Pictures Taken By you...

[beautiful_alma]

wow.. all your pictures are so beautiful... sorry to be off topic but.. what kind of camera would u recommend to shoot pictures like these..? u dont have to give the specifics... just like the company name, like canon, sony, etc.

[Virgil]

welcome to lit net Alma. Nice to have you here. What you should look for is how many megapixels the camera has. The more the higher the resolution. It should be at least 5 megapixels in my opinion.

[beautiful_alma]

ohhhh ok. Thank you, Virgil!

[Madhuri]

If you go back a few pages....Claes, has given the specifications of the camera he uses...

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Welcome Alma

sorry to be off topic but.. what kind of camera would u recommend to shoot pictures like these..? u dont have to give the specifics... just like the company name, like canon, sony, etc.

Not really off topic at all, in my opinion: As Maddie pointed out, I posted the
specs of my cameras back in post 140 in this thread.
The good news is that you don't really need anything fancy.
An ordinary pocket model will take you a long way.

What you should look for is how many megapixels the camera has. The more the higher the resolution. It should be at least 5 megapixels in my opinion.

I agree, but on the other hand I also used my mobile phone
(with a mere 2 Megapixels camera) for some of the shots I have posted here.

I've been knocked off my feet by the flu a couple of days, and crawled out of bed today, looking for something to do. I found some old pictures from the early 80's and fired up the scanner:


A thoroughly peeved Swedish grass snake: I caused its foul temper by chasing
it around for a couple of minutes until it ran out of steam, so it would lay still
and let me take the pictures. That's a known method: Reptiles don't have all
that much stamina. The downside is that they get quite "cranky" as the late Steve Irvin would have said.


This is San Sebastian in northern Spain in 1985 or thereabouts.
I was there to visit a supplier near Bilbao.

/Claes

[Niamh]

wow , Cales:

Niamh, breath taking pictures,loved them so much, you have real talented friends.

I only wish i had some of that talent!

[miss tenderness]

oh man!

real nice pictures , especially the snake one

[Virgil]

Very nice, Claes. I really like the San Sabastian shot. Do you recall the exposure time? And I assume it was on a tripod?

[ClaesGefvenberg]

real nice pictures , especially the snake one

There is more to that story: Guess what happened when I snapped it? The snake (not venomous, I might add) struck at the camera! Can you imagine what that looks like through a viewfinder? I snapped the shot, the shutter blinked, and then I saw a blur ending in a wide open pink mouth straight into the lens! Yours truly whooped and sat on his backside...

Very nice, Claes. I really like the San Sabastian shot. Do you recall the exposure time? And I assume it was on a tripod?

The exposure time was roughly half a minute on low aperture, but I had no tripod with me... So what to do? I rested my hands on a fence and held my breath... As a matter of fact I never use a tripod. You can usually find something that gives you the support you need for a hand held shot (It is vital to hold your breath when using that trick). This picture is heavily retouched btw: The copy was badly damaged, with lots of big stains and scratches. I basically saw it as a challenge, wondering if i could sort it out.

/Claes

[Virgil]

There is more to that story: Guess what happened when I snapped it? The snake (not venomous, I might add) struck at the camera! Can you imagine what that looks like through a viewfinder? I snapped the shot, the shutter blinked, and then I saw a blur ending in a wide open pink mouth straight into the lens! Yours truly whooped and sat on his backside...

That made for a good laugh. Thank God it wasn't venomous.

Thanks on your technique for long exposure. I'll keep it in mind.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

That made for a good laugh. Thank God it wasn't venomous.

If it had been i would not have been quite so close... Still, I'm not keen on letting any snake bite me (they are not renowned for brushing their teeth, and a bite can cause a bad infection). I have been bitten twice by Swedish vipers however, but their poison is pretty mild - like hornet or so. One of them got me in the ankle when I stepped on its tail (which I can quite understand - I would be annoyed too, if someone stepped on my tail), and the other one got me in the thumb while I was picking strawberrys. No ill effects from either bite, fortunately.

/Claes

[Virgil]

If it had been i would not have been quite so close... Still, I'm not keen on letting any snake bite me (they are not renowned for brushing their teeth, and a bite can cause a bad infection). I have been bitten twice by Swedish vipers however, but their poison is pretty mild - like hornet or so. One of them got me in the ankle when I stepped on its tail (which I can quite understand - I would be annoyed too, if someone stepped on my tail), and the other one got me in the thumb while I was picking strawberrys. No ill effects from either bite, fortunately.

/Claes

Wow, I have never been biten, but then again I don't ever try to get close. Perhaps Claes you can replace that Crocodile Hunter guy on TV. He used to handle snakes.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Perhaps Claes you can replace that Crocodile Hunter guy on TV. He used to handle snakes.

I'd rather not... You remember that old song, From a distance? That sounds like a good rule in that respect. I mean to say: Our vipers are one thing but he was handling more "potent" snakes, right?

The next one is in fact a number of pictures clobbered together to one. I was experimenting a bit with a new (to me) application called Autostitch:

The view from our bedroom window this AM:



/Claes

[Madhuri]

I hope you feel better, Claes.

I lovvved all the pictures, they are like masterpieces. You should show these to NGE, believe me, they'll come running after your pictures

The view from your room is soooo pretty I liked the bowl-shaped effect you tried to give to this picture.

You are very brave, Claes, to chase a snake to take a picture. If it were me, the only running I would be doing will be to save my life from the snake

[ClaesGefvenberg]

I hope you feel better, Claes.

Thank you. I do, actually, but I can feel that it will take me a few days to get back to speed again.

The view from your room is soooo pretty I liked the bowl-shaped effect you tried to give to this picture.

I honestly did what I could to diminish the bowl shape, but there is a reason for it: That picture consists of 31 smaller pictures taken from the same spot, but in different directions, so essentially the resulting combination gives the same result as a fish-eye lens: Pretty near a 180 deg view.

You are very brave, Claes, to chase a snake to take a picture. If it were me, the only running I would be doing will be to save my life from the snake

Brave? Some would call it exceedingly stupid... Anyway, the trick is to keep the snake from escaping by dashing around it and repeatedly block its way as it tries to escape. After a short while it runs out of steam, and just lies there... You know: Pant, pant, pant, hiiiiiissssss, pant, pant, hiiiiiissssss! It's actually quite funny. I would not recommend that little trick with a poisonous snake, though....

/Claes