I’ve been checking a lot the photos that have been uploaded into my photography club’s web site so you can see what the other photographer’s shot; there were over 40 photographers who attended.
Finally, the people who I carpooled with uploaded a few, very few photos. Only two to four photos each. What a disappointment and I hope they upload more.
Our carpool driver, a very nice Indian man, who, of course, had his own computer business, had a very expensive Canon camera. It was the one professionals use; a step up in models from my Canon Rebel. The price of the camera body alone had to be $5,000 or more. He had all kinds of lenses and was always fooling with all of the dials on it. He also used a tripod, adjusting it and doing the rituals and rigmarole needed to take a decent photo. Boy, was I surprised at what he uploaded. I don’t believe he put his photos through an editor before uploading to the club’s website. The first thing that tips me off that he is new at all of this is the composition of a shot. If that simple knowledge is not there, you are a beginner. The second thing is the exposure and the third thing is the saturation of color, which is always needed for whatever camera and settings you may have input before taking the shot. Sharpness is another factor, but sometimes you’re subject matter is just too far away, but you still want to express what you saw, just because it’s a unique shot, so I can accept that the subject matter is not as sharp as it should be. I do it all the time.
The two photos the lady we carpooled with uploaded were very nicely composed with good subject matter. She had said this was the first time with a photo group and her new Nikon camera. I was quite impressed with the two photos I believed she used an editor. Although I could have still improved on the proper editor settings, I’d say, she did quite nicely.
Since this was her first time being in the rugged outdoors, as she put it, although she said she went to the gym three times a week, walks on a treadmill with the angle all the way up and walking around her neighborhood, you can tell she was a newbie. I told her that being out in the wilderness is a whole different story because you use more than just the muscles that are targeted in the gym. Balancing on roads, hills, mountainsides, rocks, etc. is a skill your brain has to learn. She thought she was very physically fit. She was very slim, around my age, but lacked the knowledge of being outdoors and what is required. She did not wear hiking boots, just running shoes with plain socks and she wore fairly tight fitting jeans. As we were hiking along, I advised her to wear her hiking boots (which she also recently bought, but hurt her feet, along with hiking socks) on these shoots because you never know what you have to step into (water, mud, high grasses, weeds, etc.) or where you have to go to get a good shot. I also advised her to buy liners for her hiking socks. I mentioned the great zip off pants which I was wearing and how great they are to wear and launder.
Very shortly thereafter, while we got separated going our own way shooting, I heard she slipped and fell on some gravel and injured her knee. It was pretty bad. There was blood all over the knee of her jeans and I believe she said her hip or the top of her leg was sore. She was also amazed at how quickly I hiked up a hill which wasn’t that much of an incline, but she was huffing and puffing and I wasn’t and hills are not my cup of tea, I told her. So I slowed down considerably for her. I thought I’d better stay with her or she might get herself in more trouble.
The Chinese man, who also attended our Humboldt State Park trip and I was also in his carpool, uploaded only four photos. One though, a photo of a lake, one I also took, included all of the lake because he had an 18mm lens. He was also able to get photos of whole trees, from the ground all the way to the top. I could do that with a few steps back, but where the lake was situated and where we were standing on the side of a very busy highway, I could not step back far enough to get that shot. So I’m jealous of his shot being better than my shot, although mine was closer and although I had to cut off about a quarter of the lake, I made up for it by saturating the color of the lake and the larger shape of the lake where I shot it, was a bit more interesting than his was.
I keep getting e-mails when others upload their photos and all and all, I have to say, I’m better than many others.
This is so much fun.
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