Tried to employ diagonals and instead of using 1/3 horizon, I went with 1/2, along with a tilt...

Used instructions from this PopPhoto article:
http://www.popphoto.com/popularphoto...backlight.html


Here's one shot with more conventional "thirds" horizon and no tilt. A PopPhoto article saying to "center" the horizon:
http://www.popphoto.com/howto/4310/p...exposures.html


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Used a 3 stop neu. density filter so I could use longer exposure times to convey motion, without overexposing... although I think I could have got away without the ND filter with this dusk shot.


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A triangular configuration.


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Converging lines (perspective).


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Some shots where I didn't follow any rules, just shot on the whim. Which I like doing, as sometimes, they come out the best.


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I just wanted to get a shot at the crazy clouds that was out that day.


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All the above pics were shot with a Canon XTi w/ Sigma 10-20mm.

This next one was shot with an XTi w/ Canon 60mm macro (this lens is crazy sharp):

This is the best shot I have taken so far in my life. I used a slight darkening vignette in PS CS3 with the lens vignette correction tool... and some slight color/highlight/shadow adjustments... that's it... no crop. The boat came into the pic by accident. I layered the sky, water, and asphalt. The water is 1/3 the sky, and the asphalt is 1/3 the water. There's a triangular configuration... conveys a nice, serene day.


Criticism good or bad welcome.

 

vry good keep it up bro

 

and u call those practice shots.... WOOOW well done

 

I like!

 

Your pictures are amazing! Well done!

 

WOW, very impressive "practice" shots!!!

 

Great pics ctwenty and the last one is def a favorite. Great job.

 

VERY very nice pictures man!!!

 

that last one is teh sex...dude it shows what Hawaii is all about....put that s*** on the travel brochures!

 

skills. you has them.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. I'd really like to see more guys post some interesting photos.

I'm not really that good. I take way too many shots. The ratio is like 1/10 keeper. I feel like I'm improving though. The more times I squeeze the shutter, the more comfortable I'm getting.

I've taken heed to something I once read on a photography forum... "the worst shot is the shot not taken."

Here's some tips from a beginner to beginners...

Ignore the car, enjoy the scenery. I took a whole bunch of shots a while ago, and I'd like to share them. You can view the rest of the various shots here on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctwentytwo/
You can see the difference in how the car looks with the different focal lengths used. So instead of just finding more angles, try different focal lengths along with a wide variety of angles, high and low. What I found out is that the Z is really photogenic. It's hard to find a crappy angle of the car since it has alot of curves.

 

Nice pix and tips! We beginners need to stick together and share the wealth!

I can relate, I feel like I take a ton of shots too. One of them is bound to turn out how I want it too. Does your camera do bracket shots? I'll post some of my shots once I resize them.

 

but where is the Z?

 

a 1:10 ratio is rather good, even the pros consider a 1:50 to be average, I'll shoot over a 1500 shots on assignment and chose maybe 40 that are worth bragging about, the rest are trashed
I believe it was ansel adams that said if someone can get 25 photos a year worth showing off, they are doing really good.

Anyways, you should tell a bit as to what aperture and shutter speed you choose and for what reason, this can be very helpful for people trying to copy you

Great Job

 

Get them up! Yes, the XTi does to AEB (auto exposure bracket). I think most DSLR's have this feature. For those wondering, AEB takes 3 shots in a row, one taken with the settings that was metered for, the other is overexposed, and the last underexposed. You do this when lighting is difficult, such as backlight during sunsets to ensure you have a correctly exposed image.

Wow, you're wearing out your shutter... whats the life of the shutter? 25,000? 50,000?

It's 1:10 keeper... but ones worth "showing off"... where everything works and is near perfect, I probably only can count them on one hand.

I still don't think I'm all that great. I'm relying way to much on software to save me on various issues.

Good idea about settings. For those wondering, I preserve EXIF, so you can take a peek if you're curious.

I'm probably gonna go out to Chinatown and start my "street photos" on Thursday.

 

I think common life is 50K on semi pro and 125-150K on pro cameras

I was reading some of you exif, and was curious as to why you choose what you did, not to say I have a better idea, in fact you'll kick my ***. I took some landscape photos yesterday and was very disappointed

I'll have a very small post up sometime in the next few days about street shooting, just a basic step guide, my real writeup wont be for awhile. You might find some helpful advice. If your street shots are as good as your others, they should be very interesting.

 

About the shutter life: can the shutter be "overhauled" to match the life of the camera, or by then is it about time to junk the camera?

 

shutter and various parts along with it can be replaced, but often its not worth it, and just a better idea to get a new frame. I believe typical cost is $300-$400 on a semi pro camera.