Any photographers in the house?

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Oh! That zoom lens is working really great at giving a good depth of field on birds. Not sure if I'll ever crawl down that rabbit hole, but I love birds.

You've been using a mirrorless, yes? IIRC

Yup, Fuji X-T3 now, previously an X-T2

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Tscott wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

My partner has a lot of Swedish heritage and received one of the hand painted horses recently. The colors are beautiful. :)

You're making me crave Swedish pancakes with Lingonberries. My hometown of Rockford IL has a lot of Swedish heritage and a favorite restaurant called the Stockholm Inn that I haven't been to in years.

Yum! I want to go there. :)

Well.. over here in Småland there are almost no rules and regulations on the Covid - so few of us live here, and we have time and space to keep distance in restaurants and supermarkets. Whenever one of you is in Sweden, just pop by for some coffee and fika. The light in the summer is awesome for photographing. Long golden hours, beautiful natuer and other things. I usually have some fotosafaris during the summer - but these alas are postponed.

here some pics when I make a short round with the dogs...

IMAGE(https://g2.img-dpreview.com/C9D01F58BC6E4283B983B5B701B8B19F.jpg)

IMAGE(https://g3.img-dpreview.com/F486CC0FC6D3458180C7638BEA8854F5.jpg)

IMAGE(https://g4.img-dpreview.com/6D888F863A65455B97D36DA66AFEA361.jpg)

Men, looking back at these ol' pics. I must say I still love the Foveon colors these small Sigma camera's give you.

Beautiful shots, Peoj!

Tanglebones: any advice for a prospective Fuji buyer? I'm thinking about splurging on an XT4. You get much use out of the kit zoom?

The kit zoom is *great* as far as kit zooms go. I did trade mine in after two years for the 16-55 instead, because the kit wasn't working for my use cases (travel or night time event photography). The primes I've used (16/1.4, 35/2) have been out of this world good. I've also got a Kamlan 50mm/1.1 that's extraordinary. Depending on your use case, the 55-200 is probably the best telephoto lens in the system if you don't want to break the bank. (I do enough nature photography, and got a gift towards the expense, so I broke the bank on the 100-400 and the 1.4x teleconverter).

I haven't played with the X-T4, but its main upgrades over the X-T3 are a larger battery and the addition of IBIS. The first is mitigated by my carrying around a batch of batteries all the time, but I am excited about the second. The X-T3 has a huge jump in autofocus speed and accuracy over the X-T2, which is what I started with in Fuji.

I moved from Canon to Fujifilm a few years ago and I've never looked back. I currently own the X-T2 which is a fantastic camera. I also switched out from the kit zoom to the 16-55mm and it gets a lot of use along with my 35mm F2. The autofocus is still good and I didn't see enough value in the X-T3 for my needs (I don't shoot a lot of fast moving subjects). The X-T4 looks great especially having the IBIS but as photography isn't my main source of income I'm happy to stick with the X-T2 for now.

Depending on your budget and your requirements maybe look at the X-T2 or X-T3 on the second-hand market. That way you can spend more of your budget on some of the great lenses Fujifilm have to offer. They are expensive but deliver super results.

I'd have stayed on my X-T2, but I won an X-T3 in a contest

I set myself a new record of procrastination.

Decided to tidy up the garden. I did pick up one dandelion, looked at it... and went inside.

IMAGE(https://g1.img-dpreview.com/D8B5F9F9EABE4501828556F85D2C3B02.jpg)

The garden is still a mess...

Here's today's picture finally. There was so much sunlight today, so I was trying to get a picture of our little piano blasted with sunlight this late afternoon.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/FL7dn8D.jpg)

There's no editing on that. The sunlight is just blasting out all the color.

I like it and like the line across the keys too

Rahmen wrote:

I like it and like the line across the keys too

Yes!!!

X-T4 has arrived. My previous camera is (Canon 60D) 10 years old. I waffled on getting a Sony or something else for a while, but I'm really happy with where I ended up. On one hand, it's just a better camera. On the other hand, it's kind of a marvel. I'm playing with my old Canon FD and Nikon glass with adapters in addition to the "kit" 18-55 I picked up used, and everything just works. Of all things, I think I'm smitten with the Acros simulation. I kept wanting to get back into shooting B&W film, and this is really scratching that itch.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A2C6GjZQZkSmeBGo7

LupusUmbrus wrote:

X-T4 has arrived. My previous camera is (Canon 60D) 10 years old. I waffled on getting a Sony or something else for a while, but I'm really happy with where I ended up. On one hand, it's just a better camera. On the other hand, it's kind of a marvel. I'm playing with my old Canon FD and Nikon glass with adapters in addition to the "kit" 18-55 I picked up used, and everything just works. Of all things, I think I'm smitten with the Acros simulation. I kept wanting to get back into shooting B&W film, and this is really scratching that itch.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A2C6GjZQZkSmeBGo7

Great to hear you are happy with your new Fujifilm camera, that's a decent run for you Canon 60D! I also went from Canon for Fujifilm cameras (I had the 60D at one stage) and using the Fujifilm cameras brough a new joy to my photography. (Acros film simulation is fantastic I agree!)

It's fun to try out some other lenses with adapters and see what results you get. I did that with some of my old manual focus lenses and bought a couple of older lenses from the 70's/80's to play with different effects.

Of course cameras and lenses are simply tools for the job but when they make the job more pleasurable and deliver with less friction, that's always a good thing. When I moved fro Canon SLR's to Fujifilm mirrorless my photography gained a new lease of life.

I hope you enjoy your new creative tools and most of all enjoy creating and sharing the results.

That’s a fantastic photo too by the way

Playing with the macro lens in the backyard:
IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dyLdCvQz7ORIAPIFiI44_ZQc4q_GXqcVK8piW6XSNQpkq5hoVIdTBYJz0LS9szV95VfUJ2WeAj6btkEgc6hV4kMsyp_cbGJhO3auZWfowI-fMqDOscOw8UICewR5UJXbNw4aQSY_bd4rnwNPL3qhae1PeG_PFCIrm5lMO49as_ghjqtIfKmoC9PvR3YXecJHxk5xvUzWjzt2UvvPqdW9uz_3rXbf7JJHNU5Ts2E3HCDMRbGePg_60nN5rPxr7FIlsw6HAu8Iiwbn9y2eXcup8wfMg75pv_vWQHCBYO3T0jM5skzDlZTnXKhGey88-Zw9QBB6kDj-e1i9D22tyLDcD72siE9yZbhtE4aWaR_JuJorvv_-DPdwYkhm6W8sAIbhG2yd7mZkqTnweyOYuVu-AxG5gqoKoWR2WPtmupYxsrKGWKbCouz5g6_sgeaTR_cJElWAZ9HEQB0NoZW_xB_yT0nWcYluFrUU4yVifyvun0R4zl8Iauw_Z6hi6c2tkJc9Ezkf4aDjORrWd2uTAvqHfyyxhj65s60kYTT36K74oo97OkGJQ2YjDq1bC7NIkjwoTg47Pi8xLP_Hx9N9ansrrWHv3sbYIJ7XThuojk2AswBzKz1_SPobO_pkKMO1S22Ompb7GywhG199O0fseEZN_wRVc5CtyOUrFuBb78nPx7NEYJJ58Br43RkmRB_VMMY=w1329-h903-no?authuser=0)

IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XCDaZx9kXHpLWIrDOJZJ1zUs3Pqnzsha-VD6JhUlkOQEuOUgPegCO5gtuCPfQAM_WPGBGwqOaRbvvdUIETww9kjE59vjfDKcgWMM1nq5r-WPzF405p964Z-dDNNQhoErKl7qdi3o_4ajR6Y-VhppVS-cJvkHQkhVITjNLp1Jme0FGi75y9IO9-b5omZY8a75_wZOOJYuCX4hTss_Y3oGWbk7Y6VHTqTiy_9uWpO-oj_yPHwCjGXRlnhAcLXwq4Hbiil-FX-HNYu6FzGPiLnYRTDAZUKDRWYQEofNk36YPvjCoB-NGI5jML7PtMxy8-Ge-etk0WoZ6E4Ho58XFsnW7p2VtxK6x0M3cz0evbYh9KYMIAiN8qYnSGI9uwi-k14OM4X_0oqTmJQgK_DWybfAwpAJpDehl5bmTGo0foIRaNj1XW5xjJxEIQ7qL2ddyLWUTcAmx6h2ZNd6LXGz7P2gIreZH_HS0FvYbwQNy9LTQRUbJjgKo0rvrp90eprj0S2N-ZXbScxL2j97T2W7kB42pzhSZiQHjh5Py8-ZXDWA7j28qmuUN7xBsBCo66gO-Qy1NQ_KG5Rfr7z1Ssn9stRkLIA3bZ-f6BdDIpt3LZnMwmjG9uWfg7Ksy91FimF7u89sGg2D-L1W12sRG3TS_lmaeFA66DXCdK9HmjUNjDHYmz0SKHm7QqQ1zJ_7ZC8yb4s=w1220-h903-no?authuser=0)

IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KRCA-eyoDtXZbd9Mh_5jD4_2CWviLdYwb7KgxsDwDFrhTU2qE7IkL8OYaJQCB8LcagP82xBHjYyo2oXjHKtkLAlKImmUhw-D1-rkm0gdIfVXpcQjTcir8rTUyg5TUqV8jYJcs02dX_uzZ854lT02pjMWEQ-nM5zvohN9Jn9pqp7f6rmNjUMsSv3mmFS0G6ea12z55ABlY0YcZv8I1Fh0Memzq4kPswuBzDvwTcqCe61PrSjb9NCGm6me-gie6WaIC6AGv-LQSVy31J5kO5cxzN9BQWHXSNznDjhUSfqoUX1oB63cq8f6zn4bvXwZPO7mJ2oMXIdGdZuxop6ZwU9AxQT-41fGudk_hR3zBBYGpYK2dZrbqwDG_iFBkHw6hOE_egAWPcBq1GkChZd8bX4k_05Xu98NBUODFUbP9ewxcVuCNRj1uXTC22fGU7x7W4rdLrTw2jpe8zpqRr7700IPGhktLymnTFrWIO8x5KJmFuSqAkZB9rD1bLWlU1cZzuPbOp6u4y3v20PXv3NR0QNW6M-IpWROLu067oakOfAui_CMoo2EfAfQfE3Txzl9FgaXWX-Cw97996otLVfi8zDE019qK6BBopBk6KJNOUtY9zz3VddXoifYFOc7dBgqTAMS9CzJXM3No88Des-RQWWwypT9gOtaXHzkoePQhePrkrqWUNSHmMCAcw-YhYQHk5I=w1208-h903-no?authuser=0)

IMAGE(https://g4.img-dpreview.com/B809968A92A94EFD8203E7334E8B4EC3.jpg)

Quite happy with this one. Gets a place in my 'ever-to-happen-pigs-will-fly exposition'.

Tanglebones wrote:

Playing with the macro lens in the backyard:
...

Images not showing up for me, Tangle. Which macro lens, btw? The 80mm?

LupusUmbrus wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Playing with the macro lens in the backyard:
...

Images not showing up for me, Tangle. Which macro lens, btw? The 80mm?

Yup, with the 1.4x TC - I'll try rehosting them tomorrow

Tanglebones wrote:
LupusUmbrus wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Playing with the macro lens in the backyard:
...

Images not showing up for me, Tangle. Which macro lens, btw? The 80mm?

Yup, with the 1.4x TC - I'll try rehosting them tomorrow

What's the magnification work out to with the TC? The stuff I've seen done with that lens had been very impressive. On my wish list for sure.

LupusUmbrus wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
LupusUmbrus wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Playing with the macro lens in the backyard:
...

Images not showing up for me, Tangle. Which macro lens, btw? The 80mm?

Yup, with the 1.4x TC - I'll try rehosting them tomorrow

What's the magnification work out to with the TC? The stuff I've seen done with that lens had been very impressive. On my wish list for sure.

112mm at a cost of one aperture stop; the 2.0x apparently causes the sharpness to drop off a lot more

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/elvyG8a.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/EI18SJv.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/6MuSSf9.jpg)

Love that snail shell!!!

Oh deer!
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/3k856pS/JLK-2362.jpg)

And just a bit of scenery which caught my eye.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/7tJv8M6/JLK-2349-Pano.jpg)

Photo dump! I've been primarily been shooting JPEGs to try to learn all the in and outs of this camera (X-T4). As someone who only shot RAW for years an years, it's rather nice having usable images straight out of the camera. I'll probably end up using a JPEG+RAW workflow, at least for situations where I know I'll probably want to do more work in post, but the simplified approach is appreciated. Shooting everything RAW and having to spend significant time to get my shots how I wanted them was one of the reasons I found myself shooting less and less.

A surprise visitor:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/rQjZffw/20200531-DSCF1478.jpg)

Some attempts at dragging the shutter hand-held. Lens OS + IBIS gave some acceptable (albeit not super-sharp) keepers:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/djc8586/20200607-DSCF1922.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/Gp8N4kP/20200607-DSCF1982.jpg)

Acros <3
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/TmgrWqw/20200607-DSCF2020.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/kXYTcTP/20200607-DSCF2116.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/JKmbd8P/20200607-DSCF2127.jpg)

I have the itch to take more photos lately:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/hZ4VVEa.jpg)

More to come.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/i97l1uG.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/TVcMQk2.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/TlEUHOH.jpg)

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Great shots! Making everyday objects look good can be really tough, and I think you nailed it.

I've got a Burnside Brewing glass I picked up years ago on a trip to Portland and brought all the way back home, and I still use it to this day. Wish they shipped their beer to the east coast!

So, I've gone down a rabbit hole and picked up a Helios 44-2 along with a Zhongyi turbo adapter. It's a lot of fun to shot with, to say the least. Old school USSR built lens. Completely manual focus and relatively poor image quality compared to modern glass, but it's got a bit of a trick that makes it fun to shoot with:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/0Q4QrV0/20200620-DSCF2875.jpg)

The swirl effect only really shows up some of the time, but that makes it all the more fun looking for opportunities for it to work.

It's also helped shake me from my obsession with sharpness. Here's a few shots of my boy that I just adore, sharpness be damned.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/w4G63WT/20200702-DSCF3408.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/g37FJsj/20200620-DSCF2744.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/gTtrzCJ/20200620-DSCF2888.jpg)

Rad!

Ooh, yeah, I've got a Helios; I haven't busted it out since 2018 or so though
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1QzrMYp.jpg)

You need lots of out of focus pinpoint lights to accentuate the swirly bokeh for the Helios. The leafy canopy you have there is one of the most reliable ways to achieve that.

Was in a prairie preserve a couple of weekends ago when a storm appeared on the horizon.
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/JKNXHmX/Perry-Farm-Park-Storm-s-a-brewin.jpg)

Simple pano stitched together in Lightroom.