O yeah, that would sort of defeat continuous focus, or whatever Canon has named it. Both are great, used in the proper circumstances. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Buck" <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 12:55:54 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain Subject: [ratpack] Re: Does this work? I agree about the people. :) The focus lock is fine, but can be a problem if you're panning a fast car and it's coming toward you. In that case, you don't want to lock it. I dunno. I'm still learning things. Larry, it's good to hear that the 12x36 is easily framed. I may order some of that paper and see what happens. RtR At 09:57 PM 11/2/2009, you wrote: Yeah! That's BETTER! I love humanity, it's people I can't stand! C. You prolly know this, but most cameras have a feature where you can press the release 1/2 way down, and it will lock the focus and exposure temporarily (but don't lift your finger!) and then you can compose how you want. Works great, but you do have to cultivate a sensitive trigger...uhhh...I meant shutter...really I did... finger. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Buck" <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, November 2, 2009 9:20:27 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain Subject: [ratpack] Re: Does this work? At 08:34 PM 11/2/2009, you wrote: Ray: That is more or less a hoary old rule of thumb: have the subject traveling into or looking into the photo. All of the old masters' painitings, or at least the majority, follow the rule. And then squeeze in the rule of thirds. Da viewfinder is still the best composition tool we have. Then , modify the image to suit. Good point about the viewfinder, and I agree about the format used by the old masters. However, that sorta got discarded when impressionist or abstract or surrealist art came into vogue. If ya look at Van Gogh's paintings, some of them follow this and the other "rules" you mention. But then look at Mondrian or Jackson Pollack (aka "Jack the Dripper") or Joan Miro. There's an interesting kat. There's an interesting story about his "work ethic" but it's too long to go into here. Don't crowd the front of the subject...it's just plain uncomfortable for most people to view. It may even be on an unconscious level. I think unconscious aesthetic perception is probably a good way to describe it. Of course, rules are made to be broken,and sometimes the unusual works. The journalistic editorial mind doesn't run to the esthetic very often. That's one thing I am forever reminding myself: DON'T center it! Sometimes I even listen. Right on. This is one of the more difficult things for me to bear in mind, especially when I'm using spot focus. In that case, I want the subject to be focused, not the background or foreground. I'm still kinda struggling with that. I like the second photo of the Mustang much better. It just "feels " right. I see it now...but I didn't earlier in the year. It seems that I'm still in a steep learning curve. But I'm not bored. :) Did you post the picture of the bike with the human removed ? If so, I must have missed it. Could you post it again? It's attached to this post. Btw, this is the type of thing I'd hoped we could discuss when I first mentioned the mailing list. I hope others are getting as much out of it as I am. RtR Thanks; C. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Buck" <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, November 2, 2009 6:50:23 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain Subject: [ratpack] Re: Does this work? Could we try for the 21st? The 14th and 15th are the dates for the last event at El Mirage. I'm seriously considering going there...since I've never been to an event on the dry lakes. I agree about background. I guess it's all part of composition of the photo that ya do before ya press the shutter release. Other things like do ya want the horizon level or do ya have too much foreground? That one's tough for me, cuz I wanna put the subject of the photo right in the middle and that can leave a whole lotta stuff in the foreground. I'll use my own stuff as bad examples...and at least point out what I've learned this year. Photo 324 (the silver Mustang) is 1) more or less centered in the photo vertically and 2) it's closer to the left side of the photo than the right. The other way of saying it is that the car has less room to go than where it came from. I had this beaten into my head quite a bit this year...the idea being that there should be more room for the car or bike to go when compared to where it's been. I was told that photo editors would crop the back end off a car in order to get it to "look right" with more leading space than trailing. A different crop of it (324a) shows the car positioned differently in the photo...off-center vertically and horizontally, less foreground and more leading space than trailing. I dunno if I can say that the 2nd one would make its way into a magazine where the 1st one would be rejected...but the 2nd crop is what I'm looking for now as the result of what I've seen and been told. The other thing is that the watermark is not as prominent and I've saturated the color a little more. I'll make LOGNULL NowTransReader::ReadIt() JJFileMT::Truncate(14652733) LOGNULL NowTransReader::ReadIt() JJFileMT::Truncate(0) another post about print size and imLOGNULL NowTransReader::ReadIt() JJFileMT::Truncate(14597166) LOGNULL NowTransReader::ReadIt() JJFileMT::Truncate(0) age size. I'd love comments on these...anyone's ideas, what they've learned, seen, etc. RtR At 04:16 PM 11/2/2009, you wrote: Speaking of getting together....How about Nov.14? Getting the dude out of the photo did clean it up a lot. The only thing that I could think of that would make the photo stand out is a different position. My first thought was that if Ray had been several feet to the left, then you would see what the guy was filming/ interviewing. That would have told more of a story to me. The bike in the foreground, the builder/ rider being filmed/interviewed in the background. Like Carl said we need to be aware of background. Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry Knight To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 4:09 PM Subject: [ratpack] Re: Does this work? Now that is lovely, nice work Ray. I know Paul would print it 30 x 20 and bring it to our next meeting. On a similar subject, I'll bring one of mine I blew up and hate. We talked about size of photo vs size of print a little. This will show you what I meant and maybe you guys can see if you have ever had a cropped picture do this to you, but I'll bring it, we will talk I'll shut back up again Larry -----Original Message----- From: ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [ mailto:ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ] On Behalf Of Ray Buck Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 3:56 PM To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ratpack] Re: Does this work? No need to quit. This list is for posting to, so if ya got something to say, go for it. Since the last version of the bike photo, I hired a hit man and had the 2 guys in the photo wiped out. Nobody but us chickens here now. I gotta go lie down. I still feel like dog shit. RtR At 03:43 PM 11/2/2009, you wrote: >Ray, >I like it better, but that guy is still standing there, I am sorry to >say. >(sorry for this flurry of e-mails, I'll quit now) Resend if you do >clone brush him out, I like the shot!! >Lar