Photography Thailand Forum

[Don]

 Hi,  I'm very much a beginner, and doing a lot of learning by my mistakes, what I feel I'm doing best at are situations-weddings etc, and portraits, but a lot of what are good pictures for me have been taken more by good fortune rather than design.
      I have a Konica Minolta Dimage A200, which after just over a year I'm beginning to get to grips with, I think I'll wait a little longer before progressing to a SLR, any suggestions which to start with when I take the plunge ?
       The point of my subject heading is, can someone put a percentage on what great pictures are luck or design.

[bjorn slis]

Hi, and welcome Donalda,
First the (D)SLR question, as you can see in other sections on the forum there are the Canon and the Nikon users, my advice once you decided to buy an SLR, go to the shop and play with both brands (and maybe others too) for a while and then decide.
On the percentage question; in my case sometimes I have a lot of good shots on one day, and sometimes almost none, for example last Loi Kratong festival here in Chiang Mai two weeks ago I wasn't satisfied with any shots, that just happens sometimes.
What you can do is learn a lot about the technique so you won't miss any good shot because of lack of that, I guess that comes with taking lots and lots of photographs. I found that after a while the amount of photographs you take will go down and the percentage of good shots will go up.

good luck, and post some photographs here

[Don]

Hi bjorn, thank's for your help, I'll cerainly do as you suggest to go into the shops and handle a few of different makes to see what suits me, up till now Iv'e always been a bit reluctant to do that, especially knowing that I'm not going to buy there and then and the sales person looking all optimistic !!!
       Iv'e attached three of my photo's and would appreciate comments for making improvements, I attached a photo yesterday but I don't know what happend to it, what did I do wrong ?

[bjorn slis]

sorry but I don't see any attachments 

[Renato]

Donalda, there is subject in this Forum on How to Attach Photos. If you have already read it maybe you should try it again from the start. There is also a limitation on the file size of photos you can upload so if you are over the limit it will not go through. Hope this help.

[David Procter]

You learn from every photo you take
...and other cliches!

[kinginexile]

I know nothing about golf, but I feell that, on this subject of your heading, photography is a bit like a one-in-one on the course. You can get lucky, and even as a great pro, some luck gets into it, but a well trained, prepared and astute photographer will definitely be more "lucky" than others over and over. Not to speak of having the feel or intuition that something is going to happen there and not here, sooner rather than later (or vice-versa), and what appears to luck to others is actually good preparedness, awareness, swift reflexes, and an eagle's eye. You never really know where a great shot might come from, many of the greatest shots we admire have little to do with eventful luck,  (decisive moment is the contrary of luck, a bit like the difference between revelation and anecdote), but as Cartier-Bresson said,  quoting him roughly here, with the joining together at one moment of the eye, the brain, the heart and the world.  In one word, pretty cliche, but luck is what happens to you when you are ready for it. 

[Don]

A special thankyou to Kinginexile,  the breakdown and answer to my initial question is great, I think a lot of people who read it will appreciate your explanation and be all the wiser from it.

    PS.   bjorn / jingle,  I'm still looking into how to reduce photo sizes and uploading.

[bjorn slis]

Donalda:
Resize in photoshop using [Image] [Imagesize] (first set dpi to 72, and then the size to about 700 pix maximum)
then [file] [save for web] [save as jpg] (I usually choose image quality "high")
uploading the image use [new post] at the bottom [attach: choose file] and choose the right file press [more attachments] for more than 1 pic

[Don]

Hi guy's,  Donalda again,    bjorn I don't have the Photoshop program, but I think between" HP Photo & imaging" and Picasa I may have managed to reduce my photo sizes as required, anyway here goes I'll try again.[img]




    PS.  Come on guy's, give me some constructive comments on my pictures, you already know I'm a begginer and need all the help I can get.

[bjorn slis]

photo 1: I would try to get a different background, the green leaves seem to be an option, that way you get more contrast between the dragonfly and the background.
photo 2: go closer and lower, try to take it from the same hight as the subject
photo 3: all the flowers on the foreground are a little to distracting (for me) to make this into an interesting shot, I would try the three kids only. Techn. it could use a little more contrast.

allright, this is just my opinion, probably the next one will be completely different
looking forward to more photo's

[Don]

Thank's a lot bjorn, I really appreciate your advice, and will take it on board when in similar situations.