Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[zackiedawg]

Very cool, Mickey88...haven't been up there in a while - I'm thinking I should!

Dznyfan - great flowers - so warm and lush, with great color!

I had a wonderful encounter yesterday with Florida's most beautiful bird...best opportunity for photographs I've had yet, and in perfect light to boot:

So, what's it like to be Florida's most beautiful bird? Well for one thing, you have to constantly deal with all the paparazzi:

All photos Sony DSLR-A550 and Tamron 200-500mm F4.5-6.3 lens. Comments, questions, critique always welcome.

 

[MICKEY88]

 

[MICKEY88]

Very cool, Mickey88...haven't been up there in a while - I'm thinking I should!

.

thanks,,, you definitely should go and the special tours are well worth the extra cost..

 

[Khokhonutt]

Some of my favorites from this weekend's trip to the beach:

Mixed blessing (these guys are fun to watch, except when people don't follow the feeding guideline):

My daughter and our 15 year old 'pup':

Tired boy after his day at the beach:

Full set can be found here.

 

[MICKEY88]

 

[oogieboogieman]

These were taken last week at the Dallas Arboretum on Thursday. Not quite sure how all of the beautiful flowers did with the cold temps and snow on Sunday. BTW, temps were back in the mid 60's on Monday.

Can you tell which were taken with the Tamron and which with the Beercan?











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[DznyFan]

Wow, I don't check in for a few days and come back to a multitude of awesome shots!

Mickey88, thanks for the info about that sculpture. Very cool!

Justin, I looked at the first shot of the Spoonbill and was just blown away. Then I got to the second one... wow. I laughed at all the photographers - it was worse than a bunch of them trying to catch Brangelina.

 

[MICKEY88]

 

[LoriH91]

I just love looking at everyone's photos! I got my Sony A200 for Mother's Day 2 years ago. I'm still trying to figure everything out. First time using an SLR of any kind! Thanks for sharing!

 

[foolishmortal]

here is a few of my favorite from the st louis huant convention last week

 

[polkadotminnie]

Isn't that the clown from the BWI pool? Sorry I couldn't resist. Great shots!

 

[foolishmortal]

Isn't that the clown from the BWI pool? Sorry I couldn't resist. Great shots!

hahaha. thx! I have tons more!

 

[MICKEY88]

finally made room to set up my studio lights, spent some time playing with my greenscreen background.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

I just bought a sony, a sony a230!!

 

[vandort]

Congratulations funkychunkymonkey! I'm sure that you will love your new camera.

I just got back from a spring break trip to Chicago. Code, you inspired me to buy the same fisheye lens that you purchased. I haven't had much time to review my pictures, but here is an image taken my hotel room overlooking the city and Lake Michigan.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

i cant wait to try it out, been waiting for the batery to charge

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

For you A550 owners I have a question (or anyone else who just knows the answer! ) In the 7 fps mode I understand that the camera focuses for the first frame only. What I am wondering is if it retains that autofocus for an entire burst. ie, if you shoot 15 frames in a burst will all frames have the same focus or will it focus every seventh frame?

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

Well heres my first three jpegs. I cant figure out how to make raw files veiwable on my computer yet.

moe, being lazy. I think the flash made his eyes mad at me (since there closed)

Boo can sleep through any photo sesion.

this one was a little blurry, it looked worse when I used the automatic mode.

 

[zackiedawg]

For you A550 owners I have a question (or anyone else who just knows the answer! ) In the 7 fps mode I understand that the camera focuses for the first frame only. What I am wondering is if it retains that autofocus for an entire burst. ie, if you shoot 15 frames in a burst will all frames have the same focus or will it focus every seventh frame?

Sorry for the delayed response...been working on a computer project at home to clear HD space, and hadn't been on here in a while!

Anyway...in the 7fps mode, the camera will set metering and focus on the first shot, then keep those settings for all frames to follow no matter how long the burst. It is obviously most useful for objects moving laterally across your field, or maintaining the same distance to you, as opposed to objects closing or retreating from you. For those types of shots, I'll switch to the 5 fps mode, which will allow constant metering and tracking focusing during the burst.

However do also note: I do still use the 7fps mode when shooting flying birds very often, even if they are closing distance to me - the 7fps is much better at getting that precisely correct moment in the wing positions and such...the more frames the better...and the focus and metering on the camera are extremely quick. So what I often do is shoot in 'bursts'...I'll press the shutter and rattle off 7-12 frames, release the shutter quickly and press again which allows the camera to refocus and meter then begin shooting another burst. I can do this repeatedly sometimes for dozens of frames, with gaps inbetween each burst of shots of 1/2 second or less. For example, I used 7fps for this egret, which actually was closing on me diagonally, and was able to pull the 3 best frames from the burst - EXIF says they were all taken at the exact same time:

I used the 7fps and refocused several times in between sets of bursts...worked wonders!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks Justin! Beautiful pictures BTW.

That is what I was assuming but wanted to verify. I think DH will be upgrading from his A100. He is using it a lot and at work too which means quite a few shots inside the restaurant and the lower noise of the 5xx's would be so much better for him. The A500 would work just fine for his use, although a larger screen would be beneficial, but I was thinking about my shooting at horse shows where I end up with some of the same issues that you have with birds in getting the best position at a particular moment. Even at 5fps if I'm off I'll have a whole set that I'm not happy with. So, while the new camera may be for DH I'm thinking of myself too! lol