"He loved riding his Harley..."

[JDgreen227]

My younger nephew, during his senior year of high school, had to take a photograpy course and they taught him B&W, he asked me, "Uncle Bill, why do they teach it in the first place?"

My response: "Because that is how you learn best, it is much harder to take a good black and white photo than one in color. Color enhances even the most mundane snapshot and if you don't learn how to compose pictures and frame subjects properly, you are basically going to take nothing but snapshots, no matter how hard you try." Not sure if he understood, much less believed me, but he got a 3.0 grade in the class....

I remember how thrilled I was when I finally understood the relationship between shutter speeds, f-stops, depth of field, and focal length. And now 98% of my snapshots are made with an ordinary 2 mp Blackberry camera. Not much of a thrill there.

 

[TripleR]

You guys are way ahead of anything I ever did.

Not doing my own processing like my brother, I also fell victim to the auto correction or rejection of the photo labs. I took some really nice silhouettes of my youngest son standing in profile in our front doorway and the lab rejected all of them.

I am too old and lazy to get back into it and now mostly use a pocket Coolpix.

My son is taking a class in college, so maybe he will learn everything I didn't.

JDgreen227, I know what you mean on the depth of field thing, I took better pictures with my old TL-QL when I had to manually set F Stop, Shutter Speed and manually focus.

 

[RobertN]

I've done a lot of photography in the past. I still feel the best way to learn is in manual mode. All the fancy features on camera's are nice, but the basic are still the basics.

Same with composition, rule of thirds ect.

JDgreen227, I know what you mean on the depth of field thing, I took better pictures with my old TL-QL when I had to manually set F Stop, Shutter Speed and manually focus.

 

[SensibleNick]

I've done a lot of photography in the past. I still feel the best way to learn is in manual mode. All the fancy features on camera's are nice, but the basic are still the basics.

Same with composition, rule of thirds ect.

Aye: rule of 3rds is a winner

With the Digital SLRs that are about these days it's easy to play with all the settings. Someone here mentioned that they have an EOS...

Set it to Av, Turn the F-stop down to 3.5 (or 1.2 if you have show-off lenses like me) and take a photo of an item on a table... then turn the Fstop up to 18 and do the same thing. Compare the photos Depth of field is drasticly different, and so is the time needed to take the shot.

With Tv (time Variant) you can catch lightning with no problem. Just set it to 3 or 4 second shots, set it to continuous shooting, and plonk the camera on something stable and hold the button down until a shot and lightning coincide. (even better if you have a cheapo shutter-release)

Shots like this are easy... and I'm led to believe that you guys have WAY better storms than us

Most importantly... just PLAY with the camera

 

[jonyyuma]

Okay, I owned a few bikes too ..Never the famed Harley, I just did not like all the problems with the mechanics of the bike and or vibration. Back then the image of the rider was like wild thang.... I have owned two trail bikes, two Street Hondas, and a couple of others..I had two good friends killed on their harleys, and saw it engraved on one head stone...I would like to buy one of the new trike arrangements or a side car type.

 

[orezok]

Oh I'd love one of those.

In fact, a reclining computer gas chair would be even better, as I spend so much time on the darn computer getting my fix of TBN

How about this type of "gas"chair recliner?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnEU-wfvV0E]Motorized Recliner - YouTube[/ame]

 

[beppington]

No I sure can't and this hits close to home as I had to give up riding my Harley this year and gave it to my son. My son in law's father had to do the same thing.

Side car?

 

[EE_Bota]

Side car?

Or a convertible car.
Or a Can-Am Spyder.

Oh, Nick, congratulations! Very lovely family.

 

[TripleR]

Side car?

Thanks, I have considered them, but just not the same feel. I ride an ATV and it doesn't come close to my old dirt bike.

There is just nothing like leaning into the turns and swooping through the hills with lots of curves. I use to be a peg dragger, but became more sedate as I aged, still love the feel of leaning in though.

My wife's cousin was a budding young dirt track racer 40+ years ago until someone ran into the side of a car and put him in a wheel chair. Years later he had a VW trike with automatic built so he could ride with friends, but just not the same and he no longer has it.

 

[MF1652]

I used to be part of the crowd who had to have a Harley. As I got older and had back surgery, I went with a touring bike with a very upright position. Much more comfortable and I can ride all day with no back pain. I also realized I was getting old when I started to detest the loud pipes. So the new bike had to be quiet.