Ashanali

I know... this one is still in the old leather case and has the instruction booklet. I used it for a wedding back in 2004. It was lots of fun but an expensive exercise.

I have to double check as I haven't had it out for a while. I think it's a Mamiya. It's sooo oooooold.

You got it TerraNik! :p Nicely done. Now try it with a slightly longer exposure to get even more of the motion effect in there Rocco - Shooting weddings on film worsened my anxiety. I would take four xanax and dose up on immodium before I left due to nerves (and still drove ;) ). I have had panic attacks at weddings in the past. I had two cameras each loaded with film and you only had ten rolls to get what you needed. You figured that approx 5 images on each roll was going to be a 'dead' image... if you ended up with 300 usable photos to show the bride and groom during the proof session then you had done a brilliant job. Shooting on film teaches you to get it right first time because getting it wrong and shooting willy-nilly just costs too much money. It's a great way to learn.

Practice on cars, Shell. Or head to a dog park if you can... simply tell people there what you are doing. :p

Here we have a Canon 30D and a 40D that have the most regular workouts. We also have a 10D gathering dust, a Pentax *ist D that I now let my kids use (but it's currently with Pointeeblab ) . An old 3mp Leica that the kids also use, a missing Canon Ixus that was used on a regular basis (god knows where it is at the moment though) ... then there are a few film cameras packed away. Next purchase will either be a Canon 5D or a 5D mark II. Soon... very soon.

I still have my film cameras here... I even have an old medium format camera in working order (gift from my grandfather. He bought it back in 1955). I really should dust them off and take them out... well, take out one of them. My newer film camera has ruined shutter blinds. It was stolen during a break in in 2004 and recovered by the police. The idiot who stole it had to take film out of it and obviously didn't know what they were doing and must have put a finger through the shutter blinds (which is a camera killer). My other 35mm is just a lovely camera and I'll never part with it even though I haven't used it for 5 years. I might drag it out again one day.

ooh... I like this! Well seen!

Very clever the amusing thing is that in Australia, both brands are wholesaled by the same company

It's going to be a tough month but it should be fun

AI Servo

Frozen motion... dogs running through the mud

CHALLENGE IS NOW POSTED IN THE OPENING POST!!!

I'm just getting the thread ready so I can put the information in here I will try and put the challenge in here later tonight but I'm off to a friend's house today and not sure how long I'm going to be there for so it might be tomorrow morning. so just letting you know, June is going ahead and it should be fun! Let's try and encourage some newbies to join in the challenge this month. and yes... it is based on movement MOVEMENT Okay, I'll keep this month as simple as possible and it's a challenge to master "panning" and "frozen motion" This is actually an exercise that you would be doing in the first semester of a diploma of photography (except you would be shooting on black and white film and would have to process the images and repeat the exercise over and over until you have it perfect. ) To be fair... the examples are the actual shots I photographed when I was at tafe 5 years ago. They aren't perfect and they are scanned from film so the quality is lacking, but I figure that they might encourage people because many of you are already shooting better than this. PANNING showing movement Most people already know what panning is but I'll go over it again. Panning is when the photographer is grounded in one position and there is a moving subject in front of them. The photographer will track the movement of the subject with the camera, press the shutter button but they will keep moving with the subject whilst doing so. A correct panning with movement image will show movement as a blur but there MUST be an area of sharpness of the subject (obviously the area you have focussed on and tracked). HOW to set up your camera For those using an SLR, flick it onto Tv mode. This is shutter speed priority which means that you tell the camera what speed you want to shoot at and it will automatically meter for you. To achieve the motion effect, you want the speed to be lower than 125th/sec. Obviously the slower the shutter speed is, the more pronounced the effect. If you shoot a few images and they are over-exposed, try decreasing your ISO. if using a point and shoot, set your camera to landscape mode. This isn't going to give you awesome results but it should get you close-ish. The best subjects to practice panning techniques on are cars or bikes because they move at a constant rate from side to side without much up or down motion. FROZEN MOTION This is for those times when you want everything to be super sharp and crisp. Birds in flight can look incredible mid motion. Dog's running or catching a frisbee are something else you might want to 'freeze'. Essentially you want to do the opposite to 'panning'. You want to force your camera to shoot the image as fast as possible so the movement within the image is limited. There are already a couple of other threads around on DOL explaining a few techniques for frozen motion that you can use if you want, but for those who don't want to go looking, here is the easy version to get you started. Again in Tv mode, set the camera to the shutter speed you want. More than 500th/sec should be getting to the point of frozen motion (I have photographed waves breaking over rocks at 8000th of a second so you can essentially go as high as you want/need to go). Depending on your subject you may need to 'pan' with them slightly to keep them within focus. Shoot when ready! If your image is under exposed, increase your ISO. If it's overexposed, decrease your ISO. Obviously this will depend on your lighting situation. if using a point and shoot - set your camera to portrait or sport mode. Now this is one of my images from about 9 years ago (pre tafe ), it looks a bit soft because it's a scan from slide film but you get the idea. The splash of water at her feet is frozen, her hair is frozen you can see detail in their clothes. PLAYING WITH MOVEMENT and LONG EXPOSURE Once you figure out how to change your settings to get the desired effect you can start playing around with movment. The classic 'car lights' down the street is a long exposure with the camera set on a tripod (or something firm so it doesn't move). Usually you will put the camera on a tripod, switch to manual focus and focus your camera, use as low an ISO as possible (depending on your camera that will be 50, 100 or 200 ) then set your shutter speed to 5 or more seconds. Use the timer or a remote tigger to set off your camera as if you touch the camera you can end up with a blurred image from camera shake. If 5 seconds isn't enough to get the image you want, increase it to 10 seconds. There is no right or wrong, it's all experimentation. (and here's an image from when I first started experimenting. I was leaning on the side of the car to get this... not as stable as a tripod. ) You can also do some daytime images using similar techniques (hehe... you guys are getting to see my really early wedding work now. It's bad ) THE CHALLENGE Step one: To capture 5 'panning' images of different subjects and 5 'frozen motion' images of different subjects. Step two: To capture 2 'long expoures' of different subjects where the shutter speed is 2 seconds or longer. These challenges are integral to understanding next month's challenge which will be quite technical but lots of fun and the satisfaction you will feel when you get a great image will be worth it. HAPPY SHOOTING EVERYONE!!! Can't wait to see your work.

Hey Lea, Here's an earlier one for you

Box works well

40D is brilliant workhorse. It's still outselling the 50D (50D is good too though). We've found we can push the 40D quite hard in low light situations and get great results with little to no noise.

It's all good. I'll make an apology. Apparently my post was poorly worded and can be interpreted as me saying that I think everyone is posting not so great images. I apologise if this is how it came across, this was not my intention at all. When I said that people seemed to be losing their inspiration I was paraphrasing a few peeple's posts from within the thread and also the pm's I received. I think everyone has been doing a brilliant job and ILTBY even sent me a PM a few days ago with some ideas that I will be exploring (in regards to the growth that some people have made during the challenges.) I know I don't post too often but I definitely follow the challenge threads and love seeing the work that each and every person comes up with. Again, I apologise that my comments can be misconstrued.

Huh? :rolleyes: A break was suggested by a number of people throughout this thread and when I posted that comment that you quoted I thought I was following popular opinion. I'm not the photo nazi at all and I was quite happy to see the challenge continue into May. Didn't bother me at all but I guess a few people looked toward me to start the new thread since I started up all the other challenges?? Black, white and sepia is going great guns :rolleyes:

it depends on the exhibition and the purpose. Competition prints have strict guidelines, however in our own 'gallery'/'studio' we have a mix of photos on photo paper and canvas. There are pros and cons to both.

Hey everyone, as usual there has been some really interesting and creative work posted throughout the month and you all deserve a big congratulations. MAY will be a rest month as a few people are starting to run out of inspiration and this is meant to be a bit of fun. My advice is to put the camera down and relax... and hit June with a vengance. June will be based on 'movement' but I'm not giving details as yet. Hope to see you all in 32 days, fresh and ready to roll!

I'm thinking that we might take a break from the challenges in May and let everyone recharge their batteries then come back all shiney and new in June. How does this sound?

Gimp is the free photoshop SOME of the experts use

Thanks RF for the samples. Takes a nice picture. But comment on the edges and keep in the middle, that is only if I am shooting at 17 right? Thanks Ash. This is my goal one day. Hopefully with a few more years experience. Ash do you guys use a 17-35? I know Alex's switches between a wide angle and his 70-200. Just cannot remember what your guys wide angle is now. Alex has the cheapie that came with the kit. 18-55. We do have another wider one but again, it's not the best quality. It's why one of our next purchases will be the 10-22mm. And I need to talk to you about AIPP membership. There's no reason why you couldn't join as an emerging member seeing as now you are technically working as a photographer. There are great benefits and you will be able to enter the awards.

There is very little distortion with a 50mm on a DSLR - to the point that only purists would notice it. Don't stress about it. off topic - rocco, you WILL be winning awards soon enough. I have no doubt.

toolz - jump in at any time.