I met AVBG Alex. Also pics of Lee Priest.

[Tapeworm]

Good stuff lovemonkey a true professional it seems. Post some more of those Hiter videos you made of Getbiggers some hilarious stuff right there.

Did he do one with Vince Basile ranting about the Getbig flotsam?

[Mr Nobody]

Did he do one with Vince Basile ranting about the Getbig flotsam?

I havent seen that yet lovemonkey we have a new request.

[TrueGrit]

The Hitler things were great but I found the text didn't stay on screen long enough to always read it..

[lovemonkey]

The Hitler things were great but I found the text didn't stay on screen long enough to always read it..

Yes yes I noticed this too after a while. I'll make it better next time.

[noworries]

Lovemonkey, very nice.  See with one post you have made yourself very credible.  Good job.  I just hate when people like Goodrum talking about shit he has no business talking about and others too.  At least you are a professional and can walk the walk.  With that I still think Basile photos are fine.  He has neevr said he was a pro but just does it for fun.  And I envy him a little living in Australia.

[lovemonkey]

Lovemonkey, very nice.  See with one post you have made yourself very credible.  Good job.  I just hate when people like Goodrum talking about shit he has no business talking about and others too.  At least you are a professional and can walk the walk.  With that I still think Basile photos are fine.  He has neevr said he was a pro but just does it for fun.  And I envy him a little living in Australia.

Hey thanks, it's all good.

Why I pick on Basile is because he's been spending way too much money on camera gear instead of going out there and getting it done(taking photos). This is common among older men taking up photography as a part of their late-life crisis. Imagine how much he could have traveled and taken photos of exotic locations with 20k+ dollars. Holy shit!! Oh well, his loss.

[noworries]

Hey thanks, it's all good.

Why I pick on Basile is because he's been spending way too much money on camera gear instead of going out there and getting it done(taking photos). This is common among older men taking up photography as a part of their late-life crisis. Imagine how much he could have traveled and taken photos of exotic locations with 20k+ dollars. Holy shit!! Oh well, his loss.

Yea but Basile is fine financially.  A $5000 camera for a hobby he likes so much is really nothing.  I mean if you can afford it then why not get the best you can.  Its like a car, some people spend a ton on a car and some don't.  its all relative.  Either way you guys take a whole better photos than I do.

[Natural Man]

looks like avbg doesnt like to lift weights.

[Vince B]

I used to shoot with a Nikon SLR for decades. I never bothered about the lenses as long as I had a few. I started using digital cameras in 2003 with a Canon G3. Every year I upgraded until the G10. Along the way I found I couldn't take photos of athletics because I would miss the throwers most of the time. So I bought a Nikon D80. I upgraded after a couple of years to the D300. Last year I switched to Canon to get the 21 Mp, video and cheaper lenses. You won't see much difference with a limit of 300kb but when you examine photos at 100% you see a big difference. You can't have too many pixels. At the moment 35mm full frame digital is the best all-round solution for portability and quality at a reasonable price.

Why anyone would criticize someone else for what they own is beyond me. Who cares? If someone wants to drive a Porsche then that is his business. Everyone who owns a camera knows who has better equipment. I don't put anyone down and often help others who are taking photos. Pros don't tend to be so helpful.

I consider myself a good photographer but there is an awful lot to learn and it is so easy to mess up from time to time. As long as I am improving then I enjoy what I am doing.

Sure you can take snapshots with just about any digital camera. Some dude won awards and uses a point and shoot because he covers war zones and his small camera isn't questioned or noticed much. Anyone who enjoys photography will want the best lenses and bodies. I don't believe anyone who says they don't.

[ManBearPig...]

You know Alex, the one thing I have never enjoyed or accepted from the Aussies is their sense of humour. The Aussies fabricate things and think that is funny. They get the blokes to dress up as sheilas for a laugh. I make jokes about the truth. That is the humour I found in America and you still see it on TV. Raymond's show is just everyone putting each other down. Of course, this kind of humour doesn't go over so good on the internet and some take offense.

So I don't always detect when someone is pulling my leg. Even the girls do it here. I tend to believe what people say and get disappointed, then they tell me they were kidding me. One year on my birthday this Guitar store phoned me to tell me they had a special guitar in and were holding it for me. So I rushed over and when I got there he told me it was gone. I was bitterly disappointed and left the shop in a huff. The owner chased me up the street and I found out my ex had bought me a Brazilian Rosewood Martin D41 which cost a fortune. My day was spoiled even after getting that amazing gift.

After just reading that you play guitar, i'm gonna go home and smash mine, you pussy.

[Natural Man]

oh please... photography is one of the easiest "hobby" to have, just buy a fucking expensive camera and here you go, you re an expert,you take great looking pictures, as simple as that, stop trying to bullshit  us with how it requires any kind of talent. I can see several morons like you every week end in the local park. Most of em are lonely guys with no personnality or retired people. It's the failed man's hobby. Anyone can do it, it requires no skill at all and most people always take the same kind of stupid pictures everyone else is taking. Fact is nobody gives a flying fuck about any pictures taken by these morons, not even their wives -when they have one- or family, nor do the whole fucking world. Especially when the pictures are all the same and we ve seen it ten thousands times already.

[ManBearPig...]

oh please... photography is one of the easiest "hobby" to have, just buy a fucking expensive camera and here you go, you re an expert,you take great looking pictures, as simple as that, stop trying to bullshit  us with how it requires any kind of talent. I can see several morons like you every week end in the local park. Most of em are lonely guys with no personnality or retired people. It's the failed man's hobby. Anyone can do it, it requires no skill at all and most people always take the same kind of stupid pictures everyone else is taking.

i don't know about you, but since the advent of facebook and other shit sites, everyone has to take photographs of every single fucking thing.

fat chicks especially.  i was at a wedding and this guy's fat wife kept taking pictures of everyone doing everything.  every time i took a swig out of my beer bottle, she was standing there, snapping away, fucking fat bitch.  (ps, i'm not a looker or anything, she was just taking 300 photos a minute, so i was always in them)

[lovemonkey]

Yea but Basile is fine financially.  A $5000 camera for a hobby he likes so much is really nothing.  I mean if you can afford it then why not get the best you can.  Its like a car, some people spend a ton on a car and some don't.  its all relative.  Either way you guys take a whole better photos than I do.

If you look at it that way sure. Like successful stockbrokers getting cars that they have no business driving really, it's all a showoff. But they're usually not claiming to be actual race car drivers just because they own a 400hp car.

But >>25k dollars<< in camera gear(as he told us in this thread), especially if it's spent on consumer brands like Canon/Nikon and not Hasselblad/Mamayia, is a whole lot of goddamn money to spend. It's excessive. There's absolutely no need to have that much equipment unless you are one of two things:

1) A full fledged pro that has to have all of this equipment in order to do his job properly. These people work with photography almost 24/7 and their entire income depends being able to take out their high-end gear out in the field and expect to have it beat up at some point. They usually have several cameras on them because they don't have time to change lenses.

2) Old schmucks that spends way too much money on camera gear because the equipment itself gives them more satisfaction than actually taking good pictures.

I have a feeling Basile belongs to #2. And fine, it really doesn't have anything to do with me but I just can't help but point out how ridiculous it is.

[lovemonkey]

oh please... photography is one of the easiest "hobby" to have, just buy a fucking expensive camera and here you go, you re an expert,you take great looking pictures, as simple as that, stop trying to bullshit  us with how it requires any kind of talent. I can see several morons like you every week end in the local park. Most of em are lonely guys with no personnality or retired people. It's the failed man's hobby. Anyone can do it, it requires no skill at all and most people always take the same kind of stupid pictures everyone else is taking. Fact is nobody gives a flying fuck about any pictures taken by these morons, not even their wives -when they have one- or family, nor do the whole fucking world. Especially when the pictures are all the same and we ve seen it ten thousands times already.

This=truth

I'm not saying I'm any better than those people but at least I admit that photography is nothing special really, at this point it's just a huge fad.

[Coach is Back!]

Here is a scene from Mount Wilson. A great place to visit up in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Those overseas should understand that Sydney is on the same latitude as LA and Atlanta. About 35 degrees from the equator. The Canadian border is 49 degrees. That is why I moved to Australia. That and to get work to support my family in 1971.

Pic says May10. I take it you're in LA now?

[Vince B]

I will demonstrate why the 5DII and expensive lenses are worthwhile.

Photos taken at Echo Point at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. I set my tripod up after dark and took these photos. 30 second exposures. There were a couple of people trying to capture the scene but with less success because their equipment wasn't good enough. I used my 70-200 F4is lens @ 97mm and was pleased at the detail I captured. The light was about 200 metres away so wasn't that bright.

The second photo was with my 500mm F4 lens. The part of the first Sister was captured and it was almost in the dark up there. Quite impressive detail which is the 3rd photo.  Good tools in photography cost a lot of money. Professionals know this. Sure, just because you have expensive equipment doesn't mean your photos are better. However, I like being in the situation where I can't blame my equipment.
When I finished shooting it was 8pm and there was nobody around. Not too smart because I have a lot to lose if I get mugged. Anyway, what I do isn't what most tourists do.

There are lots of categories of photographers and not just two as our learned friend obviously knows. Like I said, pros aren't that friendly.

Sorry, photos mixed up after I edited the first photo as it was 97mm and not 200mm.

[Vince B]

I am still in Sydney. Might go to Canada in July for a while. Have to photograph my home province properly this time. Love going to BC, and Kamloops is great in the summer as is the Okanagan. Vancouver is always beautiful as long as the sun is out. August is the sunniest month so I will be visiting my grandchildren and son there. I should get to LA before I return. Always something interesting down there. Might even visit Las Vegas and find out what Keith is up to. No pun there, Keith.

[lovemonkey]

I will demonstrate why the 5DII and expensive lenses are worthwhile.

Photos taken at Echo Point at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. I set my tripod up after dark and took these photos. 30 second exposures. There were a couple of people trying to capture the scene but with less success because their equipment wasn't good enough. I used my 70-200 F4is lens @ 200mm and was pleased at the detail I captured. The light was about 200 metres away so wasn't that bright.

The second photo was with my 500mm F4 lens. The part of the first Sister was captured and it was almost in the dark up there. Quite impressive detail which is the 3rd photo.  Good tools in photography cost a lot of money. Professionals know this. Sure, just because you have expensive equipment doesn't mean your photos are better. However, I like being in the situation where I can't blame my equipment.
When I finished shooting it was 8pm and there was nobody around. Not too smart because I have a lot to lose if I get mugged. Anyway, what I do isn't what most tourists do.

There are lots of categories of photographers and not just two as our learned friend obviously knows. Like I said, pros aren't that friendly.

What are you smoking? Why wasn't their equipment good enough? The only crucial part to these shots is having a rock solid tripod. It's not a moving object so ISO capabilities is not important here. Notice how you keep on emphasizing how good the "detail" is and not how good the photo itself turned out to be.

And LOL at your previous statement that you can never have too much resolution. How big do you print? By the square meters? I seriously doubt that the quality of anyones photos depends on the resolution.

[Vince B]

I have my own standards so why do you use yours to judge me? You said anyone can take these photos. Well, that is crap because tourists seldom have tripods and when you see one it is light and flimsy. I used a gimbal head with mine that night. When I shoot landscapes I want all the detail on foliage I can get and that means I need megapixels. A Hblad with 65Mpx would do the job but now that is expensive.

A kit costing $25000 in Australia is not that big a deal. The 500mm last year was A$10,000. Our dollar is up so the price has come down. The 5DII cost about $1000 less than when it was released last year.

You are proving my statement about professionals. I was at a camera club and those guys wouldn't give anyone much time or advice. I dislike all that photography competition stuff so I don't go any more. I do it for my own enjoyment and sharing some with my friends and family.

[jwb]

things are very expensive in australia lovemonkey... $25k here would be half that in the states for most things.

[noworries]

If you look at it that way sure. Like successful stockbrokers getting cars that they have no business driving really, it's all a showoff. But they're usually not claiming to be actual race car drivers just because they own a 400hp car.

But >>25k dollars<< in camera gear(as he told us in this thread), especially if it's spent on consumer brands like Canon/Nikon and not Hasselblad/Mamayia, is a whole lot of goddamn money to spend. It's excessive. There's absolutely no need to have that much equipment unless you are one of two things:

1) A full fledged pro that has to have all of this equipment in order to do his job properly. These people work with photography almost 24/7 and their entire income depends being able to take out their high-end gear out in the field and expect to have it beat up at some point. They usually have several cameras on them because they don't have time to change lenses.

2) Old schmucks that spends way too much money on camera gear because the equipment itself gives them more satisfaction than actually taking good pictures.

I have a feeling Basile belongs to #2. And fine, it really doesn't have anything to do with me but I just can't help but point out how ridiculous it is.

My friend (and Stuntmovie's) is known as the "most published photographer in the world"  He has more magazine covers and articles than any other photographer.    He has made an incredible amount of money taking photos.  I have been on numerous photoshoots (not near as many as Stuntmovie) and his photos are unreal and he never has more than one or two people helping (mostly for reflectors) and he uses only Nikon.  It is the ONLY way he made money.  I remember one time we were on a shoot and kept going down the beach farther and farther away from where we started.  Well when we came back someone had stolen one of the bags that just so happen to have 3 cameras totalling about $20,000.  I jhave attached a few of his work.  Do you know him.  Not you Stuntmovie

[jwb]

hey keith,

what part of maui would you move to if you had the choice? the wife wants to move there.

[stuntmovie]

Keith, I just found this        http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://scottreither.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/sun-star-pierflickr.jpg&imgrefurl=http://scottreither.com/blog/&usg=__wtMhY2og2Ox0FNBErzZY7bqgO_4=&h=527&w=775&sz=432&hl=en&start=49&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=2NYcyhEgQsKW_M:&tbnh=97&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsun%2Bstar%26start%3D42%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1

Big link - But check it out. Haven't read it in its entirety yet but it looks like it's a complete update on good old Sun.

[stuntmovie]

Here's one of his latest shots ..... Great work still !

[jwb]

http://scottreither.com/blog/