The front building of the Lakeshore Hotel. A good angle, but some parts need a bit more focus, still the sky has an eerie quality to it that I captured well. Taken in Hsinchu Taiwan, on the 13th of December 2006 with a Nikon D200 and a Nikkor 18-35mm lens. This photo is part of the Lakeshore Series 1.
After being quite exhausted most of the morning, until I drank my first and only cup of coffee, excitement built up in me when I started looking at my photos of last night with a fresh eye. There are quite a few good ones, and I still have so much more to learn about the camera I bought. Contrary to Ken Rockwell, I believe that Amateur/Pro photographers can use bodies longer than he does. Then again, I am not a pro photographer.
My wife has been a photographer almost 8 or 9 years, she has had a DSLR for at least 5 years, Fuji S2 Pro. In my book, she is a pro photographer; she used to photograph weddings in Canada.
Someone asked me how I was able to make the sky look that way in this and other photos that I took yesterday. My answer is that I didn’t really know. Maybe it was the higher than normal ISO setting, maybe the exposure setting or the shutter speed or just the camera, but a mysterious sky is present in a lot of my photos of yesterday. To me, it looked like light was being reflected back from the clouds from the ground, because there were a lot of lights at the Lakeshore hotel.
I have figured out how to use some of the basic settings that I had trouble with last night; setting the D200 into S mode will make enable me to vary the shutter speed while the camera works on the aperture settings. I have been looking through a pdf version of the user manual.
I have been shooting at an ISO setting of 500 last night. I want to try something a bit higher, like 800. Since all of my pictures will be taken during low-light settings, it makes sense. I will also use another setting to optimize the colors of the photos. I will try More Vivid, since I am shooting at night and the colors that will appear need to be vivid. I will also change the Auto-Focus settings to Continuous Servo AF so that I can shoot even if the camera is out of focus. I printed myself out a nice little sheet and I will try out a few things tonight, but it isn’t looking good with all of the rain.
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The wife is off running a few errands today and will be back tonight. Tutoring has been cancelled due to the holidays and will start up again next week. Oh, and BTW it’s pouring cats and dogs over here in Taiwan. The only time it let up was for about 5 minutes this morning when we made our way to work.
I looked so grumpy and tired this morning, that a Chinese homeroom teacher told me “You look so tired and sleepy!” This was before my cup of coffee. This week, someone had made some coffee and not used enough coffee grinds. The result? Watery coffee, almost made me puke!
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I decorated part of the staff room windows with some drawings of Santa Claus and an elf. They look a bit evil or mischievous. I have been asked to cover the other windows. Maybe tomorrow.
I wanted to bring my camera to take some pics of the Kindergarten kiddies, but it’s just too wet so my camera stayed at home.
I have got a few minutes left before going home. I just want to relax a bit before having a meeting later on tonight and coming back home.
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np: Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
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This is a fantastic photograph, and I agree with you that it has a very eerie and dark feel. It’s almost a pity that there’s a streetlight in the picture because it sort of distracts from the rest of it.
Still, though, good work.
Thanks a lot and welcome to The Memoirs.
Thanky for your positive comment. I appreciate all feedbacks. I will try to take a shot without the streetlight to see what happens.
You’re welcome.
I wonder if it’s possible to take one without the streetlight, though. I’m not sure the tree would hide it. Worth a shot though. (No pun intended!)
I don’t know, I will know in the next few nights. Or tonight if it doesn’t rain. I need to take a shot of it anyways to compare with my new/old settings. To see the difference. It almost looks like a haunted house, strange since it is a 5 star hotel.
Sounds like you’re having fun wrestling with the new camera. People often underestimate how much light reflects from low clouds in cities. Maybe I notice the difference coming from a country town.. When I grew up, heavy clouds meant pitch black nights – no moonlight or starlight. In cities cloudy nights are the brightest because the clouds reflect city lights back.
Indeed. It reminds me of the hospital in the spoof horror Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place.
@ Mr Angry: yep, I am having a ball. Very interesting to work with a new toy when you don’t know a lot about it. I am also looking forward to getting a HD camcorder, there is a good one from Sony that I wouldn’t mind having for docs and vlogs.
Yes, there is a lot of light, especially if the place your are shooting has a lot of lights, the impact is immediate on the photos.
# tender hooligan: it reminds me of the Bates motel of a view from the Kingdom hospital.
YES! That too. I knew there was something else I was thinking of!
you got some good taste right there!
Hi, where can I find the pdf version of the user manual for D200?
Hey there Tim, here are a few URLs where you should find the English version of the manual.
http://www.noendpress.com/pvachier/cameras/nikon_D200.php
and
http://www.henrys.com/manuals/
Have fun!