James Staddon

Night photography is tough! The scene doesn’t compel me forward, like you would expect leading lines to do. Perhaps the bottom half of the image is too dark in general. There are a lot of tiny spots of things strewn throughout the image (stars, clouds, jetstreams, lights, light reflections, pockets of light on the rail of the pier, black specs in…[Read more]

The main thing when it comes to checking out a lens is to see if there are any scratches on the glass (on both sides of the lens). If a lens has autofocus, then make sure that works and how fast it is. Look for signs of it being dropped, as that could cause misalignment on things internally. I’ve heard it said that if a lens hasn’t been taken care…[Read more]

Agreed, @creative-click-photography! There was no direction given as to gender and age of the subject, but sense it’s for a “Dads blog”, then yes, your best bet at having your photo chosen would be to have an older, male subject.

That’s great!

That is so neat! I love playing with focal length. Was the sun not out for the B&W photo? I’m in Colorado photographing mountains at the moment, and I’m amazed at how much sunlight make a difference in making those pine trees look colorful!

Thank you SO MUCH @buddingphotographer! You explained it very well!

True, the height did not change. But the longest edge did. So, that’s sorta what I was thinking.

I feel like my photos are a little too literal, by shooting actual bars, but it’s an initial try at least!

Ok, I’ve chosen the winners!

Take a look at the home page to see the hard work of Winner #1 on display, and I’ve attached screenshots of the others for a taste of what will be going live over the next year or so!

Thank you guys, SO MUCH!

Thank you @josiahw!

Is that what you need @blessingscaptured?

And a comment about your statement, “we have two of his [Great Grandpa’s] DSLRs”….the Minolta SR-7 would just be an SLR, a Single-Lens Reflex camera. That’s what SLR stands for. A DSLR is a Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera, which wouldn’t exist in your Great Grandpa’s day. 🙂

What do you think @buddingphotographer or @nasa, do you feel it could be the lens to blame for the softness?

Perhaps that in combination with too much noise reduction? If @bennet-family, you said you had to brighten it up considerably, I assume you added a lot of noise reduction?

Buying a cheap speedlight to use for fill would definitely help…[Read more]

In case you want to re-watch it, my critique of your photo @lukevrable, begins at marker 1:27:59! https://www.lenspiration.com/video/webinar051419/

The second one is TACK sharp! That’s my favorite. The third one (pink background) is out of focus. The last one is sharp too. The first one is sharp enough, but it doesn’t have the “tack” aspect, in my opinion. Just not seeing the crisp detail in the skin around the eye like you can in the second one. Perhaps viewing it on a higher resolution…[Read more]

Beginning at marker 1:16:48, I hope the webinar on Tuesday will give you some answers to your questions, @blessingscaptured! https://www.lenspiration.com/video/webinar051419/

Hey @blessingscaptured, let me know if what I talked about on the webinar Tuesday beginning at marker 1:08:58 gives you some ideas! https://www.lenspiration.com/video/webinar051419/

It worked well to plug in your submissions one at a time! Here’s the replay to the webinar if you want to watch it and see why each winning photo won: https://www.lenspiration.com/video/webinar051419/

Will plan to post the winning photos! And Lenspiration members, you prize money will be coming your way!

Hey everyone, reading your comments and seeing your photos has been such an encouragement to me! What an excellent host of photos to choose from! I’m looking forward to plugging them into my template and seeing which ones will work best…I think I’ll do that live tonight, during the webinar, so you can see why I end up choosing the ones I do.…[Read more]

Oh this is so great! I like how it makes you feel like folks don’t have to have a super fancy expensive camera to learn photography with Lenspiration!

Hey @hannahe, great question! Feel free to be as creative as you want with the background! It should feel “location generic” in that it shouldn’t have text on signs saying where it is or be in front of some famous structure (like the Statue of Liberty) that might give the impression to viewers that Lenspiration was specific to a location or…[Read more]

@frazer-family, interesting. If just a camera by itself, I’d probably want to emphasize more dynamic lighting, and would want to make sure the camera itself was shooting a horizontally or vertically level image. The pure black interior of the lens feels a little unfriendly. And yes, it would be good if the camera was neutral when it comes to branding. 🙂