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The "Post a Picture You Took" thread


Patricio Swayze

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I posted this in the vintage stereo thread too. I studied composition a little after college.  
 

I like how the lines lead the eye and the colors are cool.  It’s unedited, so it could be improved with some lighting adjustments.  
 

Any comments on my amateur effort appreciated. 
 

 

14A0CD1A-3BF6-40A3-BF3D-77980DFB111B.jpeg

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Just got this great book in the mail by John Free. He spent much of the 1970’s documenting the hobos in the LA train yard. Great shots, interesting stories and I like he included technical notes.

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Link to his portfolio and the site where it can be purchased. 
 

https://johnfreephotography.com/portfolio/

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Despite how many travelers I photograph, I am rather shy about taking people's photos.  There is a small, old school looking barber shop in the heart of the 5th Ward that I have wanted to photograph for a long time, but never have the balls to approach the owner.  Today was the day, unfortunately, he shot me down.  He wasn't rude about it, but he just didn't want his photo taken.  I can only imagine the stories that have been told inside this place.  After he declined my photo, I asked if I could shoot through the window, and he was ok with that.  I actually really like the photo because it has a nice reflection, shows the colors of the painted window sign and him holding a newspaper with the Astros win on the front.  This was shot with my new nifty fifty lens.  I swapped out my old cheapo for the new RF mount cheapo.

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I don't document graffiti as much as I used to, but I liked this autorack.

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Last weekend I saw this guy pull up to a gas station in Kashmere Gardens.  He got out of the car without a shirt and was tatt'ed up (even more than myself) and I told him I liked the car and wanted to take a pic.  He was really cool about it.  I regret not getting his portrait.  I took a couple of shots, but liked the one with a guy in an all red outfit walking by.  I am going to post the solo car shot in the classic car thread.

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A few more from those recent rolls:

Pentax 6x7, 105mm, Ilford Delta 100

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Canon AE-1, 50mm, Fujicolor 200 pushed 1.5 stops (the other fujicolor shots in my previous post were also pushed 1.5 stops).  I took the same photo with the Pentax, but I like this version more.

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Pentax 6x7, 105mm, Ektar 100

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Fantastic work Anton.  I see the climber in blue in that one shot.  Really great stuff.

Unrelated, some stuff I have been grappling with regarding photography and social media.  Rant incoming to get things off my chest.

I have made it quite apparent over the years that I don't like instagram, yet I continue to use it.  At first, it was mostly from a technical perspective.  I hated that there was no true landscape format (forced square).  Then it was the image quality that one's photos were degraded to.  I have taken extended breaks from the app before.  But I return because of the size of the network and there are also some photographers that I genuinely love to follow.  But lately, I have started to feel that instagram is a net negative for photography.  I think it is just fine for keeping friends and family in the loop with photos of your kids, or even stupid dance videos or the latest tiktok like trend.  But for photography, I feel it hurts the art more than helps it.  From the idea of "likes" and how a number somehow validates one's work (and rewires people's brains) to censorship and on to the idea of "content".  I am trying to take a step back from the app and wish I could just drop it altogether.  In theory, it seems like a great idea, but in practice it is harmful.  I wish you could turn off likes, as in, there is no button for someone to like a photo.  I hate that people (myself included) just scroll and scroll and scroll...then can barely remember what they just looked at.  It is consumerism in its worst form.

All while I was thinking about this stuff, I came across videos of a fellow longhorn and former photojournalist, Daniel Milnor on youtube.  He has VERY strong opinions about photography and social media which more or less validated my feelings.  But on the other hand, I can appreciate the reach of such a network.  When I made my last book, Instagram was great for promoting and selling it.  I am working on another and not sure how else to get it to the people that may want it if I drop Instagram.

Anyways...just needed to type stuff out and get it off my chest.  Are any of y'all familiar with Dan Milnor?  What are y'all's thoughts on Instagram and social media when it comes to photography?

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Thanks for the kind words.

I pretty much agree with you fully. I hardly use Instagram. At least as a producer. I use it as a consumer maybe 3-5 times a week.

It’s a lot of damn effort, too. I’m only 32 but it feels like it has already passed me by! Haha. Going to go yell at a cloud now.

I haven’t heard of Dan. I’ll look him up.

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27 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Fantastic work Anton.  I see the climber in blue in that one shot.  Really great stuff.

Unrelated, some stuff I have been grappling with regarding photography and social media.  Rant incoming to get things off my chest.

I have made it quite apparent over the years that I don't like instagram, yet I continue to use it.  At first, it was mostly from a technical perspective.  I hated that there was no true landscape format (forced square).  Then it was the image quality that one's photos were degraded to.  I have taken extended breaks from the app before.  But I return because of the size of the network and there are also some photographers that I genuinely love to follow.  But lately, I have started to feel that instagram is a net negative for photography.  I think it is just fine for keeping friends and family in the loop with photos of your kids, or even stupid dance videos or the latest tiktok like trend.  But for photography, I feel it hurts the art more than helps it.  From the idea of "likes" and how a number somehow validates one's work (and rewires people's brains) to censorship and on to the idea of "content".  I am trying to take a step back from the app and wish I could just drop it altogether.  In theory, it seems like a great idea, but in practice it is harmful.  I wish you could turn off likes, as in, there is no button for someone to like a photo.  I hate that people (myself included) just scroll and scroll and scroll...then can barely remember what they just looked at.  It is consumerism in its worst form.

All while I was thinking about this stuff, I came across videos of a fellow longhorn and former photojournalist, Daniel Milnor on youtube.  He has VERY strong opinions about photography and social media which more or less validated my feelings.  But on the other hand, I can appreciate the reach of such a network.  When I made my last book, Instagram was great for promoting and selling it.  I am working on another and not sure how else to get it to the people that may want it if I drop Instagram.

Anyways...just needed to type stuff out and get it off my chest.  Are any of y'all familiar with Dan Milnor?  What are y'all's thoughts on Instagram and social media when it comes to photography?

Instagram is great for people to get a glimpse of your work and then head over to your website, or Flickr or whatever you want to promote your real work.  Granted, people have to get off their ass but it's great to direct others who want to see more.  Maybe even label your work accordingly so that viewers know when they see it that there's more to it than what's being presented in Instagram.  I love looking up painters that I wouldn't know about if it weren't for Instagram, but I don't stop there.  

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I don't do instagram at all. I keep my social media limited to facebook, and even there I keep a low personal profile and don't post that many photos. I read a few message boards for sports and music and stuff, and occasionally display some of my  photos in threads, like here. I have my own web host and use it to post stuff on boards, and I don't even have a web gallery on it any more. But I like having control over how my web posted photos look, the size and easy access with small files with file names and directories I can create myself so I can remember them without having to go somewhere and copy and past a bunch of urls.

The picture thing I really hate is pintrest. It used to seem like a way to get ideas about different things, but it's just a clunky clusterfuck of everybody's shit that never ends so people can whore their stuff out.

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6 hours ago, DougO said:

The picture thing I really hate is pintrest. It used to seem like a way to get ideas about different things, but it's just a clunky clusterfuck of everybody's shit that never ends so people can whore their stuff out.

What I hate about Pinterest is that it doesn't give much information about images posted--when was it created, what's the title and dimensions?  And you're right about it being a never-ending cluster.  

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Just saw that Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 is on sale for &$59 at Adorama. Kinda ticks me off after paying $100 for 2021 at Best Buy a few weeks ago when I had to have something.

In the end, it had some decent basic stuff, but the reason I bought it was not being chained to fucking Adobe's Creative Clould beatdown. Then it turns out it still installs with an adobe cc interface that just wastes your time. Once you figure out how to by pass the CC bullshit form a different icon it still prompts you to log in to Adobe to use it, where it changes your permissions to "steal my soul with my blessings, you Satanic commie motherfuckers."

So, needless to say I don't recommend it. Wish I had maybe found an oldass version that will still run without all the bullshit.

And GIMP is actually better, more functional, a bit clunky but much better after I set up some keyboard shortcuts. 

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Then the other day I get a message from Nikon that there is an update to their Capture NX2 software. I downloaded the install then just before starting I looked at the terms, which stated it is owned by Adobe and the whole thing about stealing your soul.

Fuck that shit. It actually looked pretty dang good for raw and a lot of people liked it better than Lightroom.

 

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2 hours ago, DougO said:

Just saw that Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 is on sale for &$59 at Adorama. Kinda ticks me off after paying $100 for 2021 at Best Buy a few weeks ago when I had to have something.

In the end, it had some decent basic stuff, but the reason I bought it was not being chained to fucking Adobe's Creative Clould beatdown. Then it turns out it still installs with an adobe cc interface that just wastes your time. Once you figure out how to by pass the CC bullshit form a different icon it still prompts you to log in to Adobe to use it, where it changes your permissions to "steal my soul with my blessings, you Satanic commie motherfuckers."

So, needless to say I don't recommend it. Wish I had maybe found an oldass version that will still run without all the bullshit.

And GIMP is actually better, more functional, a bit clunky but much better after I set up some keyboard shortcuts. 

I am still using a "borrowed" copy that is a few years old.  I think that is all I will need. 

I am trying to figure out where to spend money I shouldn't is replacing my wide angle lens with an RF mount version.  But I am not trying to break the bank, so looking at 3rd party lenses.  But I am not in love with any of them.

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I don't think there's been anything new in the "pro" version of elements in about a decade. That's the basic tools without the cutesy auto filters and shit, some of which I'm sure could be useful. But there are a few tools and options in it that I used regularly, like the real curves tool and shadow/highlight control. My CS3 was about 14 years old and I never needed anything else. I'm still considering fixing my old windows 7 machine from the last image I stored just so I can use it. I do OK with GIMP but some of the tools are clunky and limited and some of the parameters, like unsharp mask settings, don't relate to PS so you have to figure it out all over again trial and error. Neither has the easy freehand cropping tool and arbitrary rotate on the fly, and cropping to both x and y dimensions at once. The text tool in GIMP is weird. It all works but it's just harder and more time consuming when editing a batch of photos, so I am less inclined to do it.

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Tokina makes some real nice wide angle zooms. My old 11-16 DX f2.8 is very sharp, but I rarely use it, but great value for the price. It has been replaced by an 11-20 that gets similar reviews and they have a few different ranges.
 

I had that Tokina 11-16 when I shot on a 7D. I liked it. I might’ve gotten the 11-20 but went with a native 16-35 instead.


Sorry, I meant I am trying to replace my core lenses with RF mount lenses so that I don’t have to keep switching the adaptor. 2 weeks ago I replaced my 50mm with the new RF version. I can’t afford to replace the 100-400mm, so I’d like to just keep the adaptor mounted to it and have a RF mount wide, 50mm and the RF 24-105mm.

I was looking at the Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 RF but am conflicted if I want a prime wide. I probably do, but I guess I am so used to my 12-24mm sigma I am second guessing myself.
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Just iPhone photos but I wanted to post somewhere. I love being in Prague for Freedom and Democracy Day, which marks the Velvet Revolution and also 1939 students protests against Nazis. They do it right: trams set up like they might have been in 1989 with lectures about the protests, old Eastern Bloc cars with TVs showing interviews about trying to flee across the curtain, police re-enactors that “abuse” the people protesting (and swallow a lot of return jeers). And my man Vaclav Havel. Anyway here are the photos and if you are a commie and reading this, fuck you. 
 

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