taken about 6.30 this morning when i came home through my skywatcher 150p, used elements to lift the saturation a bit but haven't cropped it at all

Sweet! Do you have a camera mount or do you press the lens to the eyepiece?

on the skywatcher if you remove the eyepiece adapter, you can fit a DSLR directly to the focuser with a t ring adapter.

there's a bit more to come on the focus in the future as the sky had a bit of high mist and the scope hasn't been colminated since i collected it. a big help is i've got a viewfinder magnifier which makes any focus errors more clear.

itsthe first time i've had a chance to try the camera through it so quite pleased

Tried a few shots with a green laser pointer...

First one is a wine glass filled with water. Macro lens and magnifying filter.

Second one is the "laser beam" itself. Aswell with the macro lens and magnifying filter, image is cropped... about 50%.

Third one is the laser pointer from the front, at about 45 degree angle. 500mm mirror lens, image cropped... about 70%.

Shot a bunch of local bands last weekend.





More can be found at my Flickr account.

3 photos of "my" car

http://spangler.cz/photos/skoda_octavia/

so this was probably my last rally event for me this year - although it wasnt proper rally, it was a meeting of rally and offroad drivers who competed in various disciplines.
heavy snowfall in the morning made the conditions very difficult, poor camera
http://rallyphotos.cz/photos/walasska_rallysou_evo2/

Spangler, wash that thing, please! Love the LFS sticker on the back! I assume that is an actual sticker, or did you photoshop it on?

Don, love the shot of the yellow truck busting through the FE Green CTRA hay bale barriers

hehe.. looks like a Range Rover, if I'm not mistaken!

Should we start up a monthly photography project, like we used to do with avatars? Something like "red, sharp and pointed".. then we all scuttle off to create our photographic representations? Perhaps we could start off with a "glossy magazine photo of your car" or something like that.

Quote from mrodgers :

Spangler, wash that thing, please! Love the LFS sticker on the back! I assume that is an actual sticker, or did you photoshop it on?

Yep, its real

We got our asses handed back by a feline.

The damn cat takes better pictures than any of us.

Quote from SamH :

Should we start up a monthly photography project, like we used to do with avatars? Something like "red, sharp and pointed".. then we all scuttle off to create our photographic representations? Perhaps we could start off with a "glossy magazine photo of your car" or something like that.

That'd be neat. There's loads of photography competitions on, err, photography message boards but often the standard is just so high and they take it so seriously that it's probably litle fun and has little appeal to the more casual/opportunist photographer.

Which is what I class myself as after the past couple of months, having barely taken any pictures at all - been totally lacking in ideas, inspiration or motivation. A fairly light hearted photog comp might be the ticket - just as long as the usual uber-fake HDR images are prohibited.

Yeah, the monthly photo thing would be cool. I specifically joined one forum because of the monthly assignments, but was quickly shown I was out of my league. Too many actual good professionals to even compare my images with.

I fully agree with Strobes opinion of the HDR stuff floating all around the net also. I like a good HDR image, when it's done as true HDR. Too many people now think that the horribly tonemapped into cartoon images are HDR.

And, since Sam shared his moon, I'll share mine. It's not recent, but was taken handheld with a superzoom point and shoot. I'm still sorting through images from the beginning of the year through now for upload...

Fuji S5700, 1/1000s, f/3.5, ISO100


Here's from the local RC field during their 3rd annual "FunFly".

Fuji S5700, 1/250, f/14, ISO100


And a final one from earlier in the summer.

Fuji S5700, 1/100, f/3.5, ISO100

Quote from STROBE :

There's loads of photography competitions on, err, photography message boards but often the standard is just so high and they take it so seriously that it's probably litle fun and has little appeal to the more casual/opportunist photographer.

Which is what I class myself as after the past couple of months, having barely taken any pictures at all - been totally lacking in ideas, inspiration or motivation. A fairly light hearted photog comp might be the ticket - just as long as the usual uber-fake HDR images are prohibited.

Exactly where I'm at! I can't compete on the photography forums. The best I can manage is to lurk. I'm not worthy, etc. They're awesome photographers, but they're "up there" and I'm most definitely "down here".

I wouldn't mind getting my photography ass handed to me by my LFS buds, though. If the field were pwnd by spanky or Don every month, I wouldn't care and would still participate. Ego safe among friends etc.

Great lunar shot, Mike.. these point and shoot cameras really are capable these days!

Got my Nikon D40 last friday, just experimenting at the moment tbh. Have to say im impressed with the quality for such a cheap SLR though...

Quote from VALE 46 :

Got my Nikon D40 last friday, just experimenting at the moment tbh. Have to say im impressed with the quality for such a cheap SLR though...

You should say inexpensive. The D40 is anything but cheap build quality
Almost any SLR of any make today will give you excellent quality pictures if used properly.

Quote from Toddshooter :

Almost any SLR of any make today will give you excellent quality pictures if used properly.

That's the key right there. I have a $200 Fuji S5700 superzoom point and shoot. My coworker brought his Canon XTi and lenses that paid $1500 or so for into work one day. I had a go with it and couldn't get a good image out of it.

He laughs at me because I use my cheap point and shoot in full manual and he claims his XTi is great because it does everything full automatic (he knows nothing about photography). I get better pictures out of my point and shoot than he gets from his XTi, and I get FAR better from my camera than I get with his. The difference in me using mine versus his boils down to the fact that I know my camera and don't know a thing about his. If given an hour with his to figure out the difference between f/3.5 on my camera versus his, and how his exposes compared to mine, the XTi would blow mine out of the water.

Know your camera and know how to use it, that is the key.

Quote from Toddshooter :

You should say inexpensive. The D40 is anything but cheap build quality
Almost any SLR of any make today will give you excellent quality pictures if used properly.

True.. true. Same as mrodgers said, its not the camera... but the person behind it. True.. true. People seem to be in a very truthful mood apparently lol

Quote from VALE 46 :

True.. true. Same as mrodgers said, its not the camera... but the person behind it. True.. true. People seem to be in a very truthful mood apparently lol

Most people fall for the Megapixel BullS$%# and don't think they need to know anything to get great pictures. You can put your camera on full auto and get good pics , but if you want great pics you need to think about what the light is doing and switch to manual.
The camera is stupid you are the one with the brain!

If anyone is interested here is a great group of guys that talk photography and really know their stuff. Alex Linsey used to be on "Call for Help" with Leo Laporte. http://twipphoto.com/

You might also try Ken Rockwell's huge guide on photography. This guy's been making photographs before he could walk. (Seriously).

Oh and you don't really need to switch to Manual to get your own creativity in there. If your camera has any programmable automatic mode, Aperture priority or Shutterspeed priority mode, use that. The sensors in 21st century cameras are as good as or even better than the best photographer's eye so they will do the rest of the settings so you won't have to. It would only take off your eyes off of your subject or scene way too much, which is ruining the creativity.

I did some more film photography. Developed and printed all in the darkroom, then framed with the carpet in my room.

Nice photos... however, it would be nice to have them scanned. It's a bit weird to look at pictures of pictures...

Fourth page of the Off-Topic section! Time to get it back!

I've been working on and off with this (gallery). I haven't been playing much with the photos lately, but I did finally get a few uploaded. The first ones I uploaded loads a little slow for me, so I still have to reupload a little smaller file size. I'm not sure if it's my connection, photobucket, or the general size of the images.

What ya guys think?

Those are some very nice pictures, Mike!

I actually had a go with a Canon 40D and a 18-55 kit lens, I couldn't get one good picture out of it! I quickly returned it and stayed with my Nikon Coolpix 5600, just didn't have enough heart to fool around with it and learn how to use it properly.

My next DSLR will be much more entry level! Thinking about a Nikon D80.

Quote from MINIz guy :

Those are some very nice pictures, Mike!

I actually had a go with a Canon 40D and a 18-55 kit lens, I couldn't get one good picture out of it! I quickly returned it and stayed with my Nikon Coolpix 5600, just didn't have enough heart to fool around with it and learn how to use it properly.

My next DSLR will be much more entry level! Thinking about a Nikon D80.

Thanks MINIz. I was the same way when I tried a coworker's XTi and kit lens. I couldn't get a good shot either. I didn't have time to mess around, as well as he thought I would mess everything all up changing things and looking at the menus. Yeah, I'd mess it all up, he spent $1500+ (eBay kit) on a point and shoot because he uses nothing but full auto, LOL.

I've come to the conclusion I want a Nikon D90. Someone just posted this shot at ISO 3200 up on the photo forum I'm on. If the D90 does that well at ISO 3200, I MUST have it!