Clicking Mad

love rocco with his pink pillow and his spikey collar

hmm appears to be a couple of mischevious doggies out today, some good model-dogs and some really nice non-doggy pics :rolleyes:

that bee is definitely going for a leap - if a little awkward

this is my contribution for today, not technically very good, but after a few set-up shots of Chester and the flower this is what he decided to do - I should've known when I encouraged him to sniff it again that this would happen ... good thing I spied some buds waiting to bloom as I haven't seen this plant flower in the 3 years I've been here

To all those posting who might be members of Flickr, I have started a dogzonline sharing group if you wish to join. Just a place to share some of your favourite images with other DOL/flickr members.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dolers/

cool, good idea :rolleyes:

bindi-boo - I love the light in that one too

persephone - ah that's my kinda shot, I love the blue eye

okay it's late now I've had to make a decision for today

Chester - and I think I've decided my January challenge is going to be all about Chester, but we'll see what actually happens

aquaticmal - love the "riviera" shot - but what is it?

Thanks "Riviera" is the brand of our boat

ah that makes sense ... I was thinking cello but it didn't quite look right

day two and I looked at what it said on the lens and had no freaking idea... homework will be to try and work out what 75-300 and 58mm means

the 75-300mm is the focal length of the lens and the 58mm is the diameter of the lens I think?

aquaticmal - love the "riviera" shot - but what is it?

isiss - the first one is my fav (of yesterdays')

ravyk - nice colour and focus on Peggies tongue

ash - that "daddy and ewan" shot is cool, both with funny smiles going on ... Oh and I wanted to add that Chester was a brilliant model, I tried the same thing with some flowers the other day and because there was a slight breeze mostly it came out blurry.

Fiona - that shot is great of the fireworks

magthedag - love that sunrise/set? beautiful colours!

bokezu - you should definitely post more pics of your dogs and fantastic posing, I love it!

I had a lolly teef at Christmas - and I forgot they taste minty :D

500? that's about average for me and a trip to the beach :rolleyes: lovely superdog pic!

persephone - I love the pentagon light spots too :D

Lovely pics everyone so far.

Ash - that's a brilliant action shot with the 50mm, how far away were you from Shensei? 'Cause the focus is really nice for a wide-open shot.

ArtyFarty - love your happy smiling dog enjoying a wonderful romp in the river, there's a lot of feeling there! :D

JAG - nice shot!

Ruffles - just lovely

+++

Not sure I'll be able to keep this up, but I'm going to start this off strong!

I'm so pleased with how this turned out :rolleyes:

This is how I achieved it using 3 separate exposures (actually that was difficult in itself, having Chester not move ) = HDR

I did a few more but this one just makes me smile

yeh I'm obviously talking "My Pictures" in "My Computer" type folders which is how I copy to external drives

Now that I too have lightroom I think I may look into what lukew's talking about ;)

I organise all mine by date, all the originals keep their download number eg. IMG3098 within the exact date folder eg. 2008_01_02

When I edit them I change the names to what they are eg. Texas, Texas01 etc. within a date folder eg. Jan08

If I have a special event within a month eg. Barwon Heads the edited pics go into another folder within the month folder.

But all the originals are still kept in the exact date folder. With the multitudes I take these days sometimes within the original date folders I have copies in another folder of "bestof" within the exact date folder.

One folder for "2008_01_02" containing IMG3098 originals

possibly within that folder another folder for "bestof" containing IMG3098 originals

One folder for "Jan08" containing Texas01 edited pics

possibly within that folder another folder for "BarwonHeads" containing Texas01 edited pics

I organised all my shots from old cameras via date earlier this year. I copied all originals to an external hard drive/2nd computer, and copied the edited pics to the external hard drive when I'd finished for the month, but often onto flash drives in-between. I probably had it easier than you because until the beginning of this year I wasn't taking half as many pics as I take now. Since I already have this set-up going now with the hundreds per day I take it makes it a relative breeze

Doesn't mean I'll always know where to find a specific picture but it helps cut down the search I think?

The good thing about the edited date thing is that if I find a pic that I've edited and want to have another play around, or do something with the original I can just check the properties to find the date (sometimes even down to the time of day) and then just go to the original date folder, I have done that a few times with success.

Could you start by doing a search/sort by date within your lion folder for example and organise them that way?

edited to add: personally I wouldn't start by deleted the duds 'cause that is what is gonna take the most amount of time, deciding what to get rid of and what to keep. I'd find it easier to get them into some sort of order before I deleted.

Actually I keep most duds (as originals) except the ones that are all blur or all over/under-exposed in camera before I download, the rest stay ... for the moment

thanks chezzyr ... to be honest never heard of Corellas

Am I right in saying that these are galahs, though?

they were all hanging out in the same park

thanks kirislin - I suppose I was lucky I, at least, had the settings right before the shot so it wasn't completely unplanned, though I still say flukey

that's one cool dragonfly - I like the way the wings are positioned

I forgot about my bird pics ...

I walked Texas (only because I hate walking anywhere without a dog) down to a park earlier this month because I'd noticed it had quite a gathering of galahs and what are the white parrots? are they galahs too? I'm hopeless with bird names/species - maybe ripley will know? ... and we just sat there and watched and shot for a little while ... these were taken with the kit 75mm-300mm lens

Here's the best of them ... these 2 were having a battle for the best spot on that small branch of gum tree:

no good at this ... nothing to practise with in my backyard

I was lying in my parents yard, lining this shot up, specifically using the 75mm-300mm to get that blur with a bunch of other small wildlife and flowers etc, when Chester came bowling over and ruined it, at least that was what I thought as the bee flew off the flower and I snapped at the same time.

I was surprised to find this:

Then, of course, spent another couple of shoots trying to improve on it and failed

some fantastic stuff on this thread!

I love diesel and great pic

I agree, everyone has beautiful dogs!

ah split toning ... I have had a play around with that ... never brave enough to post any of the playings though, as yet ...

itlby: I was the one who was giving Bonnie her present and took one look at her and ran back to grab my camera to get that look ...

here's her pressie

and here's her happily satisfied

another one from yesterday ... Jamie passing-by Texas

I did get some more shots this arvo, lying on the floor. My ankle is definitely sprained, swollen and bruised, not terribly painful but I was supposed to drive home tomorrow for back to work Sunday, it's my acceleration/brake foot so I'm not confident I'd be safe to drive yet

But, it does mean a longer rest ;)

kja: I personally love your post production ... great shots! I especially love Dora's pleading eyes

itlby: a macro lens too ... you lucky duck

I got a 1.8 and a polarising filter (which I haven't gotten around to using yet) ...

Unfortunately, I rolled and twisted my ankle a minute before Christmas dinner was being laid out, which sucks big time - I keep wanting to go out and take pics of anything and everything, but can't

Anyway, here's a couple that I got with the 1.8 before my silly accident:

My mum's dog Bonnie intent on her Christmas present

as per usual I did take heaps more at the time but these 2 are the best ... post-production using picasa ... and it's photobucket uploaded 'cause I've forgotten my flickr password

Chloes Dad: I love your 2 and they've posed nicely for Christmas

Well I dragged my mum around town (Katoomba) to get some Christmassy pics last night

Shop window

Main street lights - didn't help that they put it infront of the illuminated clock - why they not think of us silly photographers?

I like your reindeer lights pic better, ruthless

another shop window

I think i get sucked in to all the techy stuff and I over think a lot of things and therefore miss a lot of natural creativity trying to stage the perfect shot

This is what I used to be like. I hung out on photography forums and got very caught up in the quest for perfection. I learned a lot, but the most valuable lesson I learned is that a good shot doesn't have to be perfect and quite often, a perfect shot is very boring.

I stopped visiting the forums and started to enjoy my photography more.

Okay, I'm only just starting out too - I have to keep reminding myself I have only had an SLR camera for less than 12mnths and although I've always enjoyed taking pics I've never had the knowledge to get technical.

Basically, I wish to learn all the rules for a well constructed technical shot, specifically so that I can break them effectively and affectively! That's my aim I just desire to be original and unusual - that's me all over :rolleyes:

I have been thinking about this a bit just recently. I spent a morning visiting the "commons" on flickr - all the old photos - and realised that the ones I liked the most where the ones that told a story, so that is my new aim - to tell an interesting story - I'm finding it extremely difficult especially since I only really enjoy taking pics of my dogs and their stories aren't that "globally" interesting :p

Oh and the reason I quoted you gaylek was because I spend a fair amount of time on flickr (well split between here and there) and I feel totally confused about what others see as great! and fantastic and where my pictures are on the scale? I think some of my pics are pretty good especially when I first do them (maybe a month or so down the track they get usurped) but I have no idea really in the scheme of things how good they are, not really, I just don't know. My brother is the only person who I feel has actually been able to give me some knowledgable and useful feedback but he's hard to ask for every pic, and of course, again his is an opinion (knowledgable or otherwise) just as anyone elses is

Oh well, I'll just keep plugging away. And in answer, no style yet, can't even figure out what I'm doing and whether it is appealing or not

I was in the city earlier this week with my camera, but without a dog I just found it all too boring, I kept looking at potential shots and imagining a dog in it and how much better it would be.

Oh and my imagination is much better than my skill - my pics never come out how I think they should and then I just make up the stuff in the middle and expect everyone else to see what is in my imagination instead of the plain looking pic I actually captured

okay, that link looks interesting, have saved it to favourites to read in depth later, gotta go out shortly, hmmm may make my whole process a little more confusing ...

chezzyr - no worries, I never save over originals, and in fact back them up to my external drive

this isn't exactly on topic but from reading this thread I've picked up a very interesting and valuable tip

I've always edited my pics using whatever program before I've resized which of course has included a little (to a lot of) sharpening. It was just easier.

I think I can see the sharpening difference with some recent pics I've sorted through and done the editing after the resizing, it seems to make sense now that I think about it to do it that way, so just wanted to say thanks

In general, I'm really struggling with information overload about taking good pics of late

kirislin I think you are doing great with these bird shots with the kit long lens. I tried the other day much less successfully

I have a couple of variations

I'm a fan of the "cold" tone at the moment ...

tlc I love your dogs

the first 2 pics and the 7th are my favs, and your non-Holly cat has absolutely gorgeous eyes!

great work tadpole - I haven't figured out how to do the diptych (or quadtych????) yet, really need to though 'cause I often can't choose between 2 similar pics that would work well together in a kinda storytelling pic. Did Abbey need encouragement to play with the santa hat or did you just throw it and it was all over? What is that she's playing with in the 2nd pic? looks to me like a toy wreath? where'd you get it, or did you make it?

I reckon Ralphdog did a great job with that sleigh and great work all round ... very Christmassy feel ... hohoho Rocco

edit: Abbey

thanks ruthless, they were pretty good down the beach, we were on the way back so that helped Lucky we were the only ones around, I even popped my own pair of antlers on and snapped a "family" pic, that turned out crap

stealing lights? nah, don't mind in the least

a few of my neighbours have done lights, and the council does a "scene" on a busy nearby corner that I plan on popping down to.

I really like your second pic ruthless the reindeer really look like they are flying

not so good with the constructive criticism, I'll leave that to the experts ...

yeh I got some early shots, and hoping that it will still be around later for some later shots once the battery has recharged - a spare battery is on the Christmas list

and my mother was keen to make sure I knew with my telling her every single detail of my new found interest - ie. photography - she's good like that

I told her it was too cloudy here too, and was expecting storm clouds but it's clear as, I was even hoping some clouds would come across to frame the face a little ;)

go the 10 minute drive possum!