[Itsed65]

Originally Posted by dcstep

MORE POWER!!

I am really looking forward to this weekend!

On a different note, does anyone know what kind of geese these are?


Honk Honk by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[IRide]

^^^^^

Good work Ed. As for the ID, perhaps scaup?

Here's one from my recent drive to Denver. The device in the background is "Big Brutus", a huge (2nd largest in the world) electric shovel used in coal strip mining. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brutus

[Itsed65]

^^^
That's a big shovel! Very nice magic hour light!


Here's one from last Sunday. There were raptors everywhere, but mostly too far away.

Northern Harrier Hunting at Drake's Beach by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[M_Six]

Wow, it's amazing how many different raptors you get to see, Ed. Here you can find red tails by the highway and if you're lucky, eagles by the lake. But neither of them are very accessible. I know of one northern harrier out at a nature center, but it's a bit camera shy. Finding any raptor to shoot around here is purely by chance. Slim ones at that.

Great shot of the harrier.

[M_Six]

...cause every little thing gonna be alright...

[Itsed65]

Nice shot Mark, love the background. Yes, I know I'm lucky with the amount of raptors around here, especially this time of year as they are all migrating down the coast. I can't wait to get the 500mm this weekend. I just got confirmation that it shipped from lensrentals

Red-tails are probably the most common hawk in the USA. I have more shots of them than anything else except maybe the white tailed kites that live down the street from me!


Closing In by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[IRide]

[M_Six]

Can you get a shot of the business end of that thing? Is it in use there or just on display?

[dcstep]

[QUOTE=ddk632;14913550
There's a story here, I'll probably make a thread later. Short version - my buddy's opening up a store (GC Vapes, in Delray Beach, FL - selling vapor/e-cig stuff) and they've printed 8 of my shots and put them up on the walls.

This is a shot of 4 of them...

Pretty stoked to see my photography hanging somewhere other than my house [/QUOTE]

Very nice David. I'm working to get my shots in other spaces than my own office and home. Easier said than done, but I've been building a relationship with a interior designer that does commercial offices and I've got a printer that is incredibly good and price-competitive.

Dave

[IRide]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Can you get a shot of the business end of that thing? Is it in use there or just on display?

Big Brutus is now on static display in West Mineral, KS. Here's some other info regarding this behemoth. http://kansastravel.org/bigbrutus.htm

[ddk632]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Very nice David. I'm working to get my shots in other spaces than my own office and home. Easier said than done, but I've been building a relationship with a interior designer that does commercial offices and I've got a printer that is incredibly good and price-competitive.

Dave

Thanks Dave,

It's a pretty awesome feeling walking in there and seeing the large prints.

I've never sold any of my work (I know you have) and that's one of my next goals to figure out.

This was a fluke pretty much, my friend decided to open the store and he and his partners looked over my photos and decided to use them. So I had a connection

Doing it otherwise I can think would be hard indeed, but I like your approach to work with an interior designer to get the "in".

For the snapshot, a detail of the counter at GC Vapes retail store:


GC Vapes Counter Detail by ddk632, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by ddk632

Thanks Dave,

It's a pretty awesome feeling walking in there and seeing the large prints.

I've never sold any of my work (I know you have) and that's one of my next goals to figure out.

This was a fluke pretty much, my friend decided to open the store and he and his partners looked over my photos and decided to use them. So I had a connection

Doing it otherwise I can think would be hard indeed, but I like your approach to work with an interior designer to get the "in".

I know what you mean. Even seeing 50" prints in my own office is pretty exciting and then having my printer and the designer saying my stuff is better than what she put in her last building is even more encouraging.

I have sold stuff, but it's been really spotty. I'll have a big month on Getty and then go months with absolutely nothing, then someone will contact me directly and buy a print at a good margin. It's nothing that I can even count on to fund equipment, much less pay the rent.

Two elements that I've been zeroing in on are the printer and designer contact. You need a high quality printer that will work at cost levels that leave you some margin. Without that, you'll need to invest in equipment to do it yourself or accept lower to non-existent margins by using online printers. The big printers cost a fortune and must be run regularly to keep them operational.

A designer that is loading whole buildings may be the best sales source. Gallery rent and commissions make that a break even prospect unless you have a really popular print that sells several times per month. I still haven't given up on Stock, since my few sales are usually to high exposure kinds of buyers (Wall Street Journal and big advertising agencies) but they've been irregular. I'll stick with that at least two more years and the liscense does allow me to sell the same images as "products". I just can't sell the file so long as it's listed with Getty.

Going at it part-time, I can't complain. Unless you do wedding and/or senior pix, it's really tough to pay the rent with photography. All the guys that I've found doing nature and travel all have other jobs (printers, installers, post-processors, tour guides, etc.). John Fielder is the exception, but he's been at it 30-years and puts out a big book every other year and runs two galleries, etc..

Anyway, it's fun for now. My "real" job makes WAY more money and it's also fun. I hope that I can increase my photography income level in 2014 enough to put it on Schedule C of my tax return and deduct a 1D X and a Series II super-telephoto.

Dave

[ddk632]

Originally Posted by dcstep

I know what you mean. Even seeing 50" prints in my own office is pretty exciting and then having my printer and the designer saying my stuff is better than what she put in her last building is even more encouraging.

I have sold stuff, but it's been really spotty. I'll have a big month on Getty and then go months with absolutely nothing, then someone will contact me directly and buy a print at a good margin. It's nothing that I can even count on to fund equipment, much less pay the rent.

Two elements that I've been zeroing in on are the printer and designer contact. You need a high quality printer that will work at cost levels that leave you some margin. Without that, you'll need to invest in equipment to do it yourself or accept lower to non-existent margins by using online printers. The big printers cost a fortune and must be run regularly to keep them operational.

A designer that is loading whole buildings may be the best sales source. Gallery rent and commissions make that a break even prospect unless you have a really popular print that sells several times per month. I still haven't given up on Stock, since my few sales are usually to high exposure kinds of buyers (Wall Street Journal and big advertising agencies) but they've been irregular. I'll stick with that at least two more years and the liscense does allow me to sell the same images as "products". I just can't sell the file so long as it's listed with Getty.

Going at it part-time, I can't complain. Unless you do wedding and/or senior pix, it's really tough to pay the rent with photography. All the guys that I've found doing nature and travel all have other jobs (printers, installers, post-processors, tour guides, etc.). John Fielder is the exception, but he's been at it 30-years and puts out a big book every other year and runs two galleries, etc..

Anyway, it's fun for now. My "real" job makes WAY more money and it's also fun. I hope that I can increase my photography income level in 2014 enough to put it on Schedule C of my tax return and deduct a 1D X and a Series II super-telephoto.

Dave

Excellent insight, Dave, thanks.

On the gallery idea, yeah, it's for the top of the top. Definitely would be cool to do someday but would need a lot of force behind my name to even make it worthwhile.

I never (really, never) wanted to make photography a profession, and still don't. I consider it a passion, which in my view is not just a hobby but more like a labor of love. Hobbies come and go but this has been a part of me since I was a kid, and I don't see it ever going away.

As for the profession, you're right, there's simply not enough money in it. But for a personal achievement sense, I love the idea of selling prints because in a way that's recognition. People want your vision and are willing to pay for it. That's gotta be a great feeling!

Eventually I'd like to be good enough to have that sort of recognition and do more and more travel photo trips, like my Iceland trip back in '08 which was awesome. That and I've been eyeing the idea of publishing a photo coffee table book with a theme of sorts.

Doing weddings or anything of similar nature wouldn't be my thing at all. My entire interest and love for photography is based on what I see and how I want to convey it. In other words, being forced to shoot stuff I don't find interesting, or in a way I don't prefer, for a client, would kill the passion pretty quickly. Besides, I do enough of that kind of selling out in my programming profession

Having some fun tonight: 6D multiple exposure with fisheye, 5 total exposures, 30 seconds each, 3 different focal lenghts

Eye of the Fish (EOS 6D Multiple Exposure) by ddk632, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Very interesting fisheye concept.

My fisheye is the 15mm, 180-degree diagonal fisheye. It won't do a circle, but it covers 180-degrees on the diagonal. I was really interested in the 8=15mm, but I wanted to be able to de-fish some of the images, as I do around 90% of the time now.

It's great for big-sky shots, like this:


Storm warning... by dcstep, on Flickr

Dave

[dcstep]

David, have you tried a slow-shutter zoom with that lens? Here's one of mine with the 24-105mm. (I like to zoom out). I got lucky and there's lots of color against the blacks. It looks fantastic as a large print:


Hot trumpet solo... by dcstep, on Flickr

[ddk632]

I like that big weather shot... nope haven't tried the zoom thing yet, just been getting my feet wet. I want to find some cool building interior that the fisheye can warp and still make it nice. And try the zoom thing

The 8-15 is fully circular at 8mm, then as you go longer it fills the top and bottom of the frame leaving smaller vignetting on the sides, and by just past 14mm fills the frame fully.

So I am thinking I can de-fish the 14mm shots. What I'd like to do is take the fisheye and my TS-E 17, stick them on the tripod and shoot the same subject with the fisheye at 14mm, then de-fish and see how much more field of view I get. I suspect de-fishing will lose some field of view (I remember looking at your de-fished images a few weeks or so ago) but I don't know if it'll lose 3mm worth of it...

Basically that test would tell me if there's a point to de-fishing for extra wide images, or if my TS-E 17 will get me 99% of a de-fished 14mm image from the fisheye.

Man, there's something fishy about this whole thing!

Here's what a 14mm shot looks like, fills the frame, not de-fished. The vignette around the corners in this image was added in LR5, it's not from the lens. The lens is pretty good about not falling off in the corners.


Trails of Light by ddk632, on Flickr

[dcstep]

What I find about de-fishing is that it sometimes will smear the corners. I went from a Sigma to a Canon lens and that aspect improved, but it's still an issue. I'll bet that your 17mm TS-E is going to be way, way better in the corners.

My software will correct the 17mm TS-E, so I'm really tempted to get it. I use my 15mm so much, I think that I'll go crazy with the 17mm. I may borrow one from CPS to check it out.

Dave

[ddk632]

It's an awesome lens. The only thing is with the fisheye, I found 17 to be too long

What exactly would the software correct from the TS-E 17?

[Itsed65]

Tomales Point by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by ddk632

..

What exactly would the software correct from the TS-E 17?

Not a lot. What little CA is left, any lens/body error, the slight barrel and pincushion still left.

Dave

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Itsed65

I am really looking forward to this weekend!

On a different note, does anyone know what kind of geese these are?

Are you sure they're not big ducks? I don't know of a goose like that.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Itsed65

Tomales Point by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Classic shot Ed. That's a gallery shot in a very large size. Wall hanger...