Nice to see someone pick up a full frame camera...expensive, but to me, certainly worth it.
To me, with modern camera techno being pushed every further, you could have gotten
acceptable image reliability in low light, but I have a lot of old manual focus lenses,
and I want them to BE WHAT THEY ARE on a camera body. I love having a DX body or 9
in the closet where I can instantly simulate 1.5x reach improvement, but when I snap on
my 24mm lens, I want it to be WIDE. The 'real thing' wide. Gotta love full frame. Don't forget
to drop in on the new inmates forum and introduce yourself to the members of the Asylum.
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char-grilled oysters - yum
recent sunset
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Couple more film pix.

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Gerard what did you buy?
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Couple of simple cigar pictures from my phone.

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Welcome back to CA, Marc. Glad you can call this place your home. :-) xoxo
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Phone or not Marc, those are drool worthy photos right there. :-)
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I have learned something intriguing from this thread, now that I have perused almost a third of it. Anyone can snap still life photos (like my nooby camera phone pictures haha). What seems to separates "photography art" from most camera work, is the vision (that I don't seem to have) to capture something in its perfect moment, and be able to stir the audience - produce a "wow" factor. I mean no disrespect to the lot of us, but I think you guys also recognize the fascinating photos here when you see it.

Personally, I am really impressed by the...not macros, I don't know how to describe it - close up yet in intriguing angles of mundane things in life. The lighting does something incredible to it, the perspective puts the object, place, or being in a manner I never held in perception, and so makes the subject matter - especially when it's a mundane object - just spectacular and puts me in awe. I've stared at several of these pictures for hours.

I guess I just realized what photography is all about, lol. I'll do my best to get some other things in than straightforward shots.
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Since I couldn't explain the type of shots I was finding exceptional, I linked them. I would appreciate any tips and equipment needed (if at all) to produce these results - especially the latter.

This one blew my mind in terms of finding something so minute in life, and being able to recognize it:
I can't take pictures of things the way I see life. I take hundreds of pictures on my phone of things I see and find beautiful, but pictures that come out are not as I experience them. These photos are incredible, because they looks as if the camera saw life the way the photographer experienced it. As said previously, I'd really appreciate any advice/equipment to produce this.


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I know exactly what you mean Marc. I can't speak for all of us, but for me personally, I don't feel like I have the eye to take awesome pictures. I think I get lucky every so often. The dedicated photog's that produce great shots like you described likely carry a camera with them at all times. I can't count the number of times a moment has struck me that I wished I had my camera with me. I love taking pictures and I find myself more often thinking.....how could I or would I photo this, no matter what it is.
As far as equipment goes, I've seen some pretty amazing shots with cell phone cameras, but it requires a lot things to be just right. And there are so many limitations with them. Any DSLR produced now can give you what you need to capture good, quality pictures...IMO. To produce the awe-inspiring shots, I think you need a decent DSLR, a little bit of knowledge, for me a lot of luck :-) and the 'eye' for what makes a great shot. I don't have the eye, I still think I just get really lucky every so often. :-)
I do really enjoy the hobby and while I think I can improve on my photos, I know that I'm not artistic at all so I'll settle for the fun I have while doing it.
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I am like most of you now, torn between the subject matter and the essence of what Marc was getting at.
Cell phone photos can be as good as the VERY good imagers many of these new phones have in them.
But speaking strictly about cell phone pics, photography is certainly not just taking pictures, and what you
have pushing on you is the desire to shoot cool pics, regardless of the tool used. So if you are trolling around for
some advice, my best advice is always to improve the light when you intend to shoot something that you can
control. A cell cam might be easy to use, but never let that trick you into thinking that taking a good pic with it
is easy. To that original point, if you can improve the light, the camera phone will respond by giving you
much more even exposure as well as showing a much truer color with more controllable shadow areas. TO say
nothing about the possible improvement in overall focus and sharpness.

So what we now have learned is that YES, I DO have a camera I can sell you cheap, and NO, you need not give
up your cell-cam. Just make sure that if you are taking the time to shoot a pic that you want to rise above the
snapshot level, ALWAYS think first about the light. If you can get enough bounced light to enter your cigar studio,
your photos will go up in overall appeal exponentially. And by all this I mean DO NOT let your camera produce the
lighting for your photos. No flash should ever come out of your cameraphone when you are setting up still life shots.

Second I would say to shoot the heck out of it. If you go to the trouble of taking multiple cabs of PLPC
apart to shoot, make the most of your time, shoot angles, different formations of stacking, move the light
around. The un-definable quality you spoke of that makes any old photo into a photo that you LIKE is the
seemingly effortless interplay between light and framing that captures a NOVEL image for the brain. I can
look through THOUSANDS of thumbnails of photos and stop dead on one that my BRAIN perceives as having
an interesting composition of angles, colors or light. And I literally stop in my tracks and give it a longer,
bigger look. Sad thing about composition is, that while people try all the time to TEACH it, it is not as easy
as it sounds. Everyone likes different things and looks at the world in their own way. It is very hard to force
a great photo into existence simply by applying all the rules of composition to the scene or situation.
The best way to GET to where you have the ability to impress yourself and others is to take it seriously
and practice it often. Take the TIME to set up some good lighting. Don't stop with one setup and move
to the next box of cigars.

NO REALLY....explore the space.

EDIT: If this mysterious quality you spoke of is ACTUALLY NOT just a better overall photo, and you are
talking about how one item is in crisp focus and the rest of the photo fades away to dreamyness, THAT
is something different and less do-able with a cell phone. IF THAT is your white whale, that is as simple
as getting a camera that lets you control the point of focus as well as the lens aperture. Which is why
I offered to sell you a camera. Well, that's not true, I offer to sell EVERYBODY a camera. But we can
get you cheaply into the DSLR world in one quick shot if that is what you are after. If not, there is a
world of possibilities in that cell-camera if you adjust the variables you can control. (light, composition)
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Not sure anyone that jumps to a specialty forum for their first post on a cigar board is someone who is going
to COME BACK and answer any questions you might have Jeff, lol. I am sure that person is long gone.
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What DSLR are recommended? I just read Brads post and he gets exactly my meaning.
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I realized I was talking too much and not showing enough. Here is a shot I made over the summer last
when i was visiting south LA to shoot. This girl had a birthday party coming on Sunday and they set up
her bouncey castle on Saturday afternoon, where she burned a lot of freeze pops while bouncey-ing.
The reason I post this is that this is such a cool lens, and now I realize that these were captured off of
Photo bucket...I must have not wanted to fire up my other computer. I wanted to find the EXIF data to see
if it was a 85mm f/2 or a 105 f/2.5 Nikkor. Hell I can't even tell you what body it was on, but I imagine a D700.

Reason I post it is easily one of my best lenses, a couple of AI manual focus lenses, (whichever lens it ends up being).
I love both of them. The 105 was under a hundred and the 85 was $190 I think. 85s are pricey. But getting them
in manual focus really allowed me to get something good without spending like an idiot.
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That right there. Thanks, so what kind of DSLR, lighting situations, anything I should start reading, familiarize myself with?
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Here is a good book to start with - Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera by Bryan Peterson.

Invaluable resource for beginners, and all photographers.

Another great resource is the website - photography-on-the.net/forum
Mainly a Canon site, but has tons of info on every aspect of photography.
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Any recommendations for a quality compact? Trip to Europe in May and don't want to lug anything too big with camera bags, etc. etc....Would like something with some "control" however...Was somewhat of a photo-geek in high school and early 20's (mannnnyyy years ago!) have a Nikon SLR with various lenses somewhere in the house...would like to get back into photography in a small way other than my Iphone...Suggestions?
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my :-),

I have a Nikon CoolPix. I used Nikon SLRs for years, but I have been using this more than anything else anymore. Compact with lots of features. YMMV.

Have a great time over there!
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