March 2011 Photo & Captions Comment Thread

[Stefan-A]

It doesn't take much of a camera to compete in these contests and against people who aren't professional photographers. Besides, people are not necessarily voting for the best picture from a technical standpoint anyway, but the one they like the most. Sometimes getting that winning picture requires luck, sometimes it requires preparation, but never once have I seen a winning contest entry that could only have been taken with a high-end camera.

[zooplan]

It doesn't take much of a camera to compete in these contests and against people who aren't professional photographers. Besides, people are not necessarily voting for the best picture from a technical standpoint anyway, but the one they like the most. Sometimes getting that winning picture requires luck, sometimes it requires preparation, but never once have I seen a winning contest entry that could only have been taken with a high-end camera.

Déjà-vu ???
Haven´t I read this post before?

you´r right about luck and preparation...
and a good camera is a kind of it

[ConcinusMan]

Well I don't find it to be a coincidence that I never once posted a halfway decent picture (IMO) of any of my snakes until I upgraded to a better camera. Seems that it doesn't matter what you do, shatty cam = shatty pic. It can make the difference between a pic that is just OK and one that is great.

However, I only one the contest once and you guessed it, it was with my old shatty camera. I didn't bother editing to try to "improve" the picture either.

Still, it's regrettable I didn't make that shot with the better camera.

I don't see any good reason for needing to edit to get a plain background. Surely anyone has available to them a background that qualifies as "plain"

[Stefan-A]

Déjà-vu ???
Haven´t I read this post before?

you´r right about luck and preparation...
and a good camera is a kind of it

I'll keep repeating it as long as it's true.

Most cameras are good.

[zooplan]

Ok, you can get this from a Fuji FinePix S5800 without editing (excepting cut and scaled)

But it requires a lot of experience, set up, preparation, lighting, a calm snake and

...luck!

[Stefan-A]

Panasonic FZ5. No editing apart from cropping and resizing. No preparation beyond using a tripod for stability, and it was not a calm snake.



Taken with a Panasonic FX3. No editing apart from cropping and resizing. No preparation apart from feeding.




And this is a thumbnail created automatically by the FX3 for a video clip. Not edited, cropped or resized. That's what the camera saved when I pushed the record button. Obviously no preparation involved, pure luck.





The Thamnophis poster features one photo of mine taken with a 2.0 Mp Fuji Finepix 2600 and another taken with the 5 Mp Panasonic FZ5.

[guidofatherof5]

Very nice photos, guys.

[ConcinusMan]

Ok then guys. You can't seriously tell me those shots would be that nice taken with a cell phone or similar quality camera.

[Stefan-A]

A cell phone's a cell phone, not a camera, no matter how much it pretends to be one.

[ConcinusMan]

I've had a few cameras in my time that weren't much better. After I joined the forum and got so dang frustrated with trying to get good photos (just couldn't capture their true colors) I finally got fed up and got a new one. That's when I started getting some awesome shots.