This is very cool. Great idea Warren!
And some excellent shots guys!
Like some here I used to be very involved in 35mm photography. Studied
photography along with art in High School and College. Did my own dark room
work (B/W), developing and printing. I have trays full of slides from my travels.
Kind of slowed up on it over the years. Gave my original Olympus OM1 to my
older son who used it a lot ... until we bought him a digital SLR upon
graduation from college last year. That, along with this forum has got my
interest warming up, again. All of what I shoot now is with a couple of
point-and-shoot cameras. I've always been interested in composition as might
be seen in this simple shot (with a Canon SD600 point n' shoot) of the Duomo
in Florence, Italy.

Cool Picture Tony, Photo Composition is a whole realm on it's own.


Warren,

That's a good question. Everything on the camera was on Auto but I had to overcome a couple of obstacles. First, there was not enough ambient light to do much of anything but I knew the flash would yield a reasonably good picture but there was not enough light for the auto-focus to lock in. With the camera auto-focus pattern set for Center I illuminated the flower head with a hand-held spotlight in one hand and the camera in the other. After the lens focused I locked the focus it by depressing the capture button half way, then released the button on the hand-held light and fired the camera w/flash. It took a couple of attempts but this is what I ended up with. As it was, I ended up with a shutter speed of 1/40 sec. which is not ideal. A tripod and some more artificial lighting would have made it much easier but I didn't want to illuminate the background too much. This is what I mean when I say experiment with your camera. It's Free.

Close-ups of Christmas Tree ornaments can be fun too.

I took several pictures at the pond on my property this afternoon experimenting with different exposures and settings. While the first is in color, I wondered how B&W would look. While we live in a color world, the B&W photo looks better to me. I traveled all over the shoreline this afternoon looking for ducks. A sunny but windy day kept the ducks from the shallows. Maybe next week.

Best,
Warren

B&W Photo

Nicely done Ansel.
This is a great thread Warren. You and Tom are to be commended!

Kevin

Kevin,

Thanks for vote of confidence. This is only going to work if everyone participates. So, we need everyone to start snapping! There's no right or wrong here only friends.

Best,
Warren

I have not posted anything new in a while.... but here are a few .... play the slide shows with sound up.

http://albums.phanfare.com/tunefink

Mitchell,

Thanks for posting the link to your personal collection. I have only watched a couple so far and had to stop to post this. The photos and whole presentation and everything are beautiful, just beautiful. That took some imagination and talent not to mention the time, photographic and computer skills.

Thanks For Your Contribution To The Thread

Warren,

Those are great shots and keepers. I think I favor the B&W one. I really like the reflection on the water. Winter pictures in B&W seen so appropriate.