Please continue posting your pictures here.
Here is a modified shot of the (in)famous Living Mall aka Core Pacific City, shot from Taipei 101 using a Minolta SLR.
Gee, I just can’t recall the model even I used it during the weekend. Anyhow, it’s not a digital camera, so I had the
picture scanned and burned on CD in the photo shop where the film was developed.
Original:
Rascal
Moderator
Prince’s Guest House, Jinguashi.
Shot in RAW on Canon 20D, 17-40mm f4L @26mm, 1/250 @f8, ISO100. RAW processing done in Adobe Lightroom, frame added in CS2.
I just posted a closeup of that shot on my website and blog. I took it with a Fuji S5000 prosumer camera, an excellent camera that takes great pictures.
I blogged on it here and put up a small web page with some pictures here
Enjoy!
Here’s a few from a trip to China I took a few years ago… srry, might look a bit funky (low res. version)
Shot with my trusty Nikon Coolpix 4500
Stitched and PP’d in PSCS2
Somewhere in the Motherland…
Grandpa Banyan Tree
Edit: This last one took five shots… this tree is huge! (look for my buddy on the lower right)…
(sorry if the image is way off the right side of your screen). 
ZS, every time I see your shots I think to myself ‘Just what do I have to do to get to that level?’. It’s a sheer joy to view them.
It’s ‘the eye’ you need firstly … catching the ‘right light’ … knowing your camera … and shooting pictures as if there were no tomorrow … 
to gain experience … and of course these days knowing how to use a photo editor … did I miss something?
Lot’s of time to kill… smokes… a bit of jd… oh, and music… thats pretty much it. 
Fortigurn… I’m nowhere near the level where I actually plan shots and know exactly how thing will end up… In fact, I find myself wingin it most of the time and end up experimenting with what has worked for me (or not)… lots of trial and error… and lots of getting the images by chance. More often than not, I don’t end up with the shots I was hoping for.
As far as technique goes… There are no standard set of rules, or certain ways of doing things when it comes to the way I do things hehe. If anything, I’ll just shoot a scene like 10 different ways (via camera settings) just in case I miss something… then I’ll “digitally develop” the images another 10 more different ways to see what worked for what… sometimes the shots come out pretty good straight out of the camera and not much has to be done besides the RAW conversion… other times I’ll get caught up in the processing while experimenting with stuff and end up having to walk away for a bit hehe…
I’m not much of a book reader so you can forget manuals, books, instuctionals, etc… they aren’t exactly my thing as far as learning photography goes (Those silly step by step tutorials never work for me anyways). I actually get more out of the photos than I do the actual “words” that describe them… whether it be a set of instructions, descriptions, or story.
The only exception to book reading would probably be Ansel Adam’s technical books series (the one’s he wrote)… his autobiography is pretty cool too. Be warned though, his technical books are better suited for rocket scientists!! Not sure if he was a photographer or scientist – prolly both! If anything, I’ll read his books and pretend I understand any of it just to get a sort of placebo effect out of it lol.
If you’re into books though, I’d recommend the older film type books over the digital books regardless of whether you shoot film or digital. They just seem to be written with a bit more wisdom than the cookie cutter digital books are. I’ve flipped through pretty much every digital book I could find in the book stores and they all seem to be the same shit. Most of the film stuff will translate to digital… for example zone system to histogram. PageOne is pretty good if your looking for film books.
I spend a lot of time at the bookstores flippin through different mags, photo books, lookin for inspiration 'n stuff like that. And I don’t just go through materials classified under photography either… In fact, I flip through a lot of fashion mags to get an idea of how models are shot / lit up… or art mags to check out the latest trends for example. National geographic, Time, USnews, etc to get an idea of photo illustration, etc…
Surf mags are my favorite cuz it’s something I could relate to. I could more or less tell by looking at a surf mag shot, if the photographer knows anything about Surfing… it makes it easier for me to understand what was going on in his head when he made the shot. In other words, it’s easier to reverse engineer a shot when you could relate, or are familar to the subject matter. Seems to works for me. Something you could try is examining a photo that has something to do with what you could relate to… then think about how it could have been shot differently, or your take of it… There’s a cool book on the shelves right now with nothing but Taipei101 shots… gives you different perspectives of it and shows you how the same thing can be shot a hundred different ways.
After a while of doing that, you sorta develop an eye for things… what works, what doesnt, oldschool or newschool, classic or played out, boring or cool, different stuff, weird stuff, etc, etc… Of course the sense style is all subjective but there are things I like more than others… and I sort of just follow the stuff I like… seems to work for me. I’m not much of a critic though, and I do appreciate most of what I see out there… but I usually keep my eyes peeled for the “different” stuff. As far as whether I coiuld put it down on print is a totally different story… I guess that just takes a lot of practice and shooting.
I think BP pretty much summed it up in eight paragraphs less than I did hehe…
It helps to know old school basic photography techniques … 
I wanted to add these as it was such a nice day…
Looking up toward Taroko Gorge:
And the ever popular Chingsui cliffs:
MJB, that was from today? I was in Nan’ao this afternoon and it seemed a lot hazier. Oh well.
Anyhow, took a bunch of waterfall pics this afternoon, but the only picture I liked was this macro shot of a weed.
Yep, at about 1pm…
I stopped in Dong ao to do some shots, but it was rather hazy there as well. South of Hemei was very clear though.
If I don’t see another gravel truck or tour bus for the next six months, it’ll be too soon. 
Mate, some very good thoughts there ZS. I agree with what you say. Photography has been my hobby for some 12 years, and I haven’t received any formal training, I’ve just picked it up as I’ve gone along. I agree with you about reading other people’s books - not as useful as grabbing a camera and a few rolls of film and just shooting away.
Some of my favourite shots were taken back in the day when I had only a Pentax Spotmatic (fully manual everything):
I’ve had a preference for scenery shots for a long time, and only moved to portraiture after I was confident with scenery. Candids of children was the last subject I mastered:
But the urban environment is one I’m not used to presenting in my photos, and I’m experiencing difficulty finding the right way to look at it. I’ve been happy with a couple of shots recently, so perhaps I’m getting there:
But I still have a lot to learn, and I’m fascinated by your eye for detail in urban settings, and your mastery of PP work. Thanks for the discussion.
ZS, bought a 430EX for the wife’s 350D. Looks great - these are uncorrected images fresh out of the camera:
[quote=“Fortigurn”]Mate, some very good thoughts there ZS. I agree with what you say. Photography has been my hobby for some 12 years, and I haven’t received any formal training, I’ve just picked it up as I’ve gone along. I agree with you about reading other people’s books - not as useful as grabbing a camera and a few rolls of film and just shooting away.
Some of my favourite shots were taken back in the day when I had only a Pentax Spotmatic (fully manual everything):
[/quote]
Did you start with a spotmatic … my first real camera was a Pentax SP1000, fully manual and I had it for over 16 years with good lenses … the best I had was a 21 mm … that camera was my buddy … shame it’s gone
Nice shots everyone.
Your Move
18 Lohans
Sungpo Ridge Hikers, Ershui
Dug out some better pictures (I think), shot with my Minolta Dynax 505si and standard 28-80mm lens:
This picture was taken on Phuket island, you can have the eagle sit on your shoulder and have a Polaroid picture taken.
Instead of paying I chose to take one myself when the handler wasn’t looking, went pretty close for that …
The Wind-Lion, symbol of Kinmen (unfortunately the weather wasn’t that great, the sky was just grey …)
View onto the ocean from Chien-Be, Mazu:
Thought this might be the best place to ask this…
Me and my wife are coming to Taiwan in less than a year and I am wanting to buy either a new digiital camera or camcorder so that I can share our experiences with family and have something to remember our time by years down the road. Which do you think is best, the still camera or video? Also, would it be better, cheaper, easier to wait and buy it in Taiwan or before we leave the states?
Thanks in advance for any response.
[quote=“reformed”] Which do you think is best, the still camera or video? Also, would it be better, cheaper, easier to wait and buy it in Taiwan or before we leave the states?
Thanks in advance for any response.[/quote]
Buy a digcam that can do both as the Fuji S9x00 or other brand and no Taiwan is pretty expensive for cameras, you can have better deals on the internet in the states.
Think I’ll give this a try:
