Ok, how about a different approach to an item?  

What are some of your more interesting photos you've taken while
on vacation?? Are they typically toursisty photos? Scenery
related?? People related [family/friends/whomever]? What makes
these phto shoots different and more special [if they ARE more
special] than ones around home?  

40 responses total.

I just got back from spending a couple days at the beach [in NC]
with 2 of my nephews who are visiting from MI [ages 8 and 10].
I guess these are typical photos, lots of the kids playing in the
ocean/beach, a few at a couple other places we visited. But I did get
up early this morning and shot a roll of the sun coming up--it was
a beautiful orangish-red color, so I do hope these will turn out ok!!

Thinking back, when I first started taking pictures [way back in 5th 
grade!!] of course I only TOOK pictures while on vacation--
AND while on vacation without my family [camping trips while in
scouts, a 7th grade field trip to DC, etc.]  It wasn't til much
later when it even OCCURRED to me to start taking pictures of things
or people at home!! 

This is item 40 in the photo conf. where it originated from and
linked to travel #58.

  I've always classified pictures of home to be boring. I see these things
everyday so wht would I want a picture of it. From my viewpoint, my
photography is special, and so I try to make each picture something I would
want a poster of. 

As our photography should be... special!!  I'm hoping that some or at
least one of my sunrise over the Atlantic pictures that I took yesterday
morning will be worth enlarging, matting, framing, and hanging up somewhere!

 I love sunrise pictures, but I am never conscious at that hour. I hope that
I can catch a few nice shots in Charleston. I'd be interested in
seeing/getting a copy of one of your sunrise over the Atlantick if you're
willing Denise. I'll trade you a shot of my sunrise (if I can do it)

Ok--fair enough, Omni!!  I plan on taking this film in sometime
tomorrow after my nephews leave...  [And speaking of photos that
we're proud of and that we'd want to make into posters--I gave
Freida a couple photos that she's going to paint for me! They're
both vacation pictures, too... One is at the Outer Banks of NC--just
a typical beach/sand dune/gull sort of picture -but to me is
very RELAXING, and the other one is a sunset over Lake MI
which includes some sailboats and such. And pretty shades of purples
and pinks.]

 cool.

Ok, I got my pictures back... It was intreesting that with my pictures
of the sunrise, what a variance there is in color intensity using
the same camera--especially it being an autofocus.  Overall, there are
several that I do like a lot--I dunno that I'd call them SUPER but
even though the colors aren't the ACTUAL colors that I saw, I still like
them.  Am trying to decide which print or prints to enlarge [and then
either mat and fram or something...  I want something differnt.  But
then, I may wait til I move--I have to find a new place to live this
fall sometime.

I have family in Florida and every time we see each other, we get all the
cousins in one picture.  It proves to be very interesting because each year,
all the little ones get bigger.  But we still somehow manage to fit one one
couch.

I try to get a feel for the location when I do vacation shots.  I put family
and friends in the shot with the composition background of the location.  That
way we can remember where we were when that shot was taken.

Another thing I love to do, but you need to have pretty good nerves, is find
a small airport that offers those 15 minute airplane rides for $10-$20 bucks.
Then I give the guy double and go up for half an hour or so in a small plane,
with my camera hanging out of the window, shooting away (high-speed film, fast
shutter, tight apperature).  Sometimes I can get the pilot to fly real low
(I think 400' is legal low limit most places).  I also study the geography
of the area and maps, including historical sites and of course, the site I'm
staying, for fly-by aireal shots of my vacation spot and surrounding area.

I just shot some boat shots at dawn with storm clouds off in the distance
while in Florida.  Next week I am going to Europe and will have some time for
shooting in Budapest and London.  I'll report back if I have success on any
photos!

Hmm, the pictures from the plane sound very interesting and different!!
I'd love to try something like that--but it won't ever
happen since I can't fly in small planes [I get VERY sick...].

Marc--your boat/storm shots sound great--I'd like to see them sometime!
And have fun in Europe--let us know how it goes!! How long will you be
there??

I'll be in Budapest for a week and in London for 4 days.  I'll have some free
time and I plan to shoot at least 4 rolls.  I'll take a pocket camera but it
has outstanding (wide angle) performance.

I have already bought the film - fuji 400 professional.
Maybe I'll have my scanner soon - can you receive scanned files?

Hmm, I haven't tried scanned files, is that something I can read with
a gif viewer?

Hmm, have you had any problems with Fuji film?? Seems that there's been
several times when I've used fuji, the film rewinds prematurely 
before the roll has been completely shot.... Very Frustrating!!

Yes, you could read them with a gif viewer.  I downloaded one from AOL.
        
No, I have never had the problem with premature rewind of fuji, but it must
be a real issue if you have had it several times.  I have only used Fuji HG
400 speed print film.  

Hey, on another note, I may have a photo used as a CD cover.  I took a picture
of a pianist looking under the raised lid of a grand piano.  In this shot you
can see his reflection on the underside of the lid and you can see the
business part of the piano beneath.  It is a black and white shot using a 16mm
lens which greatly exaggerates the length of the piano.  While I was searching
for this, I also dug several other good B&W prints out from the "drawer."

I'll find out if I get the cd cover sometime in October.

Cool.  Good luck marc.

I just got back from a last-minute 2 days in South Haven.  Didn't take many
photos, this was a mental-health break.  But last night I went down to shoot
the sunset with the S. Haven lighthouse (I do this every couple of years. 
There are lots of good 'standard' shots of this structure around...very
popular and very recognizable).  Unfortunately the sun ducked behind clouds
before it ever got near the horizon line, but I got a couple of quick pictures
anyway.  Later, while the sky was still a little light I took 2 or 3 more of
the breakwater.  Then, just before I left the lights came on.  I took 2 from
the same view as the sunset shots, with the lights on.  Then I went up on the
bluff and took a couple of long shots of the thing with the lights on. 
Exposures were up to 3 or 4 seconds by now (100ASA Kodak Gold).  In one of
the long shots there were three boats coming in off the lake into the channel.
In the other one, no boats came by during the exposure.  Should be interesting
to compare the "still" shot to the one with motion.

Let us know how your lighthouse shots turn out.  I have never taken a good
shot of a sunrise or sunset.  As I recall you have a Canon EOS.  Did you spot
meter?  In any case, I'd like to know what method produced the best results.

You can get your film developed and scanned onto Photo CDs, mcpoz. It costs
some money, but the scans are excellent. You get negatives too. Then you can
convert the pictures off the CD into gifs with some shareware, probly.

The only significant disadvantage (IMO)of Photo CD is that it takes a 
long time to process.

#17:
  Taking the film in today (I hope) since I just finished off the roll
yesterday.  I'll let you know.
  I have an excellent photo (ektachrome slide) of a full moon setting over
a misty lake.  Just happened to be in the right place at the right time (about
20 years ago, heh).  Took several auto-timed shots at different Fstops and
bracketed them (used nearly half a roll!).  Shortest exposure was about 7 or
8 minutes, if I recall.  Longest was over 15 minutes.  Obviously, the moon
was a little fuzzy due to the long time, but it didn't move so far that it
was no longer a disc.  The Nikormat EL I used had a centerweighted metering
system.

  Sunsets seem to elude me, however...color shifts, unequal light intensity,
etc.

Wow, the moon shot sounds cool, ricky!! How do YOU like it??

We just got back some rainbow shots from near Salida CO. It was a full
180 degree rainbow (with one end on a Texaco station). It had nowhere near
the brilliance of a real rainbow, of course. That would be hard to
capture.

#20:    One of my best shots.  Only one I ever entered in a contest.  I think
        it didn't win because, in those days, zoom lenses were new, and my
        Nikon zoom, however good, did give a bit of "barrel distortion",
        even though you'd have to be a professional with a magnifying glass
        to see it.

        I had it printed but the paper photo is nowhere as brilliant as the
        slide.  Subject is dark and needs the power of the projector lamp
        to really make an impact.

Oh yeah...got my south haven shots back.  a few good ones of the lighthouse.
i got real lucky with the last one taken from the top of the hill.  The sky
is still a bit dusky, and the lights on, with calm water.  The long exposure
made it look really good, but the boats are indistinguishable red and green
streaks.  The second one I got had no boats and is _great_ <patting myself
on the back>.  There is enough reflected light in the long exposure to have
a good reflection of the scene in the calm water, and even light up the
shadowed side of the red lighthouse (east side...I was shooting to the west,
just after sunset) so you can see it is red with black trim.  Can even make
out the silhouettes of the people on the pier and the whole shot is framed
by shadows of trees in the foreground.  this one is a keeper!

Cool!!  Now I want to go out and do more shooting and find some cool
shots of my own!  :-)

I just got back from Budapest and London - 2 weeks.  Took 5 rolls of 36 ea.
I'll get them printed this weekend and I'll see if any are worth discussing.

Also, don't forget the parks & recreation photo contest this year.  They have
a local judging and the top 3 go to state for another judging.  

This item has been linked from Travel 58 to Intro 101.
Type "join travel" at the Ok: prompt for discussion of
travel, around the world, across the street, etc.

Marc, so how'd your London and Budapest pictures turn out??

Early next week, I'l

Oops, sorry about the interuption--I had goten an interuption!!
And yes, the above response is mine, with a slightly different
screen name--for some reason, my account wasn't accepting my password...
so I created a new account, asked one of the staff members how to
getit back, and thus, here I am back with my regular account.

Anyway. I'm going to be going up to the mountains for a few days
[its prime time color change out in the mountains down here] and
I hope to get some nice shooting done. The last time I was out there
[a couple years ago], I had a 'theme'--I had worked in a lot of interesting
'fence' shots.  I'm wracking my brains for something new/different for
this one... I'm sure I'll think of something soon!! [I need to get
out of my rut and learn to be more creative in my shooting!]

Denise, my London and Budapest pictures turned out "pretty good."  I took a
very small pocket camera (Samsung AF slim) and it has all the different
features I need and it did a very good job.  I took several night pictures
in which I just put the camera on a rail, sill, or other flat surface and hit
the self-timer.  Some of the exposures were several seconds, but they turned
out quite pleasing.  Even though the weather was not cooperative in Budapest,
these shots are also good, although none are "great."  I am "composition
challenged."

I also just returned from a trip through Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California,
Arizona, and New Mexico.  I took 3 rolls and I used my best camera (Canon EOS
10s).  I have the Canon lenses also.  This time, a majority of the pictures
were not very good.  Usually, I am hard pressed to take a bad picture with
this camera.  Most of my problems were taken with an extreme wide angle (20-35
mm) zoom lens and the subject was a mixture of speckled sunlight and deep
shade.  Most notably, Sequoya National Forest.  I usually meter the
center-circle of the view-finder on a subject I expect to be properly exposed.
I guess the combination of Fuji 400 film and the extremely big view caused
the poor exposure.  It seems that the sunny spots are overexposed and the
shady spots are underexposed - very high contrast.  I did get a few, however.

Boy, when you see a tree that is 40' in DIAMETER at the base and just short
of 300' tall, you still can't believe what you are seeing.  

I also got a few good sunrise shots over Death Valley from a 6000' point on
the West side.  The only problem with these, is they look like any mountain
sunrise.  They do not say "this is Death Valley."

I hope you do well with your mountain shots.  Please drop us a note and tell
us what theme(s) you developed and how the photos turned out.  btw, fences
don't sound too bad!!

Marc, I'm sorry/feel bad for you that your photos of the trip out west
didn't turn out like you had hoped.  I've been out west and know
how beautiful it is out there... And I know how *I* feel when I think
I've taken some awesome pictures and when I get them back, well, theyre
not so good at all...

I really enjoyed my trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains/Blue Ridge Pkwy.
Though there wasn't enough time to see/do everything along the Pkwy
in just 3 days, I did see a stretch from southern VA [maybe about 40
miles worth] and the northern part of NC [too Linville Falls]. The
colors were wonderful and the weather just perfect; I couldn't have
asked for a better time!!

On my picture 'themes', a couple of the things I worked on were:
--Instead of doing an 'overall' picture that showed everything [like
with a wide angle lense] and not getting as much detail, I "focused"
more on detail--often using my zoom to bring things closer so I could
SEE more in a smaller portion of the overall "picture".  
--I also played around some with using shadows!  Since over the years,
many people that look at my stuff say that I'm never in any of the
photos [because I'm taking them!!], I included several shadows of myself,
kind of a 'self-portrait' so to speak.  I also have some tree shadows...
AND several rather interesting  ones from my 3rd day on the trip when
there were a few of those big fluffy clouds in the sky--and with the
fall cl// colors in the trea//[darn typos!] trees, I have a couple
rather interesting shadows on the nountains [using the clouds to makje
the shadows and the sunny areas].

Because I want to start doing something more with my photos [besides
just having them in boxes or albums], I will be framing a few of these
and hanging them up... There are even a couple that I'm enlarging [8x10]
and will be hanging those up as well.  :-)

Denise - sounds interesting.  Well . . . are we going to get a chance to see
them?  I read elsewherethat you are coming to town.

Yep, Marc, I will be in town probably from either 11/14 or 11/15 til
11/18 or11/19... [Due to my work schedule, I have to come 'home'
during this time to do the family Thanksgiving/Christmas/NY all at once.

So I'll plan on bringing some of the photos with me [my parents said
they wanted to see them, too].  Just keep in mind that I'm no way a
professional phopotographer, but heck, I had fun with them!!  :-)
We'll  have to find a way for us to get together [and anyone else that
may want to show off some photos. I'd like to see some of Marc's, omni's,
and a few other folks here, too!]

hello everybody, guess ijoined pretty late into this. but i guess i pretty
much liked what i read here. I am also an amateur photographer, but most of
my work has been in India. Am looking forward to purchase a new camera . so
suggestions are welcome .
 .

 Welcome Ganesh. It has always been my opinion that the camera is about 10%
of the shot while the photographer is the other 90. I have a cheap $20
Keystone and I have got some nice shots from it. You'll have to come to Ann
Arbor so you can see my pics of West Virginia, perhaps the most picturesque
place on the planet. ;)  <omni is showing his bias again>

Ganesh, do you have access to American photo magazines?  They often do
detailed engineering comparisons, so you can figure out which of the snazzy
add-ons you want to pay for, and which would be less useful.
  But I'm with omni on the 90%-10%.  I still use an old Kodak with no through
the lens metering sometimes when I want a very quiet snap.  And I functioned
well for years with very old Nikons.  

Welcome, Ganesh! I'm looking forward to hearing feedback in many of
these items!

Got my 'vacation' photos back from when I was in Michigan--mostly
'people' pictures... Though I have a couple pictures with a bird in
flight that turned out ok!  


I'm sorry I didn't get to see any of you at Zingerman's while I was in
town; was looking forward to meeting you AND seeing some photos!

 Sorry about that Denise, I was unable to come to Zingie's due to lack of
funding, However, I am planning a trip in late January, and I might come to
Raliegh-Durham, that is, IF I can get greyhound to do what I want.
  Last Jan, when I went to freida's, I went down through Cleveland (the bus
was actually going to Miami), and the next stop from Beckley was Charlotte
NC, so I was figuring that I could go from Ann Arbor to Raliegh, spend a few
days, then come back via Beckley, and visit freida, then back home, or Chicago
as my whim demands ;) 
  There is a special fare, "Anywhere for $118 round trip." and I plan to
exploit it.

Omni, if ya do make it  down my way, be sure to let me know details
like when, where staying and all that!! I'd like to be able to see
ya whenever you're out this way but I'll be moving in January [probably
later in the month], so I may be pretty busy with that moving stuff
to warrant not being too free to visit a whole lot [along with my work
schedule, too...]

 I certainly will let you know. Right now, everything is tenative.

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