Check the post title ;)

Great read, with some amusing asides.

Shots fired!

We probably have the same model - the one with the big oval stand. Every once in a while I wish it was OLED and/or higher resolution, but it’s not worth the expensive or all the modern “features” such as these.

Get your self a “fast” lens and you’ll be back to hand holding pretty quickly. Granted, you’ll lose depth of field so this may not work for every shot. Prime lenses are your best bet here. f/1.4 should be plenty but f/1.8 or even f/2 will do.

You can use the exposure information from the photos you took to play the “if I had a faster lens, what kind of ISO and shutter speed could I get away with”. The zoo lights photos I posted a few days ago in one of my comments were hand held.

EV calculator

That your company has an in-house software dev team is impressive. Does the revenue-generating business have access to that team?

Not OP, but in a similar situation. We have in-house dev for both tooling/infrastructure as well as revenue generation. For better or worse, leaders have neglected the software tooling and infrastructure that we use to build and deliver our revenue generating software for decades. Some serious cracks in the foundation showing and we might finally start fixing things.

I find that I’m really choosy with which landscape photos I like, but I really like the post photo and the first photo in the post. Nice work!

I think I have two general responses.

I think you’re right in that photography and the style of photographs has evolved with technology. Each of those technological steps has been partially shaped by art (what makes it to market) and taste (what succeeds in the market). Additionally, darkrooms gave a lot of leeway for the look of the final image. This also ties into what makes for a compelling image - you’re often looking for a dramatic scene, a subject that’s a bit out of the norm, and/or unique lighting. Yeah, there are street photographs of everyday people doing everyday things in normal lighting, but they often aren’t that compelling.

In other words, photography is often stylized. I personally think that’s OK, especially when you consider how flat lightly processed photos are.

The good news in today’s world: if you shoot digital you can shoot raw + jpeg and change the look of the image pretty drastically with non-destructive edits. I’ve re-edited photos I’ve taken over a decade ago and changed their look significantly. I can do the same again in another 10 years if it strikes my fancy.

In my experience, recognizing when there is an opportunity for a good photo and framing are the most important components of getting a good shot. Everything else only helps make getting that shot easier.

A dedicated camera with a fast lens won’t make zoo lights a clinch, but it sure does make life a lot easier.

I’ve commented along these lines before, but here it is again.

First, the best camera in the world is the one you have on you. Have an urge? Take the photo with what ya got, even if that is your phone. On the other hand, try to be more intentional about bringing your camera with you when you venture into the world. This will probably take finding the right lens and overall package size, but I bring my camera and a compact lens with me on most family activities as a result.

Second, for well lit subjects that aren’t moving much and aren’t that far away modern cellphones are generally fine. Yeah, a dedicated camera with a fast lens can create a nicer looking background if you’re simply sharing photos on the web it’s not going to matter a ton. Don’t get discouraged if this is the kind of photography you prefer.

A dedicated camera will blow a cellphone out of the water in a couple key areas. Those include:

• focus speed and control. Even with my old Nikon D40 and D5300 I feel way more confident in my ability to get focus where I want it than either my work iPhone 15 or my personal OnePlus 12. Modern mirrorless are in a league of their own, especially when you pair them with a lens that can keep up with their focusing algorithms
• the ability to capture sharp photos of things in motion thanks to more light gathering, which lets you use faster shutter speeds
• low light. I’m shooting full frame these days and with a fast lens I have no problem hand holding and taking photos of human subjects in really low light conditions
• interchangeable lenses. A long telephoto will give you way better results than a cellphone digitally zooming
• burst rates. Not all dedicated cameras have nuts frame rates, but a portion do. This makes it really easy to capture the precise moment. Yes, cellphones can do this too but since they’re sacrificing light their image quality might not be great

Four examples where I adore my gear:

1. I am the unofficial team photographer for my kids’ youth sports teams. They’re both currently doing baseball. I can sit at the end of the backstop fence, about 100 or so feet from home plate, and fill the frame with the kids batting. Thanks to high burst rates I can basically guarantee a photo of the ball hitting and just leaving the bat
2. We hang out at a lot of museums and go to night events like zoo lights. My gear lets me get great sharp photos, without blur from my family moving around, thanks to a mix of modern camera sensors being fairly low noise, fast glass, and shooting full frame
3. My older kid did a figure skating show this spring. I rented a 70-200 f/2.8 and was really impressed by the photos it was able to capture. Excellent focusing, kids filling the frame, basically no noise, tack sharp photos
4. Absolute control over exposure and a very easy shooting experience makes it a lot easier to get cool shots, like panning photos at a racetrack or even a panning shot of my kid on their bike

Happy shooting! If you have questions, make another post!

Nice! Cross post to !beebutts@lemmy.world

Are these straight out of the camera JPEGs? If yes, the camera does quite a bit of onboard post processing, which can result in very different final results. If you happen to have the raw files and process both identically you’ll likely get a very similar look between the two photos.

I am a die hard laptop/desktop person but the majority of my outside of work ‘computer’ time is on my phone these days :(

Vampire photog confirmed

I feel extremely sorry for you of there’s actually zero green space around you other than shopping. Heck, even if you’re in NYC you’re not that far from a park.

Haha, how do you manage to do this?

Being outside should be free?

I dunno, I live in suburbia and our kids manage to spend a lot of time outside with neighborhood kids. It’s a nice change of pace over the same neighborhood 10 years ago. The neighborhood is starting to turn over generationally and there are a lot more people outside now.

Have a conversation? Go for a walk? Play one of many different types of non-sport or sport games? Generally hang out. The possibility are endless.

Lead with a shower then have a clean bath?

I’m also a Jerboa user, but other than not displaying the error for very long the result should be the same if you use the ‘native’ website. That would be my recommended next course of action to see if you can get the error to persist a bit longer so you can read it. Odds are it’s something set up server side.