My Bits And Pieces - I'm Talking About Photos...  

caseyjohnphotography

number 3 looks crisp

hot shots, my setup will be ordered sometime next week im hoping

you have 2 off camera flashes?

Nick_

Yep, Nikon SB-25 i use up close because it's adjustable and the Nissin 32 I use as a fill because it's not adjustable. Sooner or later I'll get another Nikon and the Nissin will become number 3/spare.

caseyjohnphotography

Awesome .. can't wait till i order / get mine will be so much fun to experiment with.. i will have 2 vivitars and 1 430 all off camera

do some shots of cars!!

Nick_

Give me a car to practice on! at the moment all I have are bee's (which are harder than I thought) and chillis, which are hard just because they're tucked away in the back corner of the garden.

Two more boring photos I took today.

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08ftwyo

Last pic is awesome, haha nice to see you love redcliffe

Nick_

It's only 'cause it's down the road

TD 06

your doing good with strobist shit man keep up the good work, you have an eye for it, your crosslighting well and reducing shadows well

Nick_

Thanks man

My subjects are always pretty boring but I try to prefect the art before getting the subject right, otherwise i'll have a cool subject and shitty technique.

Nick_

Another couple I've done last weekend.

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This one is only levels, curves and some burning, the colours are untouched.
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I like this one, the bee's puttin' in some insect elbow grease
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I think this may be my best shot in a while. Still not as sharp as I'd like but eh!
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Nick_

Here's a few I grabbed while taking a walk in Brissy today on my day off.

Let me know what you think, I think I may need to invest in a longer lens if I start doing this more often as my 17-85 doesn't have a fantastic reach and a LOT of people stare at you these days when you're holding a camera - however it WAS fun to frame them up and pretend to shoot them to make them squirm and hide behind other people :cool:

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RANMOD64

like the last one the best, sky has that scary look about it

slo33

+1 for that.....great pic

Nick_

The last one was PP'd using a method another guy off deviantart wrote a tut for, is really quite easy now that I read it, one of those "oooohhhhh of course!" things where you just never put one and one together.

matt mead

im a big fan of the last one.... care to share the tut

is that a silver man rideing the bike... it scares me to take picture of ppl... i normally whack on the long lense so ppl dont realise im doing it lol

cheers buddy

Nick_

Yeah I don't really have that long lens luxury which makes it all that more intimidating but I find it's rewarding having to man-up a little

Tut is buy an artist in Perth with a name of Rom30. Link is here. Show me the results though!

matt mead

thanks mate.. i have a picture from my holiday which it hsould work well on

crazywhiteboy

I think your photo's are pretty good............. what am I saying? They're amazing! I'm a 16year old photography student, and I really enjoy looking at your photo's... keep up the great work!!!

Nick_

Ha, cheers buddy - and I thought I was just a 25 year old hack!

Nick_

Found this on the way home today.

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Nah, rented it from Brisbane Camera Hire (Damien - 0431950536), Nice guys, nice central location (#4 Ipswich St, Gabba) and the lenses are cheap as chips to hire, this f/4 L IS is only 67.50 ALL WEEKEND, that's Friday collect, Monday drop-off. Bargain! Plus it's a 67mm lens so it fits my Kenko Pro1 CPL I collected the other day too I got for my 17-85, champion.

Nick_

Stuffing about with the L today and am starting to feel Matt's pain with these ebay triggers.

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Some more I took today.

matt mead

dude there fucking awesome... the yawning one is sick...

i have to say i told u about the ebay triggers

*waits for pay day to see how close i am to buying a 40d and 70-200 2.8*

caseyjohnphotography

sick shots, so crisp

u getting IS matt?

vegas shane

great pictures..,. good effort

matt mead

yeah do it once right lol

Nick_

You know what? This f4 had IS but I left it off, I never really needed it and any night-time shooting I do I usually have a tripod as well..(17-85 inclusive) 3rd gen IS is pretty cool but in theory with vertical-only IS.

a 2.8 over 4 would be very advantageous but I can't really justify any L lens (even when I can get a non-IS for $900 inc 7 year Mack warranty) let alone a $1300+ one. IF i had the cash of course but otherwise I think I'd just leave the IS, then again, I don't really shoot the business like you boys do.



Yeah, unfortunately this L had me realising how mediocre my little 17-85 really is, now I'm thinking more like a 24-105 f4 - Maybe one day.

caseyjohnphotography

yer, im going to save for a 24 70 2.8

Nick_

Yeah it wouldn't be bad if I had the cash, anyone willing to donate?


Nah didn't think so

Road Runner

Very very nice Nick. Before i took the 2.8 i spoke with the guy about the F/4. He said its basically just as fast and not a bad little brother to the 2.8.

Driving down today i was debating grabbing the IS or not since the price difference between the two against the actual application didn't seem justified, as the only time i usually shoot at those shutter speeds, i have my tripod anyways.........But me being the compulsive i am, bought it anyways

TUN35

Better to have it there if you need it is the way I saw it

Nick, I bet your cat is getting sick of you stick different looking objects in front of it

ps. Lay off the drugs hahaha

Kyl3

Don't buy the 70-200 2.8is.. It's not as sharp as the 2.8 version...

I'm serious.


Save yourself the extra $600

Nick_

I actually read a review where they thought the f4 was sharper then the f4 IS, 2.8 & 2.8 IS.

Road Runner

Bit late now.....Sheeze thanks man :headwall:

Heheh just kidding I honestly couldn't decide at the time so i had to go off the opinions i'd read and gotten off people on the day.

caseyjohnphotography

are u just using just 1 off camera vivitar?

Nick_

Who/what are you talking about? I've got two flashes, a Nissin 32AF I'm soon to mod, I'll put a pot on it so I can control the power as it's currently 'stock' and isn't power adjustable & I've got a $50 ebay special Nikon SB25 which is basically my main gun, but for any of my last shots I didn't use any flash, all ambient.

As for tonights mods, well.. I thought that the antenna extension idea was about over-due, I was firstly thinking of making a larger antenna on the receiver rather than the trigger as then I don't have them affecting the flash, I may still do this, then again, I may leave it how it is now - I'm feeling a little lethargic after driving from Bris to Syd this weekend (and back again of course).

So my main aim was this: Eliminate rechargeable batteries, no, scratch that, eliminate batteries all together. To do this I drilled a hole in the side of the trigger, fed through two wires which are connected to one half of an 'industrial' connector, brand unknown - but I know it's tough!, the other half is wire soldered onto the ends of a 3v lithium cell, which run forever.. Well not really, but they run for a REALLY long time - although this one is half knackered, it's been running two 30,000 MCD LED's for about 6 months now, but it's got enough chuff for the time being, soldering another battery on is the least of my worries.

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Does it work I hear you say? Do you want to go for a drive I say

Pro's:
Massive power, like.. ULEH power.

Con's:
Ugly as sin
Soldering battery
drills hole in trigger

Read the pro's about 3 more times. Yeah, it's worth it. Main issue is fitting the cell within the case, which isn't going to happen, I MAY get a 'project case' and slap it all in there, or then again I may just get a rubber band and stick that around the battery and the trigger, I mean shit.. It's not like I'm going to use this gear in the rain!!

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Also note the '433MHz antenna mod', I used rather thin gauge wire because, well it was the only fucking wire I had OKAY!? that and the fact that I wont have to 'reshape' it every time I grab my trigger.. I may piss off this limpdick aerial if I can boost the transmitting power.. No-one has seemed to think about that yet...

So far the cost of these mods : My time, worth it yet? I'll see in a week if I still get the flash going off from my back fence while i'm triggering it from across the road It can leap a house in a single bound!

Nick_

Well I thought to myself that I should've put this is the last post last night but since I had a second today to drop home I thought I'd take this as some proof.

Because I know you fools are ALL about proof

Now this image is 1500xsomething, only resized not cropped so you can see that it's clearly working from my back fence to my front fence (literally leaning on my front fence). Council tree loppers are in my street and I didn't wanna look a bit strange going across the street again without the cover of darkness so my front fence was the limit.. Even though it's only waist height and I still looked like a weirdo..

Now remember, this is with the 3v lithium cell which is, no doubt, giving the trigger some much needed power boost as well as the antenna mod - and check out the previous pic of that and note that my antenna is not thick, it's rather thin and floppy as it's meant for car wiring rather than a think single core, perhaps a single strand from network cable would work well as it's think, nice quality copper and single core rather than multi.

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How do you like them apples?? That white ball at the end is my SB25 (yeah I made the pic the worst quality I could because at 1500xsomething it's still 120kb, I think of peoples download limits). The antenna I let just flop over to the right side of the lens so not to fowl my focusing/zooming hand (or commonly referred to as the left hand). If I feel stupid enough I may test it's limits a little further by putting it on a train to Ipswich and seeing if it still works when it gets there