A Take On The 10 Rules Of Photography Spool

[Ripley]

This amused me. I'm sure (I hope) it was tongue in cheek. It was a response to a 10 Rules of Photography article I had somewhere that this person said must have been written by "old guys" ...

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1)Don't bother with a tripod....your camera has an Auto mode that usually strives for the fastest shutter speed possible to save you the trouble of lugging a tripod.

2)No need to take your time composing carefully, and studying the edges and corners of the viewfinder. First of all, you can't because you don't have a tripod. And secondly, any stray junk that happens to intrude into the composition can be eliminated with Photoshop.

3)Along with number two, remember...the name of the game is to shoot as many frames as possible. You're not paying for film processing and developing anymore, so fire away.

4)Don't bother reading the owners manual. There are plenty of people who'll be more than happy to look up the information for you.

5)No matter how bad your photo turns out, it can be rescued by cranking up the Saturation slider. No one will notice...they'll all just marvel at the quality and wonder how you did it.

6)To really make your photos pop, and make people jealous of how sharp your camera is, don't forget to crank up the Sharpness slider. Don't be shy with it. A little goes a long way, but a lot goes even farther.

7)There's nothing wrong with your technique.

As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as technique. If you see a portfolio full of consistently excellent images, the photographer probably just has better plug-ins than you. Technique is simply a matter of finding the right plug-in to make your picture look the way you want it to. Unless it's because your equipment isn't good enough. In that case, it's time to find out what everyone else is using, and buy that.

8)Whether or not you're taking any pictures, always make sure your biggest lens is mounted on your camera, for everyone to see. Yes, it does impress.

9)There are lots of websites out there that offer critiques, where never is heard a discouraging word. If you like hearing "Wow, nice shot!", find one and start posting. You'll soon feel good about yourself, and everyone's a winner!

10)Mid-day is a great time to shoot, because by then all the photographers with their clunky tripods have long since left. Who needs to be tripping over tripod legs anyway? Not you, because you have the ability to jump out of your car, instantly ascertain the best composition, grab your shot, and jump back in the car to race home and oversaturate, oversharpen, clone, clone, clone, and post.

[chezzyr]

Ripley: its serious! Don't you know most people follow those 'rules'??

As for the keeping the biggest lens mounted on the camera. Reminds me

of a time I had my 400mm lens on the camera and I handed my other

camera to my other half to carry (that camera had the 50mm/1.8 attached).

boy did my other half pout! He did not want to be seen in public with the

little lens attached We had to swap didn't we! Boys!

[rubiton]

Yes - the lens size!!!! I'm there with my 100-300mm little lens (or the even smaller one) and no one looks twice at you but immediately goes to the person with the big grey one!!!! Maybe thats why Im planning on getting a big grey one!!! (no seriously I need one for what its for not the looks but added bonus)

But seriously I know people who believe that the motor drive take as many as possible and delete the bad ones technique. Works for them but would send me bonkers - I still stick to the try to get the stride right first go and if you miss try again (you know if you got it right) for the horse shows. Only victory gallops at AIHT and horse racing is different The motor drive technique also sends anyone nearby for a low tolerance for endless clicking a bit crazy.

[Cordelia]

hehe

taking the piss out of people who photoshop the crap (literally) out of their photos and think they are great.

Don't get me wrong.. some photoshopping is fantastic and it alllows for some incredible editing (as well as just fixing little things), but when you see a pic that is basicallly a rubbish shot but has been photoshopped to the hilt... you can tell and it still doesn't make it a great photo because you know the base pic was still garbage.

.....says me who couldn't photoshop if her life depended on it!

[Ripley]

Yes - the lens size!!!! I'm there with my 100-300mm little lens (or the even smaller one) and no one looks twice at you but immediately goes to the person with the big grey one!!!! Maybe thats why Im planning on getting a big grey one!!! (no seriously I need one for what its for not the looks but added bonus)

I know what you mean. When I first decided to get a DSLR it was to take better travel pics so I could blow them up bigger than my pocket digital, that's the only reason - that and I wanted a bigger lens for close ups after using one on a film camera. I had no idea how they worked, just that they were long and I could get close ups. Wow-ee! I snapped most of my shots on 'Landscape', 'Portrait' or 'Auto' modes and they came out ok, but we had lots of days with clear blue skies. I remember feeling excited as I was snapping away at close ups of wild flamingos in a wetland in France, amazed at how close my really old beast Tokina 300mm focused. Then I walked around the lake to find 2 National Geographic photographers sitting down, legs splayed, with these huge - I mean HUGE grey lenses mounted to tripods. I instantly went, "Wow, that's serious". Lovely people btw - older couple totally into wildlife.

[Guest Tess32]

Hey hey...they are WHITE not grey, hehe.

Sometimes those big lenses backfire. There are two guys who are always at melb zoo, and they had their 500mm pointed at the tiger cubs. Well, they missed all the shots I got of the babies all in the water together and playing, because their lens was too long! They grumbled and walked off.

[Ripley]

500mm at the zoo! Je-sus! I would have laughed. Not an open range zoo??? I guess they wanted the close ups REAL close. Then again, I have no idea how big the enclosures are these days.

[chezzyr]

I actually think the later 100-400 is a grey/silver colour - not white.

I can't find the picture now but it looked pretty grey to me.

ripley: were those photographers wearing waders and did their

lenses have camo covers? How close could you get to the flamingos

at the Camargue?

Edited January 17, 2008 by chezzyr

[Ripley]

I can't remember, chezzyr. I know that they were in khaki shorts and shirts and hats with Audubon Society on them.

The flamingos weren't disturbed by human presence, there weren't that many of us there as it was late afternoon and the tourist season was over (this was late September 2006). It's the largest protected wetland in Europe and the French are very protective of their flamingos there as well as their national white horses. I think the flamingos stay there year round, some fly south to Africa but some stay in the wetlands. There is a boardwalk around a few of the larger lakes and viewing platforms and chairs to sit down and just take it all in. In fact, at the cafe they have when you leave, some squabbling flamingos were making a hell of a racket while we sat down and had a snack - they aren't interested in bumming food off you like some birds!

I found a site here of a travel blog from someone who is a pretty good photographer I reckon. You can see his photos of flamingos and many other birds as well as the white horses of the area on this site:

http://users.skynet.be/wielewaal/Camargue%202001.htm

This is a shot I took with a 300mm lens I think - well it was that or it was the 200mm lens, I can't remember as I had no idea about taking shots when we went on this trip as I had just bought the camera. So yeah, you can get pretty close to them.

Here is a shot I took there - just aiming my 200mm up and clicking on Auto

Edited January 18, 2008 by Ripley

[Guest Tess32]

500mm at the zoo! Je-sus! I would have laughed. Not an open range zoo??? I guess they wanted the close ups REAL close. Then again, I have no idea how big the enclosures are these days.

The tiger enclosure it would be handy occasionally, but the light is shit there and I doubt they'd get great stuff anyway. If I could invent my own lens for the zoo it would be f.1.4, 28 - 400mm and really sharp

[chezzyr]

They look kind of funny flying, Ripley, but then so do Swans.

I have added it as a "must do" when we visit Europe in 2009.

I hope they are there all year round. Did you notice any

young ones? I have only ever seen captive Flamingos. Must

be amazing to see so many in the wild. White horses would

be a bonus!

[wagsalot]

Hey hey...they are WHITE not grey, hehe.

Sometimes those big lenses backfire. There are two guys who are always at melb zoo, and they had their 500mm pointed at the tiger cubs. Well, they missed all the shots I got of the babies all in the water together and playing, because their lens was too long! They grumbled and walked off.

When I went to Melbourne Zoo in Febuarary last year the Tiger cubs were there and there was two people there then with massive len's. My OH couldn't get over the size of the things.

[Ripley]

Well if you want to go to Provence, chezzyr, go before the Minstrel - the minstrel is the extremely cold wind that sometimes arrives in winter and blows for weeks. It has been known to send people quite mad. If I were a flammy, I'd flee! I think they head south then to Africa but not sure.

They are the Greater Flamingo, which is different from the Carribean flamingo. The reach maturity at 2 and they live about 20 years in the wild.

Bit about the French ones:

"The Camargue, in southern France, is one of Europe's most important wetland sites. Flamingos visit in their thousands to breed every year, along with other bird species such as terns, avocets and purple herons. The area is a National Park and is strictly protected. Demand for agricultural land by ever-increasing human populations puts pressure on the vital wetlands which are depended upon by a huge variety of species.

The flocks in the Camargue are protected during the breeding season to minimise disturbance, and aircraft are banned from flying over the breeding grounds."

The greater flamingo is particular about its choice of habitat. It needs shallow, very salty lagoons and lakes in which to fed and breed successfully.

The flamingo dislikes disturbance, particularly at breeding times, and will often seek out larger expanses of water for solitude.

Most colonies will stay over winter if the weather stays mild. But these birds will move on if the weather turns bad"

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- so I guess they are happy here and people respect them in the Carmargue - it really is a huge wetland region. We spent a day there but could have stayed more time as we only saw a small portion.

I never saw any baby chicks but the juveniles are grey, whereas the mature adults are pink. They don't reach maturity until they are aged two. Bit like swans - the young flammys are not as pretty - all beak and legs and grey down on them.

We also saw white horses and the wild bulls of the region. Plenty of ranches there for you to have a ride on a white horse too. No cross breeding of their white horses allowed, it's a French law.