Yes Virginia...I do hunt. (picture HEAVY)

[Ironhead]

Awesome pics Elkman thanks, I hope things get better for your son.

[waoutdoorsman]

Incredible photos!!! I especially like the grocery store (at least i think it is)/gas station. that photo reminds me of a wall greens commercial! very cool pics. oh yea i also like the archery cow elk-it looks like its smiling!
good job man!

[Ray]

How bout that big fish and the guy in the background. I don't think you can get a bigger smile. 

[Muleyslyr]

Incredible pics Elkman.  I hope you and some of the others will help us all get through a long "off" season with your photos.  I think everyone really enjoys em''.  Thanks.....

[popeshawnpaul]

It almosts scares me, but I think you and I may be brothers somehow Elkman...

I bowhunt, you bowhunt
I hunt elk, you hunt elk
I shoot does, you shoot does
I shoot cows, you shoot cows
I hunt pheasant, you hunt pheasant
I take pictures, you take pictures
I work in the Rose Bowl, you work in the Rose Bowl
You hunt out of a camper, I hunt out of a camper
You pack out elk meat on your back, I pack out elk meat on my back.
You've been to Whistlin Jacks, I love Whistlin Jacks
You fish for chinook, I fish for chinook
You scuba dive, I scuba dive
you spearfish, I spearfish
You shoot lingcod, I love shooting big lingcod
you wear a drysuit, I wear a drysuit
you sit around camp and drink a few beers, I sit around with buddies and drink beer

There are two differences I see between you and I based on your pictures...I hate soccer and Nikon...   Oh, and I never had a mullet... 

Now, if you have a hot Bellevue wife, one child, and enjoy woodworking like I do, this is really going to get scary...

[robodad]

Just curious if you could tell us what settings you might use to shoot static scenery (ISO # or picture size 2560x1920  1600x1200  640x480  or quality, standard fine economy etc...)

My camera will do bracketing but there are so many settings and dials and buttons that unless I spend tons of hours troubleshooting which you likely have I am lost. I have read the little booklet that was sent with my camera but there is so little information in there I am still guessing.

With all your experience, could you tell what I may be doing wrong just by looking at some photos ??

I don't want to become an expert over night I would just like to be proud to show my pics instead of deleting them cause they suck if you know what I mean.

[Elkman]

Well Shawn, that is pretty scary.
My wife is hot but from Kitsap, don't like soccer either, that's M-ray's shot, Love wood working, have some good tools, but not enough time. I do have one son by me and my wife, just married into 2 more daughters. As for the Nikon/Canon debate, I like both, just ended up with Nikon. Started with an Olympus when In high school, think I went to Nikon because I could afford them after my Olympus was stolen. Then when I was ready to go digital stayed with Nikon as I had 3k in Nikon Glass.
Wonder how many megs and cost the D3x will be? and when.

My Honey 

[boneaddict]

Great pictures elkman!  I am very much looking forward to more of them.  Goodluck in your photo of the year contest.  Scary thing is I thought Boz myself on that one.  There are probably a bunch of younins on here who don't know who he is, or Zorn, or Largeant for that matter. 

[popeshawnpaul]

Just curious if you could tell us what settings you might use to shoot static scenery (ISO # or picture size 2560x1920  1600x1200  640x480  or quality, standard fine economy etc...)

My camera will do bracketing but there are so many settings and dials and buttons that unless I spend tons of hours troubleshooting which you likely have I am lost. I have read the little booklet that was sent with my camera but there is so little information in there I am still guessing.

With all your experience, could you tell what I may be doing wrong just by looking at some photos ??

I don't want to become an expert over night I would just like to be proud to show my pics instead of deleting them cause they suck if you know what I mean.

Not to hijack Elkman's thread, but I guess I'll give a go at this one.  ISO and picture size...you always use the lowest ISO and highest picture size and shoot raw for static landscape shots.  Why?  Lowest ISO has lowest noise, highest picture size lets you blow it up huge, and RAW gives you a lot of latitude when correcting after the shot.

Bracketing is important to know for HDR, but not for regular shooting.  You need to know only a couple things.  When I shoot, 99% of the time I shoot in apature priority (Av).  If I'm shooting wildlife, I shoot the lowest apature possible for my lens.  If I'm shooting landscape, I use a tripod, use F16-F22, and who cares what your shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.  For wildlife, if your speed isn't enough, you just up your ISO.  For most deer/wildlife, I use 1/250th of a second.  So set for your lowest apature, 1/250th of a second, and the lowest ISO you can use with the available light. 

You don't need to know anything else.  You don't need the fancy options or anything.  99% of the time I do the above.  Most professional photographers I know do the above.  Post some pics you are having trouble with to see if we can spot the problem.

shawn

[Elkman]

Well robo just a quick note on that.
Im sure shawn can chime in to as it takes me to long to type.

Rules for me.

1. I ALWAYS shoot with the lowest ISO I can get away with. usually 100.

2. I AWAYS shoot the highest/finest quality settings I can, whether with my Point and Shoot or my DSLR.
If you need to for space on a card, get more or larger cards. My thinking is, I am not going to shoot smaller or less quality and then nail some sweet shot and be restricted to print or control size do to shooting it in the lesser mode. Make sense?

So say I roll up on a nice landscape, 1. ISO 100 2. set aperture to 2 or 3 stops down from widest setting available on the lens I am using, OR widest depending on the lens if it's a slow lens, like starts at 5.6 and light in said situation. then dial shutter for correct exposure. I will also bracket the shutter a stop up and a stop down for 2or 3 stops both ways just to cover my butt. In other words, with the shutter set and showing the correct exposure I will shoot it the dial the shutter a stop slower to over expose 1 stop and then another stop for 2 over, then go the other way to under expose just because I can.

There are some great books and site's, I will post up later. Gotta tend to the boy for a bit.

[Elkman]

See I know I would be to slow.
what shawn said. 

[robodad]

Ok Shawn don't cringe to hard but here are a couple I took just to try out the HDR program (photomatix pro) you folks talk about.

Sorry if this is taking away from the owners thread but I really appreciate the tips !!!

[popeshawnpaul]

We have officially hijacked Elkman's thread...sorry man.

All the photos on this page are overexposed.  I see you bracketed three photos, but all three are overexposed.  You are ideally supposed to have one that is right on, one overexposed, and one underexposed.

The other problem I see if you have a white balance problem.  See how everything is ice blue color?  I suggest either setting your white balance to auto or try and set it to match the conditions.  While my camera has auto, it also has cloudy, sunny, rainy, etc.  Just match it to your situation.  You have a serious white balance problem though, something is messed up there.

[GoldTip]

Excellent photo's Elkman.

[robodad]

Ok I'll do some tweeking and hopefully fix it, I really am sorry about hijacking the thread this will be my last post here,

Thank You very much for pointing out my problems Shawn, I appreciate it guys !!

Allen...