Splendid work Tompar!

[quote=Jer]There seems to be.
I get lots of comments when I have one of my larger lens on the camera but none when I have the 50mm f/1.8 or some of my smaller lens.
My favorites are my 300mm f/4 and my 1.2 50mm. I also get comments about my 70 to 200. Yep, size does matter.

My favorite comment ever from people is, "wow that camera must take great photos!"

The 50mm 1.8 is a great fun lens especially for the money. The at is slow, loud and clumsy but never fear, it has a manual setting! Manual, who would have thought.

Sounds beautiful, you're truly living the dream. At least mine. Enjoy! Thanks for sharing :)

My sister lived in WI, sounded beautiful. She now has a farm in VT absolutely beautiful there.

This was taken in the rarely seen farmlands of NJ. I guess there's not enough drama and "reality" to show the garden state at its best. lol

Thank you much!

My dream is to own my own farm so I can walk out in the afternoon after a morning of hard work and see this.

Hmm.. no matter what size I post it still comes up small like that... Anyone have thoughts on this?

Sure thing, I'll give it a shot. Give me a few minutes.

I'd like honest opinions and thoughts on this photo. From feelings and what it means to you personally to critiques on composition. Basically, anything you get from this please feel free to write anything you'd like.

Once I get some responses I'll tell you some more about the photo, what it means to me personally and some additional background on the photo it self.

Enjoy!

Hi my name is Bryan and I am a photographer. I'm not the best out there and I'm not the worst. Funny thing is I had a starting point years ago when I didn't know aperture from my.. well you get the idea. I had an old school Pentax SLR (notice I didn't say digital) years later I bought a digital point and shoot and couldn't figure out for my life why I couldn't get certain photos. So I started learning how to accomplish what I saw in my head when I took a photo. Lets jump forward 15+ years.... ZOOOOM!

I owned a portrait studio that I promptly sunk into the ground. I got up dusted myself off and tried again and again and again. I learned all the way home wee wee wee!

(now we're jumping forward to present day)

I'm sitting here enjoying my coffee and the pleasant weather and decide to check out Ugly Hedgehog and I see forum after forum of self proclaimed and accused "old farts" in forums where "rule enforcement" is over coming the fact that a newcomer to photography is asking for advice. Which turns into a six page BANTER of who's an old fart verse who can type in "teen talk shorthand" and I think WOW this is so exciting I've got Jerry Springer right here why do I need to watch trash talking tv.

Well here's my closing thoughts:

1- Rules: We have them to maintain order. Are they good, yes. Can becoming a police state create disorder? YES

2- Old Farts: Being or being perceived as an old fart is a state of mind and behavior NOT a reflection of AGE. The definition of old fart is someone that is "boring and old fashioned" Personally, when I think of an old fart I think of a cranky old fellow (or lady) whose been beaten down by life and takes out his (or her) aggression on other by the "enforcement" or over enforcement or "rules"

3- Other Dumb Banter: I'm wasting my time RIGHT NOW I should be searching forums for advice I can take or advice I can give not trying to teach people lessons on etiquette. In my humble opinion (or IMHO for the short handers) EVERYONE FAILED because a post got hijacked by BANTER not advice. Banter about who's doing what and how they said it when it was clear and obvious that true advice was being shared. Advice being shared with a photo on another persons post OH MY!

Now last time I checked photography was a visual art. Let me type this again for the visual impaired. VISUAL ART. Remember what visual means? "Of or relating to seeing or sight"
If we see the wrong way how is not seeing the right way going to help? I think the mistake here was reading toooo much into the rules (see how I did the extra "o"s "o's" o oo ) I don't know the proper grammar for that but then again I'm not here for a grammar lesson, I'm here to learn about, what the hell am I here to learn about? Oh yeah! the VISUAL ART of PHOTOGRAPHY. Now how am I gonna do this.. hmmm... MAYBE just maybe I'll share some of my photos for critique to get advice and offer some of my advice from my experiences and supply a VISUAL aid in the form of a photo I took. hmmm...

I sure hope I can do that here. I sure hope everyone remembers why we're here.

I notice there are a TON of newcomers to photography here and a lot of people here that "enforce" without discretion that have little to no photos and dare I say POOR photography skills. Do we enforce possibly because we can not do? Now now Bryan I think we are digressing because we're upset and rightly so. See how this makes me crazy?

I have an idea! From now on let us focus on photography and "enforce rules" with discretion. Lets all get along and learn together I'm sure there are other sites out there for proper grammar and etiquette. Maybe we can use Robert's Rules of Order? Although I personally do not agree with "teen shorthand" I do believe the BEST way to maintain this is by setting an EXAMPLE.

Remember folks, young and old farts alike we are here for the photography.

Go take a picture and cheer up! ;) (that's shorthand for a smile and a wink)

When emailing images to share with friends and family or for display on the web I ALWAYS resize my images between 850-900 pixels on the longest side. I do this almost as a self imposed rule.

This should be good enough to send 10-15 images thru email with no problem BUT with this said some email programs don't allow the receiver to get more than 5-20 images even when resized. I guess it's something to do with virus protection but this is just a guess.

I have had many issues with AOL and hotmail because of this. If you're sending just one full size 21MP image you're definitely going to have a problem.

If you need to send the full size image try Dropbox. I have only had one client question this in the year I have been using it. It's free and simple to use and has been a simple solution for me to share/send full size images.

This is exactly what I do. Sometimes on a big shoot I don't have a choice. Especially if I decide to shoot RAW which opens up an entirely new discussion, but we won't go there.

I use 3 memory cards and only 3. I download every chance I get and copy to an external back up drive on the spot. When I get home I upload everything to an external server this way if my computer and back up drive are destroyed I still have my photos.

I never understood keeping photos on the memory card. My mother and girlfriend do this I guess because they don't take nearly the amount of photos that I do nor do they "process" the images as frequently. I think my girlfriend has photos in her camera that haven't been downloaded from last year.

To each his own..

Linda,

We all started somewhere and no matter what type of camera and what the circumstances we have the ability to create. You haven't lost your love for photography and it's easy to see as you want to get it back and reignite that passion.

Having gone through these times of confusion myself I suggest two things: First, let go, don't hold yourself to any expectations of what you have to achieve according to any time line. As with loves and passions of all types it takes time to grow and develop. It will go through stages of extreme fruitfulness and productivity as well as drought. So you're searching to find that passion again.

Second, put yourself in the position where you have the ability to create at any moment. Simply put, carry your camera with you at all times. Be ready for the moment when it happens. Take a lot of photos, practice, succeed, fail, try again, learn and just do. This is a great time to experiment, learn your camera so that when you "see" that moment not only will you have your camera on hand but you will know how to carry it out technically with a second nature. The technical side of photography isn't everything but it absolutely helps to know your camera so well that it's almost an extension of yourself.

Look at art, photography, talk walks with your kids, enjoy life, go see the world and be inspired by it. If you're having a crappy day there's nothing wrong with documenting that through photography. Keep a journal, figure out what inspires you. Use the people, activities and things you enjoy in life as practice subjects and inspiration.

I shoot a lot of photos. On a week where I'm barely touching my camera I take around 200-300 photos of nothing! My cats, the breads I bake, myself, my environment, anything that strikes me.

I shoot professionally which means to me I shoot other peoples ideas. On a busy week I can shoot upwards of 6,000 photos.

Then I shoot what I can b.s. photos. When the people in my life go, "oh, you have a camera you can take photos for this" I carry no expectation of "greatness" from these photos but I always look for that opportunity when it presents itself.

I find passion in a lot of things and let go of control and let things unfold however they do. Everything finds a way. I take photos of everything. I use them to share and communicate.

I have a passion for Artisan Bread baking. So I bake and send photos to my family of my adventures with baking. I continue this through my entire life. Although these days my daughter is old enough that she doesn't want me pointing my camera at her so I know when to put the camera down and enjoy time with her.

The key is finding a balance and incorporating photography into your daily life. If you need any help or future advice please feel free to email me.

Best of luck!

I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work. Sharing your photos helps too!

-Bryan-

(the photos are home made bread that I baked, home made cinnamon strudel coffee syrup and a photo I took of my daughter on a day out with her and my mother)

A lot of good answers and a lot of interesting thoughts on this subject so I'll add my two cents.

I've been shooting as a professional (meaning my entire income is from photography) on and off over the last 10 years.

Here is how you do it:

Dedication
Knowledge of running a small business
Support of your family (especially if you're married)
Dedication
Patience
Marketing
Dedication
The expectation that the business will not support you for a few years
Dedication
The ability to take a half decent photo

I know plenty of successful (that is that they are making a living) photographers that can't take a photo to save their life.

I also know some amazing photographers that can't make $ from photography to save their life.

If you just want to make a quick hundred or two on a weekend here and there; post some ads online, in the paper, put up some business cards, talk to people.. it'll happen.

There is no magic solution to making a living from photography. No get rich quick method. It's like any other REAL business and it requires time and dedication.

Best of luck!

-Bryan-

I have a hard time thinking that the lens is attached incorrectly... I just tried not fully locking the lens on my camera and all it does is "shut off" the auto focus which would certainly be noticed when you started taking your first shot. If the lens is being attached incorrectly I'd be very afraid of damaging the camera lens mount itself. PLEASE no one ever force a lens on!!! Stop and back up first!!!

The Canon 50mm 1.8 being the topic here I'd be sure the lens would be the first to break although I'm not willing to test this myself.

I'm still thinking diopter setting or more likely as I think about this the AF is set to AI Servo or AI Focus as this would cause the issue that she is having with the camera "refocusing" not a lens mount or broken lens problem in my opinion....