How can fish run?
They don't have legs.
Who is ken Rockwell?
I don't know him at all but I tend to agree with hime. I use a Canon T2i with their 18-55 mm and 55-250mm zoom lenses and find them adequate.\
I think many photographers lust for better equipment when the best way to improve their photography would be to improve their own skills and creativity. It is not the camera or the lens that makes the photo it is the photographer. Most of the photos most of us take most of the time could be taken with an inexpensive point and shoot.
If you want a better landscape, search for a better point of view. If you want a better portrait, search or make better light and pose the model carefully.
This does not apply to all photographic situations but is most of us look through the photos we have already made, we will see that a point and shoot could have made most of them.
Outside of course!
I have made photographs in Kapuskasing, Ontario at -40 F or C they are the same at this temp.
If that sounds too harsh, drive around in the car and roll your window down. (Be sure to park safely first.)
For inside, try greenhouses for plants and flowers, or buy flowers and take them home.
Also try zoos, indoor malls where permitted, sports venues, museums (but not art galleries!)
Have you considered a macro photo of the slides at 1:1?
Many years ago I used someone's arrangement set up for this very purpose. It worked very well. Of course that was in the days of film.
I used the Panasonic FZ series cameras for quite a while.
I was pleased with the images it produced. It was a bit lacking on the burst mode but check to see if the latest can shoot burst mode in RAW. The zoom features were one of the selling points.
I graduated to a Cannon T2i because I wanted remote control, filter mounts and bulb mode.
However check out the features on the newer FZ cameras.
If you can select the little girl, you could move her to the right in the photo and crop to exclude all the background except the grass then blur the grass.
Instead of getting your grand daughter to pose. sit down on the floor or a low chair at her level and watch her play. Take photos when she is so engrossed in play she is ignoring you.
Candid shots of children being themselves are nearly always better than posed photos.
Hello Lindamac,
I travel through Peterborough on my way to and from the cottage.
last year I joined a group from Peterborough on Scott Kelby's World Wide Photo Walk. Great people there.
Brian :)
Hello Farmer Jim,
Did you know that Whitby Yorkshire and Whitby, Ontario are twinned. My daughter went there on a school exchange with her school band.
Brian
Many years ago I read a tip getting stars. Place a piece of ordinary window screen between two filter reducing rings to produce a 4 point 'star' two pieces at an angle to each other produce an 8 point 'star' the best part is that there is no glass to otherwise affect your image.
Another advantage is the ability to easily adjust the angle(s) of the star points.
If you want to try this experimentally, just hold the window screen tightly to the front surface of the lens. I recommend you use fibreglass screen; it is less likely to scratch your lens.
Are you using autofocus?
If so which mode?
Have you tried focusing manually?
Autofocus is frequently "fooled" because it focuses on the wrong point(s)
Answering these questions might help someone figure out what is going wrong. Misalignment of the lens or a misaligned sensor do not seem likely to me.
A couple of sample images may also help.
I am using Adobe Photoshop CS4, PSE 6, Corel PS Pro X4, and Corel AfterShot Pro.
I like all of them for different reasons. For organizing photos I find the organizer of PSE hard to beat. It also is fairly good (and much easier to use) than Photoshop CS4 but is not as powerful.
It is however, powerful enough for most of my uses except for some tricky selections.
I got an offer from Corel for PaintShop Pro that was too good to ignore so I tried it on their 30 day free trial and liked it well enough to buy it.
Similarly the offer on AfterShot Pro was also too good to ignore. (Both were half price and their full prices are both less than $100.)
I shoot in RAW and find AfterShot Pro to be far superior to Adobe Camera Raw. I have never used Lightroom so I can't make a valid comparison.
If you are planning to buy any Corel products, I encourage you to get on their mailing list. They frequently have fantastic savings on their already very reasonable prices.
One downside I have found with Corel Products is a lack of good documentation. Corel products however are quite intuitive and if you have some idea about the procedure you want to do, it is usually fairly easy to figure out. Corel also has a forum where you can get help from other users.
I suggest you try their free 30 day trials and wait for a good price.
hello,
I just want to introduce myself. I am a retired science teacher who enjoys photography and landscape painting.
I have been enjoying both since my teen years.
I hope I can help others and in tern learn from others on this site.