlight of my day.

[George Smiley]

It says arboretum in the URL...

[Gator113]

Beautiful capture. What settings and lens did you use?

I am new to being serious about photography.

[Jet Jaguar]

Very nice!

[George Smiley]

Hit your Flickr site.

Mea culpa.

Now I understand the origin of your screen name.

Ever been to Cumberland Island, GA?

If you like “shooting” birds, it’s spectacular at certain times of the year.

[Gator113]

Excellent captures. I have a lens that will get that, but this rookie must first figure it all out.

[Richard Kimball]

Thanks, I usually don't do the nature thing, but here are a couple I did last year:

I love doing any type of photography. Post some of your shots. I'd like to see them.

[rustbucket]

I went out in one of the thick Houston fogs this week and found hundreds of small spider webs made visible by tiny water droplets from the fog. The little webs had an upward pointing cone shape. There were so many of them they must have been like a minefield for insects.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Download PHOTOME or OPANDA EXIF READER, both freeware. Most digital cameras embed data in the image files containing all the details of the shot. You can read this with the right program. Some processes remove the data, but I try to avoid that. It is a great learning aid to see what others are doing with their efforts. there is also a program called SIMCAM that is great.
This is from the Panasonic FZ30, nothing but a UV filter on it. I never go out without something protecting the lens, in outdoor work anything can happen. I’d rather clean the cheap filter than scrub on my lens.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

This pose is a once in a lifetime catch!

[Dallas59]

He was feeding by himself...but when Moma bird came to the feeder, he would puff up and go into his “feed me” routine.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I try to post here often, but my work is on display at

http://www.pbase.com/tsiya

http://cabbagehammock.blogspot.com/

Since I retired my cameras are my main companions, I have little use for most television.

[Gator113]

Those are fantastic.

I can’t post any yet.... I just bought my camera gear. I have so very much to learn, but I am coming along and I am passionate about it. I bought a Canon 50D and 4 awesome lenses.. and loads of other stuff. My 580ex II flash just arrived today. The buying is done for now.. the work to learn this craft/art will now be my daily focus.

My first project will be capturing each of the local business that have shut down in my county of 10% unemployment. Depressing, but it needs to be memorialized. Then I will do the beauty thing.

While my interests are wide, I will focus on landscape and seascape for now.

[Richard Kimball]

I always check your posts. I like your work. I do mostly sports, but the pay isn’t the greatest for that, so I do a lot of proms, weddings, etc. I love doing those, too.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Looks like some kind of webworm infestation.

[Richard Kimball]

Excellent camera. What lenses did you get? I work with a 70-200 2.8L and a 24-70 2.8L. I'm saving up for a 300 2.8L, but those are my workhorse lenses.

The only suggestion I'll make early on is to not use the preselected modes. To really control your camera, learn to use shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual. On Canons, for some reason, they call shutter priority "threshold value" or TV. Aperture priority is AV.

Oh, one other suggestion: Take 500 photos, pick out the best five and hide the rest. Everyone will think you're a genius.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I don't really try hard to sell anything, that would make it too much like work,LOL

My health isn't reliable enough for me to set schedules and make committments, nothing I can do about that, so I don't sweat it.

I'm enjoying myself, learning new things every day, and that's enough!

When I can't do that any more, the gators can have my old carcass!

[SWAMPSNIPER]

This is a link to SIMCAM, I think it is a great tool.

http://www.photonhead.com/simcam/

[Richard Kimball]

I hear you. I started doing photography for the love of it. People started asking me to do jobs, so I charged money just to keep the requests down, and they started paying it! I hear people get into prostitution the same way.

I love doing photography just for the art, but I also love the challenge. That's one of the reasons I do sports.

You've got a good eye and understand composition.

[rustbucket]

I hadn't thought of web worms. We've had numerous sod web worm infestations in our area. The webs don't look like that at all. Nor do they look like tent caterpillars. These little webs (~3 inches across) are not the usual kind of tent caterpillar nests that I'm used to that house dozens of caterpillars and surround limbs and leaves. The upward pointing cones or domes of the webs in my photo are between twigs and seem designed to trap insects that are flying upwards.

My webs look more or less like the second picture on this "tent web spider" link: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Cyrtophora/Cyrtophora.html. Perhapsthey were made by some related species.

[Gator113]

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

[siamesecats]

You folks take some wonderful pictures!

Thank you so much!

[Gator113]

My gear:70-200 2.8L IS with Extender EF 1.4x II , 24-70 2.8L, EFS 10-22, 28-135 IS kit lens, 580EX II Speedlite, Hoya polarizing and UV filters ( those hurt to buy$), Manfrotto tripod with joystick like head, a monopod, two gear bags and other misulainious items. I too want the 300 2.8L or maybe the 400.

After buying that stuff, “Yes Dear” informed me that I would have to stay with Aperture II on my Mac and wait until at least next year before getting within 50’ of Photoshop. ;>)

I know it’s nuts for a rookie to start will that pile, but I am 60 now, I have much to quickly learn—some things I never will, and I feel a clock ticking away within me. I will never be a pro this late in my life though I think I would have enjoyed it, but I think I can learn to capture a few beautiful moments that someone might someday appreciate.

Thank you for your suggestions...

[Gator113]

One more thing. I figure that if Obama and those crooks in DC continue to plague us and drive us over the cliff, we are all going to be broke, so I might as well be prepared to document the Depression when I’m not too busy shootin’. ;>)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Check your PM