This never happened to me before
Feb 18, 2015 12:37:19 #
flathead27ford wrote:
Fantastic photo. I love the San Diego Zoo. You could spend three complete days and not see it all. I have never been to the other. It never ceases to amaze me what people assume just from your gear. :-) Cheers. And Dang it, I lost my Regular status yesterday. I hate when that happens. Sorry for the double post. I hit reply to my own message instead of edit. Ugh, is it Monday?
Thank you flathead. Of the two parks I prefer the safari Park. The enclosures there are a little more photo friendly than at the zoo.
Feb 18, 2015 12:38:28 #
Mrsmoses wrote:
A beautiful shot and a beautiful couple..
Thank you Mrsmoses. I'm glad you liked the photo.
Feb 18, 2015 12:44:49 #
larryzplace wrote:
Great shot.... very nice lens... Congrats on being the resident Xpert photographer..... I often find people in large groups especially in downtown Chicago routinely hand me cameras and say please take my picture? And often say "oh you have a professional camera it must take great pictures" I am sure you can take a good picture of us.... I just smile and take the picture they want.... :thumbup: :thumbup:
Thank you Larry. I find staying buried behind the viewfinder keeps people from asking me to take their picture.
Feb 18, 2015 12:46:48 #
timepass wrote:
:) :-) :D :-D Beautiful shot.
Thank you timepass. I appreciate the compliment.
Feb 18, 2015 12:51:04 #
jeep_daddy wrote:
I was there last Friday too. Got there when it opened and saw the Lemurs, Gorilla, Tigers, Lions and Cheetahs. They were all active too. That was rare. In fact, there was a guy there with a lens like yours at the Lion exhibit that might have been you. He was set up there for quite a while. I only brought my 70-200 f/2.8 with a 1.4 and a 2x because I didn't feel like lugging around my big lens that day.
If you were at the lion exhibit between 9-11am than that was me you saw.
Feb 18, 2015 13:33:55 #
jkm757 wrote:
I've been a member of the San Diego Zoo and the Sa... (show quote)
Very interesting story and great shot.
Craig
Feb 18, 2015 13:53:09 #
Well, one way or another, size can matter...
If you don't want that kind of attention (sometimes it's counter-productive), get a Micro-Four-Thirds system. Lenses are 1/3 to 1/4 the size of their FF equivalents, with weight and bulk savings to match.
If you don't want that kind of attention (sometimes it's counter-productive), get a Micro-Four-Thirds system. Lenses are 1/3 to 1/4 the size of their FF equivalents, with weight and bulk savings to match.
Feb 18, 2015 14:01:02 #
jkm757 wrote:
I've been a member of the San Diego Zoo and the Sa... (show quote)
Great shot...Ken and Dixie are beautiful.
Feb 18, 2015 14:17:24 #
Bugfan
Loc: Toronto, Canada
About forty years ago I was by myself in the bush when I found a really enchanting clump of mushrooms under a log. The image looked like something from a Disney cartoon. The location was terrible, poor light, wet mud, a tiny subject but I went for it anyway.
I set up a few mirrors in strategic locations to illuminate my subject under the log. I set my macro tripod flat to the ground, mounted my bellows on it, then a long macro lens and of course the camera. I then lay in the mud at that point and moved the assembly back and forth until I had a good shot and clear focus. I adjusted the odd mirror too.
It took me a good half hour to set that shot up. Throughout that time I was so focused that the world ceased to exist. Finally I got to the point where I smiled and took my first picture. More slipping about and adjusting the gear and I took my second picture. Another twenty minutes passed at which point I was done. I sighed, raised myself stiffly from the mud with a degree of relief, stretched, looked about and realized I had drawn an audience. I have no idea where these people came from, I thought I was alone, but there were about fifty people standing there watching me in awe.
Well ... I had to do the obvious thing, I let everyone take a peek through the viewfinder before I took the gear apart. They were happy with that opportunity and also most impressed. And after the show and tell, the questions started to gush from them like water from a bursting dam.
Overall that picture cost me ninety minutes before everything was taken apart, stowed and I was able to move on to another subject.
That was the first time I had ever drawn an audience. And it wasn't the last time. I find if you set up a complicated rig like a macro lens, a bellows and a camera, maybe a few reflectors too, people assume you have to be a professional and that you're doing something exotic. If you're carrying a largish camera with a motor drive and a big lens on it people assume you are a professional too. If you're taking pictures of exotic things they never noticed, that makes you a professional as well. Hell, even just setting up a tripod is sometimes enough to qualify you as a professional.
On the other hand if you're just walking about seeming to take snapshots here an there with an average looking camera, you become invisible and nobody will notice you or care whether you live or die.
I prefer being invisible personally. The first time I got an audience I was surprised and a I felt flattered but even that day it rapidly became a nuisance and it's stayed that way ever since. I do help people take pictures, I have a number of protégés for that but they join me on my terms, the audiences I've attracted aren't like that.
Since then when I am doing something complicated in the field I'm there at six in the morning for the dawn. Only another dedicated photographer is crazy enough to be out at time of day and that kind of person understands what you're trying to do and leaves you alone respecting your space and your silence, letting you be creative without interference.
Alas, there are times when I am out at noon or in the afternoon and at that point I sometimes draw an audience again. I try to stay alone by avoiding eye contact and scowling, but that doesn't always work, some people just feel they have to ask you about whatever is vexing them. So sometimes I don't try to fight it, I just sit down and chat with the people instead. It's often the fastest way to be rid of them and it does make them happy too. When they have their answers they tend to leave you alone. Well almost, sometimes their kids follow me about after the talk but they're usually ok.
It's always fascinated me how people assume your sophistication by the camera you're carrying and the complexity of the shot you're trying to make. I recall a pianist one time who I knew. He played all kinds of stuff and he always pointed out that the passages that seemed simplest of all were often the most difficult to play. So it is with photography too. Some of the pictures I've taken that seem so really simple were actually the most complex I've encountered. And those aren't usually done with all the gear, just a simple prime lens and a reasonably good SLR. Those don't get you labeled as a pro, and they don't get you an audience either. And yet that's exactly the time when people should be paying attention.
What a topsy turvy world we live in Eh?
I set up a few mirrors in strategic locations to illuminate my subject under the log. I set my macro tripod flat to the ground, mounted my bellows on it, then a long macro lens and of course the camera. I then lay in the mud at that point and moved the assembly back and forth until I had a good shot and clear focus. I adjusted the odd mirror too.
It took me a good half hour to set that shot up. Throughout that time I was so focused that the world ceased to exist. Finally I got to the point where I smiled and took my first picture. More slipping about and adjusting the gear and I took my second picture. Another twenty minutes passed at which point I was done. I sighed, raised myself stiffly from the mud with a degree of relief, stretched, looked about and realized I had drawn an audience. I have no idea where these people came from, I thought I was alone, but there were about fifty people standing there watching me in awe.
Well ... I had to do the obvious thing, I let everyone take a peek through the viewfinder before I took the gear apart. They were happy with that opportunity and also most impressed. And after the show and tell, the questions started to gush from them like water from a bursting dam.
Overall that picture cost me ninety minutes before everything was taken apart, stowed and I was able to move on to another subject.
That was the first time I had ever drawn an audience. And it wasn't the last time. I find if you set up a complicated rig like a macro lens, a bellows and a camera, maybe a few reflectors too, people assume you have to be a professional and that you're doing something exotic. If you're carrying a largish camera with a motor drive and a big lens on it people assume you are a professional too. If you're taking pictures of exotic things they never noticed, that makes you a professional as well. Hell, even just setting up a tripod is sometimes enough to qualify you as a professional.
On the other hand if you're just walking about seeming to take snapshots here an there with an average looking camera, you become invisible and nobody will notice you or care whether you live or die.
I prefer being invisible personally. The first time I got an audience I was surprised and a I felt flattered but even that day it rapidly became a nuisance and it's stayed that way ever since. I do help people take pictures, I have a number of protégés for that but they join me on my terms, the audiences I've attracted aren't like that.
Since then when I am doing something complicated in the field I'm there at six in the morning for the dawn. Only another dedicated photographer is crazy enough to be out at time of day and that kind of person understands what you're trying to do and leaves you alone respecting your space and your silence, letting you be creative without interference.
Alas, there are times when I am out at noon or in the afternoon and at that point I sometimes draw an audience again. I try to stay alone by avoiding eye contact and scowling, but that doesn't always work, some people just feel they have to ask you about whatever is vexing them. So sometimes I don't try to fight it, I just sit down and chat with the people instead. It's often the fastest way to be rid of them and it does make them happy too. When they have their answers they tend to leave you alone. Well almost, sometimes their kids follow me about after the talk but they're usually ok.
It's always fascinated me how people assume your sophistication by the camera you're carrying and the complexity of the shot you're trying to make. I recall a pianist one time who I knew. He played all kinds of stuff and he always pointed out that the passages that seemed simplest of all were often the most difficult to play. So it is with photography too. Some of the pictures I've taken that seem so really simple were actually the most complex I've encountered. And those aren't usually done with all the gear, just a simple prime lens and a reasonably good SLR. Those don't get you labeled as a pro, and they don't get you an audience either. And yet that's exactly the time when people should be paying attention.
What a topsy turvy world we live in Eh?
Feb 18, 2015 14:25:13 #
Bugfan, easy is hard, right? The simplest results often require the most thought and the most "process" to achieve.
Intensity of purpose, of focus, and the concentration and effort they entail, will often draw attention... wanted or otherwise.
Intensity of purpose, of focus, and the concentration and effort they entail, will often draw attention... wanted or otherwise.
Feb 18, 2015 14:27:23 #
The only question I was ever asked by some one was, "Can you please get out of the way?".
Feb 18, 2015 15:21:42 #
Feb 18, 2015 16:07:17 #
Feb 18, 2015 16:48:38 #
Feb 18, 2015 18:21:29 #
Now this I can believe!!!!!!!!:)
tainkc wrote:
The only question I was ever asked by some one was, "Can you please get out of the way?".
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