Man, I just spent the last 4 weeks or so taking pictures of flying birds. About 1 sequence in every hundred pictures or so was any good. Seeing a perfect picture like that of something in flight is like... damn.
Every summer when I go "camping"[*] where there are bats, I say, "I'm gonna get me a bat belly on film,"[**] but I haven't done it yet. I'm trying to catch them flying overhead at dusk with a bigass strobe (the only time I pull out the flash at this event), but while it's still light enough for me to track them easily they're moving too erratically for a long lens (insectovores feeding) and by the time they settle into 'sentinel' flights it's dark enough to be hard to track them accurately. I've tried tossing small bits of smushed bread into the air to lure them directly overhead, but haven't caught the shot I want yet. Maybe this year ...
[*] I'm not sure just living in a tent for two weeks counts as camping when there's a water heater, shower, and oven in camp, a bazaar larger than some shopping malls -- with a food court -- in walking distance, and a post office, an ISP, and two theatres on site. Thus the scare-quotes.
An ISP? I don't think it's camping if you have an ISP.
And I'd shoot film if I could afford it. In fact, I do, when I can get it cheap through my friend who works in a camera store. I shoot with my dad's old Minolta X-700 which I've... appropriated. I actually really like the old analogue, non-zoom-lenses. The focusing helper things on the lens are awesome.
These birds I was shooting were taken with the Canon 400D my school lent me. I really didn't want to give it back. That thing is beautiful. School tuition funds laid aside by my grandmother are likely to be spent on one in the near future.
The problem with tracking the bastards was, cos I was shooting in a city, and burds are lazy, by the time I noticed movement and acquired, they were halfway to where they were going. I have tens of pictures of the end of a sequence, birds landing, but about 2 of them taking off.
Y'see, that's what I'm sayin'. It's officially a "camping event", and I bring my own tent (and a wooden floor to put it on so I can put it on a hill and still have a level floor), but I feel like I need to use the scare quotes and/or footnote because of things like the ISP and mass transit[*] and the fact that the event packs approximately the population of medieval London into approximately the same amount of space as medieval London.
Film: I was without a car for about a year, and without enough money to get any film developed for most of that time anyhow, so it was a bit of a shock, when I got wheels again and a friend asked me to shoot her wedding, to discover that the lab I used to use had closed. When I went looking for a new lab, I discovered that there now exist businesses describing themselves as professional photo labs which are perfectly happy to scan your film but have no equipment or chemicals to develop your film. That kinda weirded me out.
Problem is, my digital camera is a 2MP point&shoot; all my real cameras use film. And as much fun as I had with our soundman's Nikon D70 (I think that was the model; I know I got the brand right) one afternoon at a gig, I don't think I can easily borrow one for long enough to feel wedding-confident with it, so film it is. (That Nikon was sweeeeeeet! I wasn't completely sold on the idea of a DSLR until I shot with it and looked at the results. Now I really want a Pentax DSLR -- to go with all the Pentax glass I've got -- but won't be able to afford one for a very long time.)
Birds: Ayup, I've had that problem. Shooting from a rooftop or right by the harbour helps, but you still wind up trying to guess which group of birds is likely to take off before you get tired of pointing the camera at them, and as soon as some other bird takes off and you try to catch that one, the first finally takes off as soon as your lens has moved off him. Feh.
Zooms/Primes: Some of my favourite lenses are primes, but I have to admit that the convenience of a zoom when you're walking around and don't know ahead of time what you'll be shooting, is hard to resist. (Also when you can't move around much ("zoom with your feet"), like when you're in the audience at a show that allows photography, the zoom comes in handy.) I like primes when I can plan my shooting more ... and also (since they tend to be faster than zooms), when I'm shooting by candlelight. I really miss the 85/2 that was taken in a burglary. Not quite as fast as the 50/1.4 that I still have, but 85mm was a really comfortable length for me a lot of the time.
Hey, Can the 400D take the famous Canon 50/0.9 lens? (I'm not well versed in Canon history and lens/body compatability issues; I just know that compatability across generations is more complicated than it is for Pentax.) That would be a really convenient candlelight lens.
[*] Okay, a shuttle bus that makes a circuit of the campground and another that makes a circuit of the parking lot. The within-the-campground one used to be a hay wagon pulled by a tractor.
Well, it may not be exactly camping, but it sure sounds like fun. And I've been to large camps without all the convenience of home, and I admit that your way sounds better.
I honestly don't know much about lens compatibility and stuff. I didn't ever bother with photography except to take stock photos for my digital work in school, and I only got into cameras during the holidays before this year at uni, so I've only been learning about em properly for a little while.
It totally weirds me out that there are places that don't develop film too. It's just weird. Whenever I take film I wanna get it scanned *as well* to add it to my digital archive, but not being able to get it developed properly at all is a bit weird. Luckily, my school has the biggest darkrooms in the country (It's a small country, heh). Now I just gotta learn how ta use the damn things...
As for DSLRs.. when you first use em, you just think 'nah, it can't be that good, film is just the way to go', and sure, especially in b&w, film really does still have a quality it's hard to get with digital, but it's close enough to make DSLRs really truly worth the fact that they cost about as much as a car. At this point, as a student, I'd rather have a DSLR than a car.
I'll try getting up on a roof next time I want to shoot birds. Probably no be all that long, cos even though that project's done, I still need better shots, to make up for how pathetic some of those I took were. Climbing on roofs is fun anyway.
It's true, most of what I was shooting with the Minolta was set up or somewhere I could zoom with my feet. The basic lens for most DSLRs these days is a zoom, because they're best, as you said, for when you're walking around not knowing what you're gonna shoot.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-14 10:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 12:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 03:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 10:59 am (UTC)[*] I'm not sure just living in a tent for two weeks counts as camping when there's a water heater, shower, and oven in camp, a bazaar larger than some shopping malls -- with a food court -- in walking distance, and a post office, an ISP, and two theatres on site. Thus the scare-quotes.
[**] Yes, I still shoot film.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 11:19 am (UTC)And I'd shoot film if I could afford it. In fact, I do, when I can get it cheap through my friend who works in a camera store. I shoot with my dad's old Minolta X-700 which I've... appropriated. I actually really like the old analogue, non-zoom-lenses. The focusing helper things on the lens are awesome.
These birds I was shooting were taken with the Canon 400D my school lent me. I really didn't want to give it back. That thing is beautiful. School tuition funds laid aside by my grandmother are likely to be spent on one in the near future.
The problem with tracking the bastards was, cos I was shooting in a city, and burds are lazy, by the time I noticed movement and acquired, they were halfway to where they were going. I have tens of pictures of the end of a sequence, birds landing, but about 2 of them taking off.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 04:25 pm (UTC)Y'see, that's what I'm sayin'. It's officially a "camping event", and I bring my own tent (and a wooden floor to put it on so I can put it on a hill and still have a level floor), but I feel like I need to use the scare quotes and/or footnote because of things like the ISP and mass transit[*] and the fact that the event packs approximately the population of medieval London into approximately the same amount of space as medieval London.
Film: I was without a car for about a year, and without enough money to get any film developed for most of that time anyhow, so it was a bit of a shock, when I got wheels again and a friend asked me to shoot her wedding, to discover that the lab I used to use had closed. When I went looking for a new lab, I discovered that there now exist businesses describing themselves as professional photo labs which are perfectly happy to scan your film but have no equipment or chemicals to develop your film. That kinda weirded me out.
Problem is, my digital camera is a 2MP point&shoot; all my real cameras use film. And as much fun as I had with our soundman's Nikon D70 (I think that was the model; I know I got the brand right) one afternoon at a gig, I don't think I can easily borrow one for long enough to feel wedding-confident with it, so film it is. (That Nikon was sweeeeeeet! I wasn't completely sold on the idea of a DSLR until I shot with it and looked at the results. Now I really want a Pentax DSLR -- to go with all the Pentax glass I've got -- but won't be able to afford one for a very long time.)
Birds: Ayup, I've had that problem. Shooting from a rooftop or right by the harbour helps, but you still wind up trying to guess which group of birds is likely to take off before you get tired of pointing the camera at them, and as soon as some other bird takes off and you try to catch that one, the first finally takes off as soon as your lens has moved off him. Feh.
Zooms/Primes: Some of my favourite lenses are primes, but I have to admit that the convenience of a zoom when you're walking around and don't know ahead of time what you'll be shooting, is hard to resist. (Also when you can't move around much ("zoom with your feet"), like when you're in the audience at a show that allows photography, the zoom comes in handy.) I like primes when I can plan my shooting more ... and also (since they tend to be faster than zooms), when I'm shooting by candlelight. I really miss the 85/2 that was taken in a burglary. Not quite as fast as the 50/1.4 that I still have, but 85mm was a really comfortable length for me a lot of the time.
Hey, Can the 400D take the famous Canon 50/0.9 lens? (I'm not well versed in Canon history and lens/body compatability issues; I just know that compatability across generations is more complicated than it is for Pentax.) That would be a really convenient candlelight lens.
[*] Okay, a shuttle bus that makes a circuit of the campground and another that makes a circuit of the parking lot. The within-the-campground one used to be a hay wagon pulled by a tractor.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 11:01 pm (UTC)I honestly don't know much about lens compatibility and stuff. I didn't ever bother with photography except to take stock photos for my digital work in school, and I only got into cameras during the holidays before this year at uni, so I've only been learning about em properly for a little while.
It totally weirds me out that there are places that don't develop film too. It's just weird. Whenever I take film I wanna get it scanned *as well* to add it to my digital archive, but not being able to get it developed properly at all is a bit weird. Luckily, my school has the biggest darkrooms in the country (It's a small country, heh). Now I just gotta learn how ta use the damn things...
As for DSLRs.. when you first use em, you just think 'nah, it can't be that good, film is just the way to go', and sure, especially in b&w, film really does still have a quality it's hard to get with digital, but it's close enough to make DSLRs really truly worth the fact that they cost about as much as a car. At this point, as a student, I'd rather have a DSLR than a car.
I'll try getting up on a roof next time I want to shoot birds. Probably no be all that long, cos even though that project's done, I still need better shots, to make up for how pathetic some of those I took were. Climbing on roofs is fun anyway.
It's true, most of what I was shooting with the Minolta was set up or somewhere I could zoom with my feet. The basic lens for most DSLRs these days is a zoom, because they're best, as you said, for when you're walking around not knowing what you're gonna shoot.