"Thou shalt not kill" is in the Bible? That didn't stop the Inquisition, the Crusades or the Haulocaust now did it?

I think you may be applying the Christian standards to the wrong television show. The main character has been bent on revenge from the inception of the show. He stated his intentions clearly numerous times as well. The character is clearly based on a Satanistic personna.

I think that his choice to strangle Red John foreshadows the resurgence of the character; either through survival of the character or by deception on his part. Either way, I wish the Red John character would go away. The series could morph into something better without a mysterious antagonist.

The first photo, the subject looks uncomfortable and the shot is overpowered by the horses. The rest of the pics, I like the composition but they look over exposed to me. I shoot portraits slightly under exposed (about half a stop) and only adjust the lighting after cropping.

I love the way you use natural setting and backdrops. This is the same way I do it. That last shot, I would have used the HDR setting to see if the plants would darken while keeping the subject light.

In the fourth shot; I keep a CPL filter in my bag for water backgrounds.

Keep up the good work.

Mike
frozenhermit.com

Read through all of his "about me" stuff and decide how much faith you want to put in his opinions.

Being a Sony shooter, little of what he has to offer pertains to my gear. The rest of his opinions reflect his elitist viewpoint. I prefer unbiased information when making a decision about how to spend my money. This is why my first DSLR was a Sony DSLT; best value and performance for the amount spent.

You should avoid political commentary if you cannot fluently speak the language of the country to which you are referring.

Thanks for making me laugh out loud at the library!!

:-)

Throw a toaster into the pond. (plugged in, of course) That will make him stop!

They both equal 1 X 10 to the fourteenth power. Count the zeros, set them aside and you end up with 1x1. Put the zeros back on and you have a 1 with fifteen zeros. (scientific notation requires you state a factor of ten in the equation, so you use one zero for that and note the other fourteen as "power". It saves on ink.)

I did read the other reply that someone did in their head where the results differed, but if you learn to do scientific notation in your head you usually only have to ponder which infrequently used designation that fits. (quadrillion)

Does anyone know precisely how many different card combinations there are possible when shuffling a deck of cards for the first time? It seems to me the variables would make the number astronomical. Inversely proportional to the people who actually care, I'm guessing.

Wow, I'm surprised no one has mentioned their steam driven, coal fired computer that was the size of a box car! :-)

When I told my son about the games we used to play on Atari and Commodore 64, he couldn't fathom not having a game without a Playstation controller.

Actually, I was born with the best computer I ever owned. Sure its not that fast, and the memory is getting faulty now, but I never had a crash or a virus. I reboot every night and power it up with coffee in the morning. Best of all I never have to pay Bill Gates to upgrade the OS.

I have several old Minolta MD/MC lenses; I purchased several lots and kits for stacking lenses. I ended up with a 200mm prime and a 300mm prime (MD mount). If interested, please email me at wierdphotoguy@gmail.com I am willing to entertain reasonable offers. The 200mm is in superb condition, the 300mm has some fogging but is still crisp. I also have several MD mount zooms (70-210 and 80-210 or thereabouts)

Hi Debbie,

I have shot hundreds of rings with a macro lens. You need lots of light and a very high f-stop. Your best bet is to use a diffuser with direct sunlight, and f16 or higher.

Even with diffused light you may still get a glare. If you can't avoid the glare, try using a dark diffuser and reflected light.

I would set up a pillow in front of a tripod for the ring shot. The image stabilization will take care of camera shake most of the time, but with macro shots it doesn't help at all if the subject is shaking. Use a tripod and turn off image stabilization.

Try to manually focus on the jewelry even if the hands are not completely in focus. When using a camera without live focus take a few shots, focusing minimally in between and try out some focus stacking software.

Let us know how it turns out!

Mike

My formula? Material and shipping costs with 10% - 20% markup, plus charge for time spent on photo.

For example a photo taken specifically for a client I figure my time at $30.00 per hour (including post production work), and for an image from a gallery I charge $25.00 for the photo, then add time spent on the ordering process. When taking orders, have an idea of the costs involved and give a client a firm price. Stick to it; changing a price upward will lose you a client, lowering it will set a precedent that you are easy to haggle down. If you keep notes you can refine your pricing structure by looking back at what shorted you.

Hope this helps.

I bought a Sony a37 and the manual that came with it is useless once you learn how to turn the camera on and change the battery.

The software disk had a copy of the "handbook" but it would not copy to my hard drive. I had to go online to download the handbook, and it went into much more detail about the functions of the camera. I have never used one of the books listed above; they may have more hints and tricks to get the most out of your camera. But if you are looking for free info, put the manual back in the box and read the handbook.

Hi Jimbo,
I didn't take the time to read all the replies, but I have two cents to offer.

Use Sepia for buildings built after color film was invented, black and white for older buildings.

Darken a little by underexposing by 1/3 to 1/2 stop and try to avoid dark shadows by shooting on overcast days. Minor vignetting is common on older photos, especially with high contrast shots I have seen.

Avoid new vehicles and people with modern clothes in the pictures. One option may be to shoot at night to avoid cars, or use a ND filter and long exposure during the day to eliminate pedestrians.

Take pictures at about five foot height to simulate POV of older tripods. If you have a friend with an old car or period costume you could include them into the photos to tie them together. (Joe at the courthouse, Joe at the train station, etc.)

Many of the old photos I have seen usually concentrated on the people in front of the building, or just the ground floor, so don't wreck a shot with an upward angle to catch the roofline. It seems to me that the older photographers avoided the converging vertical line phenomenon at all costs. Just my observations; hope this helps.

Good luck with your project! Hope to see some photos here.
Mike

I have the a37 also; you need a 3D capable TV to view the pics. I have a friend who has one and I used it to view a couple of photos. Pretty cool.

I had Rottweilers; know not only for their horrible reek, but the sheer volume could fumigate a whole house. Make sure you leave the fridge closed when they let go, otherwise it will curdle the milk.

The only solution I have found is to out-stink them. I have actually made a dog leave the room once. Unfortunately, this may cause you to sleep on the couch or in the garage for a night or two. Smoking is safe, as long as you don't light up a new one until the methane clears.