Introduce yourself !

[Frederic]

Like probably most of us i have started photography with the 35mm film. My first decent camera was the analogue Canon EOS300 that came with a standard kit lens and a 75-300mm Canon zoom lens. I got hooked immediately to how the camera was always able to give me good quality images, but i never found the time to get into all the manual settings and the digital age started to creep in. I sold that camera and went for a Lumix FZ8 which was a small but capable digital camera with a very impressive zoom. Unfortunately this camera never gave me that feeling the Canon did, and for many years i never paid too much attention too it as it was busy pursuing my career, being a DJ, and balancing with family life.

I found myself taking lots of snaps with my Iphone (6,8) which was acceptable but again never dug into the possible settings.

Last year on a business trip to Poland i was able to pick up a Canon EOS 5D Mark 2 with a Canon 50mm 1.8 prime lens, 24-105mm Canon lens, and a 70-300mm Sigma zoom lens and i got hooked immediately by getting the real DSLR feeling back and i started taking some snaps in the city in late evening. Since then i've started reading lots of tutorials, manuals, books, to be able to use the camera in a better way. Currently i mostly shoot in Aperture Priority mode and like black and white candid photography the most.

I recently got the latest Iphone 12 Pro Max with the 26mm f/1.6 lens and i am amazed with the quality of the photos, especially landscape photography with the wide angle lens.I took an online course with IphonePhotographySchool which provides a lot of information on how to use the Iphone to take amazing photos and i hope to use this club to share more information and become a much better photographer !

I have a DJI Phantom Pro 3 as well, and registered as a private user. I am looking forward to using this drone more often and learn more about the settings.

 

[Ale Vallecchi]

Thanks @Frederic for the great new club.

As far as introductions go, alongside my previous activity (more a hobby) as adventure tour guide (see other threads), I enjoyed photographing the extreme places I had the fortune of visiting. Since we are speaking of a different era (it truly is, in terms of technological advancements), those photos were taken with a series of reflex machines: first Minolta, then Canon, and finally the gem of the times (talking about the middle 1990's), a professional Nikon F5 and a Nikon F100, with Nikkor lenses. I guess my approach in photography has been as the one I had with off-roading: first learn how to "drive", then upgrade to a better car. So I first taught myself the skills and tricks of photography using a basic camera, then slowly moved up to more sophisticated machines, which just allowed me to capture a few more things (quicker focus, more range of exposing options in manual, longer and/or wider lenses), but didn't add much to my abilities to choose subjects, frames, lights, etc.. I used to travel with the 2 camera bodies on me at all times, each mounting a different lens (a wide angle zoom with 17-24 mm opening, and a telephoto 70-300mm zoom). This made me always ready to "draw", and gave me many more opportunities to shoot different subjects and situations. Hard to believe nowadays, those cameras used real film rolls. I used to favor Fuji Velvia 50, for its vivid greens and blues, and Ektakchrome E100 for its warm reds and oranges. I would normally leave for a trip with between 50 and 100 rolls, and ended up taking an average of  around 2,000 shots each trip. One reason for this enormous number of pics was that I liked to use underexposure and overexposure with most shots, to ensure a variety of color hues with the same pic, from which to chose my favorite). Also, the risk of not getting the right photo was quite high (no live viewing of the pic), hence more shots were taken of the same subject, just in case. I used to work a lot in manual, and sometimes with A priority (less times with S priority). Each photo was the result of a thought process, which forced me to think about a lot of variables, before and while shooting, that made each chosen photo (not more than 100 each trip) extremely satisfying. 

Then, digital photography appeared. Slowly but surely, great film types and brands went out of production, reflex cameras were virtually terminated, photos started to be viewed on a PC rather than with a projector (you wouldn't believe the difference if you haven't seen it), immediate reviewing became available, automatism started to kick in, and photography lost all its poetic meaning, for my. At least, it became a much colder, mechanical means of expression, in my opinion. So, here I am, an old-timer in the world of today's quick and cheap photos. I have tried using digital cameras, only to be displeased by the lack of detail, warmth and finesse that old slide mounted pics possessed. I have used all the ready-made tricks the new camera's menus have to offer, but they all have given an artificial feeling to my photos. 

So I am doing what most of us do today: I use my cell phone (and indeed some take great quality pictures), while trying to apply the old tricks, learned in a foregone analog world, in terms of how to "cut" a photo, angles, choice of subjects, and all that went into the preparation of a nice, well constructed shot. This has still allowed me to take some nice photos of our deserts, during our drives, which I will be very happy to share with you on this thread. And thanks again to Fred for coming up with this idea, which will has surely revived my desire to take pics. 

[Frederic]

2 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Thanks @Frederic for the great new club.

As far as introductions go, alongside my previous activity (more a hobby) as adventure tour guide (see other threads), I enjoyed photographing the extreme places I had the fortune of visiting. Since we are speaking of a different era (it truly is, in terms of technological advancements), those photos were taken with a series of reflex machines: first Minolta, then Canon, and finally the gem of the times (talking about the middle 1990's), a professional Nikon F5 and a Nikon F100, with Nikkor lenses. I guess my approach in photography has been as the one I had with off-roading: first learn how to "drive", then upgrade to a better car. So I first taught myself the skills and tricks of photography using a basic camera, then slowly moved up to more sophisticated machines, which just allowed me to capture a few more things (quicker focus, more range of exposing options in manual, longer and/or wider lenses), but didn't add much to my abilities to choose subjects, frames, lights, etc.. I used to travel with the 2 camera bodies on me at all times, each mounting a different lens (a wide angle zoom with 17-24 mm opening, and a telephoto 70-300mm zoom). This made me always ready to "draw", and gave me many more opportunities to shoot different subjects and situations. Hard to believe nowadays, those cameras used real film rolls. I used to favor Fuji Velvia 50, for its vivid greens and blues, and Ektakchrome E100 for its warm reds and oranges. I would normally leave for a trip with between 50 and 100 rolls, and ended up taking an average of  around 2,000 shots each trip. One reason for this enormous number of pics was that I liked to use underexposure and overexposure with most shots, to ensure a variety of color hues with the same pic, from which to chose my favorite). Also, the risk of not getting the right photo was quite high (no live viewing of the pic), hence more shots were taken of the same subject, just in case. I used to work a lot in manual, and sometimes with A priority (less times with S priority). Each photo was the result of a thought process, which forced me to think about a lot of variables, before and while shooting, that made each chosen photo (not more than 100 each trip) extremely satisfying. 

Then, digital photography appeared. Slowly but surely, great film types and brands went out of production, reflex cameras were virtually terminated, photos started to be viewed on a PC rather than with a projector (you wouldn't believe the difference if you haven't seen it), immediate reviewing became available, automatism started to kick in, and photography lost all its poetic meaning, for my. At least, it became a much colder, mechanical means of expression, in my opinion. So, here I am, an old-timer in the world of today's quick and cheap photos. I have tried using digital cameras, only to be displeased by the lack of detail, warmth and finesse that old slide mounted pics possessed. I have used all the ready-made tricks the new camera's menus have to offer, but they all have given an artificial feeling to my photos. 

So I am doing what most of us do today: I use my cell phone (and indeed some take great quality pictures), while trying to apply the old tricks, learned in a foregone analog world, in terms of how to "cut" a photo, angles, choice of subjects, and all that went into the preparation of a nice, well constructed shot. This has still allowed me to take some nice photos of our deserts, during our drives, which I will be very happy to share with you on this thread. And thanks again to Fred for coming up with this idea, which will has surely revived my desire to take pics. 

Thanks for the wonderful introduction Ale, i agree that going to digital has brought a lot of challenges for many of us. I loved the fact that on 35mm films we really needed to think before shooting, because otherwise the roll would be full before realizing it. Now we can point and shoot at anything and delete it whenever we want. The same thing happened to music, where i still have more than 500 vinyl records and few thousands CD's stored in my basement but everything became MP3 and here we are using Spotify as it has become so much easier.

to bring back these hues that analog films typically had is possible nowadays with Adobe Lightroom that has thousands of possibilities. But i think for now let's focus on trying to have fun with shooting with our favorite cameras and learning some tricks from each other.

I've always been jealous of my wedding photographer who persistently stuck with his old Leica gear and the joy of spending few hours per day in his dark room. He once opened the boot of his car and there were probably 15-20 high end cameras thrown in there. Now many years later he went digital too but he must surely miss these old days.. (see him below fighting with his gear)...

 

[sertac]

I am a photography and especially analog photography freak. I never enjoyed these new technology toys. I had tried many different analog cameras and at the end I am a Nikon and Mamiya freak.

In Dubai there is very active Analog photography club. With them I joined the Sikka Art Festival 2018. One of my picture find a place in the exhibition. 

When I was living in Istanbul I was having more free time and a city that can be photographed every second. In Dubai mostly because of work I slowed down. I was mostly producing Street photos. 

Currently I have;

Nikon F3, Nikon FE2 bodies as 35mm.

With them I am. Using;

Samyang 8mm 

Vivitar 24mm f2.8

Nikon 28mm f2.8ai

Nikon 35mm f2.8ais

Nikon 50mm f1.2 ai

Nippon Q 135mm f2.8

Vivitar 70-150mm

As medium format I have;

Mamiya 645

Mamiya RB67

Mamiya C220 

Other then these I have Fujifilm XE1 and Sony A7ii digital cameras. 

 

[Frederic]

25 minutes ago, sertac said:

I am a photography and especially analog photography freak. I never enjoyed these new technology toys. I had tried many different analog cameras and at the end I am a Nikon and Mamiya freak.

In Dubai there is very active Analog photography club. With them I joined the Sikka Art Festival 2018. One of my picture find a place in the exhibition. 

When I was living in Istanbul I was having more free time and a city that can be photographed every second. In Dubai mostly because of work I slowed down. I was mostly producing Street photos. 

Currently I have;

Nikon F3, Nikon FE2 bodies as 35mm.

With them I am. Using;

Samyang 8mm 

Vivitar 24mm f2.8

Nikon 28mm f2.8ai

Nikon 35mm f2.8ais

Nikon 50mm f1.2 ai

Nippon Q 135mm f2.8

Vivitar 70-150mm

As medium format I have;

Mamiya 645

Mamiya RB67

Mamiya C220 

Other then these I have Fujifilm XE1 and Sony A7ii digital cameras. 

 

Wow that is mighty impressive @sertac !
I totally agree on the analog photography addiction. It cannot be compared with shooting digital.

Where do you develop your films ? in Black and White at home, or you send it out to printing studio ?

@Ale Vallecchi

Below software has emulation for Fujilm Velvia 50 and quite a few others:

DxO FilmPack Features

 

 

[sertac]

7 minutes ago, Frederic said:

Wow that is mighty impressive @sertac !
I totally agree on the analog photography addiction. It cannot be compared with shooting digital.

Where do you develop your films ? in Black and White at home, or you send it out to printing studio ?

@Ale Vallecchi

Below software has emulation for Fujilm Velvia 50 and quite a few others:

DxO FilmPack Features

 

 

Thanks i used to develop them by myself even I was printing them myself if they are B&W. Lately since I am not taking a lot of pictures I have a friend developing film as business, he is doing for me. But if we create a group to make B&W pictures with analog cameras I still have my tools with me. 

[Ale Vallecchi]

On 12/30/2020 at 4:55 PM, Frederic said:

Wow that is mighty impressive @sertac !
I totally agree on the analog photography addiction. It cannot be compared with shooting digital.

Where do you develop your films ? in Black and White at home, or you send it out to printing studio ?

@Ale Vallecchi

Below software has emulation for Fujilm Velvia 50 and quite a few others:

DxO FilmPack Features

 

 

Thanks @Frederic. I will look into that 😅

[Rahimdad]

Hi @Frederic, this is wonderful. I was always looking forward to someone starting a Photography club on Carnity. I am the worst photographer in the world, I can't even get decent pics with a point and shoot camera which has automatic settings to everything. Guess I just get lucky about twice annually to boost my ego and carry on clicking pics. I find photography very confusing, but love to listen to the gurus trying to guide me while I nod my empty head to make them think I understand. Must be frustrating for the photo gurus just like I find it difficult at time when explaining everything to a member while off-roading and he nods and goes about giving full gas when a blip, blip ( @Gaurav (TM)) is required. I am just here to listen to the gurus and hope that something sticks. Please bare with me, as my photography is more like my poetry which should have rhyming words, just keep clicking atleast i have captured something than not having a memory at all.  

[Frederic]

2 minutes ago, Rahimdad said:

Hi @Frederic, this is wonderful. I was always looking forward to someone starting a Photography club on Carnity. I am the worst photographer in the world, I can't even get decent pics with a point and shoot camera which has automatic settings to everything. Guess I just get lucky about twice annually to boost my ego and carry on clicking pics. I find photography very confusing, but love to listen to the gurus trying to guide me while I nod my empty head to make them think I understand. Must be frustrating for the photo gurus just like I find it difficult at time when explaining everything to a member while off-roading and he nods and goes about giving full gas when a blip, blip ( @Gaurav (TM)) is required. I am just here to listen to the gurus and hope that something sticks. Please bare with me, as my photography is more like my poetry which should have rhyming words, just keep clicking atleast i have captured something than not having a memory at all.  

Thanks @Rahimdad i agree that photography can come over as looking complicated and technical, but don't forget the most essential rule of photography:

CAPTURING A MOMENT IN ITS ESSENCE

The magic of photography is opening your eyes completely, just like a musician would hear so much more things in a song, or a painter sees so many more colors than we do, we need to practice "looking" and finding the soul in objects, situations, or people. Once you have mastered that you will be able to take any cheap camera around and be able to capture a stunning image.

[Thomas Varghese]

@Frederic u nailed it by saying "CAPTURING A MOMENT IN ITS ESSENCE" and that's all what I do. Later I fiddle with the shot in lightroom and try to give it a color grading as per my liking. Unfortunately my monitor is not color graded professionally and most of the time its hit & miss. Some turn out good some bad. I had a Zenith film camera when I was a kid but I'm not a fan of film photography. I have my reasons for liking DSLR more. 1st and most important is the cost of photography is virtually ZERO after the initial cost of the equipment with a DSLR as you are not wasting any film and finding out later that you made a mistake in exposure or shutter speed and even in choosing the right film speed. In analogue once you fix a particular film to a camera you can't change the speed or the color and you are stuck with that film until you finish the entire roll. The DSLR gives you much more versatility in terms of color, the speed you want to for different pictures and reshooting the scene immediately if you made a mistake in the aperture or shutter speed as the captured shot is immediately displayed on the LCD screen rather than waiting for the film to be processed a couple of days later and realizing you made a mistake. By that time the whole scenario and environment has changed and you cannot shoot the same scene anymore. U can no longer capture the moment in its essence. I don't have fancy DSLR's and fancy lenses but is doing it with entry level cameras and kit lenses. Maybe I need them but I'm happy with what I have now.