DarkPrince

So I've picked up 2 lenses over the last month, one being the Tamron 10-24mm Wide Angle that I played with at the demo day, and the Pentax DA* 55mm F/1.4 lens that just came in the mail today :) Haven't been able to mess with it much but heres a few I've had with the wide angle.

Went out today after a horrid mens league round to try a few more shots. Lighting was dismal since the sky was partly cloudy. It was also at sundown (IR works best at brightest points during the day so roughly 9AM-6PM) so it was hard not to have the sky look washed out white :/ Nature area between parts of the course. 18mm, ISO 400, 15.0 Seconds, F/10.0 Bridge connecting inner/outer parts of North Course 18mm, ISO 400, 15.0 Seconds, F/10.0

I don't have a circular polarizer for either my 18-55 kit lens (52mm filter ring) or my Tamron 10-24mm Wide Angle Zoom (77mm filter size). It was recommended to me that if I buy filters only buy 77 and then just buy a step up ring for the 52-77 conversion because its a lot cheaper than buying 2 of the same filters for each lens. But a CP will do the same as it does with visible light, it will darken the sky or reduce/eliminate reflections off of water or glass, whatever it would regularly do, just that its essentially in monochrome instead of color.

I'm using a mix of Adobe Lightroom and Corel Aftershot Pro, using the trials to decide which one I'll have to buy eventually. I blame it more on the filter since its a cheaper one the wood effect (glowing trees) doesn't pop as much so I somewhat have to blow them out a bit in PP :/ The other thing I've been screwing around with is the built in time lapse function on the K-5, I ran one last night from 1AM-4:15AM on the back porch last night. Just set it and went to sleep :P I didn't realize the sun lights up the sky to the point that it blows out pictures by 4:30 though lol. (watch in 720PHD if you want any detail)

The best part in the above post is that when my email loaded the update for THR post, the links showed up in their full coding instead of highlighted/underlined words so I see that in the middle of a random off THR topic "insightful" post is 3 links to LA Asian Escorts BAHAHAHAHAHA!! XD I love spammers ^.^

I'll have to head back again some time and get some better ones, they just don't seem that good now that I see them a day later :/

I recently purchased an inexpensive infrared filter for my new Pentax K-5 I bought last month and have been fooling around with it around the house and town, but I just finally got to take it to the golf course today. I thought you guys might find it interesting :) All the infrared stuff I've been messing around with can be found on my photobucket albums .

Thanks again :) So far I've only had 2 people actually look through and tell me what they like between here and facebook lol.

Thanks Maverick, I'm half tempted to maybe not include waterfall ones just because there are so many waterfalls there and everyone was doing them, so there will likely be 50+ versions, but they really did seem to be some of the better ones :/

I went to a photo clinic at a place called the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford IL today. We had an hour or 2 short seminar on Macro and Landscape photography and then we were cut loose into this huge japanese style garden. The other fun thing was that it was also a Tamron demo day so you could leave your license and rent lenses for an hour. I walked around with my own lens for the first hour and then I borrowed a 10-24 Ultra Wide because I had never played with one before and thought it would be fun. Turns out they aren't necessarily as useful as I thought lol. But either way, I put some of the pictures up so let me know if anyone likes some. We are supposed to turn in the best 3 pictures we took as kind of a challenge. I'm a horrible judge myself so I figured I'd see if the community could help me out a bit :) Michael Hall - Anderson Japanese Gardens Side note: The sky was overcast all freakin day so the sky in most pictures just looks like a blown out white mess....I didn't have a choice and post processing couldn't fix most of it so sorry if there are glaring white spaces in some :(

I follow Elk on twitter and while he can be VERY funny, there are times he seems to go WAY over the line lol. But really he has basically admitted he will never work for a network because he doesn't believe in PC and has said he knows he goes over the line all the time. Golf Channel would also not stand for the fact that he doesnt kiss up to tiger. He doesn't hate or dislike tiger he is just openly critical of him :P

I forgot about Rolfing and Maltbie, I'd take either of them. Or get Rocco Mediate lol. Just do NOT make it Faldo or Miller, and if Miceli got it, ohhh man that would suck.

So according to sources inside of golf channel and a few of the golf writers on twitter, Kuselias was a horny old man who never tired of hitting on or saying out loud to younger staffers/workers that he would like to bang them (IE Horndogery is the word tied to him lol). His contract wasn't renewed at ESPN because of multiple complaints to HR. This time it seems it was actually regarding Holly. Only instead of being put off by it....the two are apparently engaged despite EK not being completely divorced from his current/soon to be ex wife. I don't know what's creepier, the fact that he's just a creepy horny old douchebag and has been removed from multiple positions for it....or the fact that Holly actually fell for it and would really want to put up with the D-Bag lol. His role on NBC Sports talk will apparently be small and can be done remotely instead of him having to move all the way to CT for it since they likely will not be getting rid of Holly Sonders any time soon. I don't know who I'd want as a replacement though, if I have to listen to a 5 minute historical/overemotional monologue from Roberts or Nantz every day I'd probably be done watching lol. Rhymer is entertaining in small doses but he's just do dang LOUD all the time. I might to Nobilo, Foltz seems to be quiet but entertaining. Edit: Forgot to mention the Richard Nixon line was a reference to him being "impeached" from the show. He's claiming it's a promotion but essentially GC removed him from it. HR policies likely say something about office romance can't be inside the specific department/show but that between departments is fine. http://deadspin.com/5910112/?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm;_source=deadspin_twitter&utm;_medium=socialflow http://www.weiunderpar.com/post/not-mensa-golf-smart-kuselias-re-assigned http://deadspin.com/5784227/erik-kuselias-making-friends-at-golf-channel-just-like-he-did-at-espn

So apparently today was EK's last day on morning drive. He's moving up to NBC Sports talk or something but people on twitter are apparently quite pleased lol

I went back to the shop today and ended up buying the Pentax K-5. I went and fiddled around with the Canon 7D, the Nikon D7000, and the Sony Alpha A77. For some reason the Pentax just fit my hands the best and felt the most sturdy. It's going to take a little while to get used to the difference in control schemes and a few other things, but I really like it so far.

The callaway and taylormade sets I've sold at work that have graphic decals on the face are only on one iron, usually the 7 iron or pitching wedge so that part's not uncommon.

A friend of mine recommended KEH before, I just couldn't remember the name of it lol, I kept ending up at B+H's website :P

I did, I don't know why I said just that one lol. I showed them to my dad who probably doesn't really give a crud about golf and he thought they were very interesting :P

I have heard of a company that makes some kind of attachment that goes into the actual camera that when removed, it's an IR camera, but if you snap the filter into place it returns it to a regular camera, but I can't remember where I read about it. But I do know that there is a way to remove the filters on the sensor to make it a permanent/full speed IR camera, just can't bring myself to really do it. I checked ebay for any infrared converted DSLR's, I found some that were reasonably priced, but the few I found all shipped out of china and had horrible grammar and a few other oddities that made me say heck no lol.

You guys can't seriously think I'm discounting it just because of the CF cards lol. For some reason I swear I had something else written..but it was like 1:30 in the morning and I wanted to go to bed :P Really it's going to probably come down to me going back down, messing around with both a little to get a feel for the controls, then probably just having to choose to pay at least $1000 for the body of the K-5, or at the very least $1600 or $1700 for the body of the 7D. I don't necessarily want more kit lenses since I guess i should eventually just upgrade to the nicer real versions of the lenses to get better quality pictures. I guess another quality question is just how the hell are you supposed to decide on a lens to buy. No one around here exactly rents or lends them to try lol.

The guys at the shop basically told me that when they came out, CF was still slightly faster and more reliable, supposedly. The problem they have with CF is that its a common occurrence that the pins inside the receiver for the cards can get bent, and that of course the cost to repair the issue if it's not fixable by the shop guys is costly when you have to send it to Canon to get it fixed.

I've always been fascinated with Infrared photography and have a few books on it, I want to get into it but my options are either a $150+ filter that requires a tripod and long/slow shutter speeds, or pay a large amount of money to get the infrared filter removed from my DSLR and make it a permanent IR only camera. And that picture is amazing.

It's just tough because Canon and Nikon have somewhat of a stranglehold on the market in that they are the only two you hear about. I have no doubt that the pentax is capable, its just tough for me to think about getting it without for some reason thinking I'm buying an inferior product. I liken it to golf products, Ping and Titleist/Scotty Cameron are the two companies that seem (in my opinion, dont care if you agree ;]) to have this unorthodox aura about them that they are superior to other brands (mostly just players bragging, but titleists commercials don't help dispell it ;P) So some people think that Callaway/Nike/Taylormade/Wilson Staff/Tour Edge are inferior despite it not being true. The thing I will say I liked about the Pentax, it was ungodly quiet compared to my current T1i. It barely made a sound when the shutter actuated. One of the complains I've heard about the 7D is that it's very loud. They both felt hefty and weighty/solid, and I didn't mess around with the 7D's controls much because he pulled it fresh out of a box and the battery wasn't charged, but I HATE the control scheme on my T1i since I learned on my parents ND80 and had the dual wheel setup for SS/Ap when in manual. It's a pain in the butt to want to change the aperature or any other setting because once you select something, make a change and go to take pictures, the wheel always defaults back to shutterspeed when in manual. So if I had it set to ISO or WB or aperature....I'll always accidentally go and change my shutter speed instead of anything else lol. One other complaint/gripe is really just that WHY DOES CANON STICK WITH CF!? The 7D and all models above it use CF cards where every other manufacturer stays with SD cards. I don't want to have to pay $75 for the equivalent CF card when I already have 3 or 4 class 6 or higher SDHC cards. Oh and also, what is Flickr? :P

Yeah but the tough part is, the kit lenses don't stand a chance against one of pretty much any companies actual real lenses. If I get the K-5 body only, I can still sell the T1i and its lenses to a friend or something and then use that to fund getting a real quality lens from pentax or tamron or sigma or something. The tough part is that I'm not like a professional photographer, I've never taken a class or anything, and I'm not necessarily looking to become one or sell prints or anything, but it just feels like something fun/nice I can do on the side other than just golf when I'm not at work. I haven't done much but pretty much anything I've done that I liked or thought was good i put up on here .

I have a Canon Rebel T1i entry level DSLR with the two kit lenses and I'm looking to upgrade. I went to a camera shop in Rockford and was looking for/at a Canon 7D to upgrade to, but he also showed me a Pentax K-5 that seemed to be very nice, rugged, and felt like a very solid piece of hardware. It's a little slower than the 7D has less megapixels, and can only do 7FPS continuous as opposed to 8FPS but it's like $600 cheaper than the 7D. I just have never really heard of Pentax before. Any experience out there?