Great reef/great photography?

[chrishayes]

What in the world is it about all of the most beautiful reefs seem to almost always have great photographer owners stanging in front of them?

Am I alone here? How often do you see a great reef shown here with crappy photography? I know I can tell by bad pictures whether or not its still a great looking reef so you cant say that the pictures make the reef look better on their own...can you?

 

[rmalone]

I think there are alot of great reefers that are also great photographers, but I think that great reef tanks also tend to draw great photographers, that aren't reefers, to photo them. Keep in mind that a great macro shot could just be a nicely colored frag in a frag tank.

 

[chrishayes]

I guess a parallel is that I shoot stills and video with my panasonic tm700 1080 60p VIDEO camera. I know for sure that the stunning video of 60p at 28bitrate of my son pickin his nose is breathtaking, but I can record it with my 1999 LG cellphone and still tell you its a kid pickin his nose in a green shirt.


Reefing/photography
Why is it that these two skills go hand in hand allmost 90% of the time?

 

[edsreef]

I would guess that anyone who can figure out how to grow and maintain a beautiful, thriving reef tank could probably afford a nice camera and lens and also figure out how to use it well.

 

[bwgan]

Money!!

 

[acroholicreefer]

Both are great examples of true art

 

[Reef_Noob]

I think its the PASSION for both maintaining a beautiful reef and learning to take photographs to showcase it with all its beauty with near to true photos.

Photography skills doesnt come easy....it takes a dedicated effort to practice and practice AND practice to get the best out of ones camera. Its not always the state of the art equipment that makes one great at photography, but its the man (yes woman too!) behind the camera and his skill that delivers a great photograph.

Photography is a talent and not many are blessed with it! I am sure I am not :lol2:...but i am planning to make an effort atleast marginally improve my photographs. So my first step was to get a better camera,
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19212511&posted=1#post19212511

Just got it today

Its not the camera but the skill that matters....so i need to develop it from scratch...:strange:
But having good equipment definately is a plus...

Most reefers who are mainitaining thriving reefs are great examples of people who are keen, focussed, uncompromising and wanan be at the top of their game in WHATEVER they do, which includes photography...thats what i feel...

:wavehand:

 

[chrishayes]

Yeah, I agree with all of you!

My biggest complaint personally is that I have a $1000 video camera and the skills to use it but since I live in a rural area, my internet speed using a wireless card is too low to post videos of any quality over SD. Even SD video takes nearly an hour to upload to a hosting site for just a few seconds of video. Its a real shame I basically have to use 10 year old tech just because im 5 miles out of city limits!

 

[edsreef]

Yeah, I agree with all of you!

My biggest complaint personally is that I have a $1000 video camera and the skills to use it but since I live in a rural area, my internet speed using a wireless card is too low to post videos of any quality over SD. Even SD video takes nearly an hour to upload to a hosting site for just a few seconds of video. Its a real shame I basically have to use 10 year old tech just because im 5 miles out of city limits!

Then show off your skills with some quality still shots!

 

[REEF SMAC]

I spend so much time tinkering with my tanks, and so many hours at my job to pay for them, that the thought of buying a camera and taking the time to learn how to use it, seems overwhelming.

 

[chrishayes]

Id love to but my picture taking skills are limited by my camera being designed for video on top of lack of pratice taking pictures period. Video is another thing. Another hobby of mine is editing my home videos plus shooting them in the first place. That does NOT make me a good photographer! lol

While my camera does have a full set of maual controls for stills it is only about a 12mp camera and doesnt have priority settings like a slr. I have to individually adjust "iris", "shutter", "WB" and zoom for EACH shot. Thats way too many settings to take into account instead of setting your slr to aperture priority or other and just keep playing with fstops till you get the right DOF. Plus once I have the picture its size is too large to upload to photobucket within a reasonable timeframe...therefore I shoot at 5.5mp to share. No "quality still shots" comin from that! lol