Fantastic photo, Bob! I can't even imagine how it felt to come face to face with that guy. Few humans can convey that much attitude in a single expression.

Two Samples
 

The first is a shot of The Cure on stage at Coachella with my crappy kit lens that came with my 40D (it's the only zoom I had on me).

I second one is of my cat Neo. 50mm 1.4

Sigma 50mm EX DG HSM 1.4 - (If you want a fast prime that is sharp wide open, this is it.)

F/2.2
1/640 sec
ISO - 100
AI Servo AF
AF point area expansion - Enabled
Center AF point
Fill-in flash - Canon Speedlight 430EX - high speed shutter enabled

I love my Buddy.
 

And he loves me. That's his name. Rescued last August 15th in Wyoming. He wore out my throwing arm retrieving. For Christmas, my wife bought me a "Chuck it." I can hurl the tennis ball a country mile with it, with a tail wind 80 yards in the air for sure.

Every day he runs 3-5 miles fetching that ball. He expects it. He's not going to let you forget it's time to play ball. He's gone after 80 passes at a time, but he won't quit. He runs right back with it and drops it at your feet. We average about 35-50 passes every day. I watch carefully when he shows signs of tiring. I don't want to wear him out. He couldn't be happier getting overworked, but it breaks our heart if he gets sore, so we try not to. He's about 4 years old.

He's very smart, and very affectionate, gets up in my lap still. You can nuzzle and kiss him because he's not a licker. Driving along, he puts his head on my shoulder. He's very expressive and communicative, very trustworthy, just simply a good boy.

He goes with me everywhere and I love having him. We were still heartbroken from the loss of our beloved Weimeraner the year before, weren't going to have another. And then Buddy just came to us, sent from Heaven.

He hates cats though. Hates them. And he has an unfortunate fearless demeanor, undeterred even after being covered head to tail with porcupine quills. He just can't let go. I may lose him if he persists on something that will hurt him, like a western diamondback. But Buddy has got to be Buddy.

The picture from today, Sigma 50mm F/1.4 prime, shot at ISO 100, F/2.2, 1/800th, flash fill.

http://troper10.com/_MG_1876.JPG

a little clueless
 

Sorry for my ignorance, but how are you all posting the pictures in your reply?

After you click the REPLY button, you'll get the "reply to thread" page where you type the text of your reply. If you scroll below that, you'll see an "Additional Options" section where you'll find a "manage attachments" button. (I'm not sure if very new members have this option or not.)

Can't remember but you can try to reply to as many thread as possible and see. Might only need 10 posts to get the 'Manage your attachment' function.

no such button
 

Yeah that button doesn't appear. Guess I need to comment a little more.

a little stilly goodness
 

50mm 1.8 (trash kit lens) Still love it though.

From yesterday...
 

Wife was backing out of the driveway, I was saying goodbye, she commented how dark the sky was, and that there was rotation. She drove away, next the air raid sirens went off. I looked out the window to see trash and debris floating in the sky. I opened some windows and doors to equalize the pressure. The phone rings, it's her screaming, "GET TO THE BASEMENT, THE TORNADO'S RIGHT ON TOP OF THE HOUSE!"



I followed her advice, went to basement and got the camera and started snapping pictures from the street. I was getting beaned by hailstones so I went inside, put on a motorcycle helmet and took some more. Safety first...

http://troper10.com/1024_MG_2259.JPG

Tom, nice pic.
 

Here's another from a different vantage point of the same tornado. Don't you Denverites know you need to hide from twisters...

http://www.examiner.com/x-5182-Dalla...nado-Great-pic

Thanks
 

We try to take shelter in a covered football practice facility where possible ;-)

I'm an old Dallas hometown boy. Went to Jesuit. Go Cowboys!

Nothing trashy about those pics though, sharp!

Hey Tom, the second I saw the top of the funnel cloud in your pic I thought to myself, "he must live in Colorado". Sure enough! That tornado was nuts, and the hail was huge. That's an awesome pick that you managed to grab.

Thank you Ryan.

Surprising thing was there was so little advance warning, the instant the sirens came on, it was already on top of us...

...and they shut off while it was still on the ground. Maybe they are just looking at radar, but someone dropped the ball on that one.

Holy cow, Tom, that's a remarkable shot!

Nothing trashy about it -- that's an L-series lens and it's worth about $1200.
It's a great lens, and it's the best L-series lens to bundle with the 5D2 kit.

You gotta be kidding, Tom, that's Insane.
Beautiful photo

J

Hey Chris,

Na it's not the "L." It's the left over kit lens that originally came with my Rebel XT. It nice and light, due the high quality plastics it's made of ;)

Actually I've always like it's bokeh, that's why I keep it around.

This weekend I rented a 85mm 1.2 L. WOW! Here's something at little test shot:

Endeavour on the pad (mild crop and tight crop) for STS-127.

Handheld w/IS, 105mm, f/8, 1/400, ISO 100, Standard profile, Auto WB.

Here's a small moth on the kitchen window at night.

Nikon 105/2.8 Micro AF (pre-G lens); fluorescent lighting; handheld; 1/60, f/3.5, 3200 ISO.

It took a number of shots to get this right. The position was awkward. Small movements would mess up the framing and move the focus plane, and I didn't have enough light to stop down further without adding motion blur or noise.

I love the eyes and beak.

Fun with long exposure and high ISO.

Tripod, 24mm, f/5.6, 8.0 sec., ISO 12800, Standard profile, Auto WB, Bulb Mode.

Polaris on the right, Cor Caroli on the left, Big & Little Dippers in between at about 9pm.

another cat picture ...

AV mode - shutter 1/125 - ISO 1250 - f/1.4

Here's a bunch I did of my Niece the other day. All using the 85mm 1.8 lens on the 5D2. Shutter speed was 100 and the aperture varied between 2.2 and 4.5 Picture style is faithful with colour balance on sunny.
Avey

Wow, great work there Avey.

Here's our dog with a lunar halo and Jupiter, from last night.

Tripod, 24mm, f/4, 5 sec., ISO 400, Standard profile, Auto WB.

International Space Station / Expedition 20 on the left
Space Shuttle Discovery / STS-128 on the right
Flying 200 miles above Central Texas at 17,500 miles per hour.

Tripod, 24mm, f/4, 1/4 sec., ISO 3200, Standard profile, Auto WB.

First image is cropped from the camera .JPG
Second image is converted from camera .RAW, changed to Landscape profile and Daylight WB, applied NR.

24-70mm "macro" test
 

I like to play with scale and abstraction on the macro side of things but unfortunately am currently without a dedicated 1:1 lens. Having been instilled with the philosophy of always working with what you have I thought I'd test out my 24-70mm f2.8 L series lens set to its minimum focus distance (.38m) and maximum magnification (0.29x). So I cranked the lens out (actually its in, but that doesn't sound quite right) to 70mm to snap these. Both taken at 2.8, 1/500 and 1/400 respectively. I was going for sharp focus on the weird little tuft you see in the foreground. I got it in the first image but missed it in the second. On the plus side the second image has those beautiful blury reds in the background. Late afternoon shoot.

New to photography
 

I have always used a fairly low-priced video/still camera from the NV-MX500 to the HDR-SR10e. Video was my main focus just recording the kids and travels really.

Since getting the 5D I am hooked on stills and video. Here are some high dynamic range shots using AE bracketing of +-1, I took on Sunday morning. I used the kit 28 - 105mm lens. Photomatrix to create the merge and some adjusted levels in Adobe PS.

Pipe Head Balgray Reservoir on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Sunrise over Belgray Reservoir 3 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Sunrise over Belgray Reservoir 4 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Giant Rainbow
 

This evening, it hailed as I was cooking dinner. When the meal was ready, I looked out the window to see the most magical light. My son has my kit, but I fortunately had my employer's case in the trunk of my car. I immediately abandoned my food, got the camera, and was greeted with this rainbow off the back of my deck.

Lens: Zeiss ZE 21mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/5
Shutter: 1/40
ISO: 100

Wow, guys................
 

You know, you could talk me into going back to doing stills full time without too much trouble at all.

Ditch the sound gear, the back breaking supports, the..........................

Why, oh why, am I shooting video?

Bugger, my head hurts.


CS

PS: Good stuff, all.