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I think this is interesting; pictures Merry took
Topic Started: Apr 26 2008, 07:23 PM (951 Views)
dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
I did know (only cause you're on Facebook! :D )

edit to add: I know have a folder in my Teaching Photos section with her name as the title :)
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
Now she's internationally known

:lol:
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big al
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Bull-Carp
Those are very impressive photos, Deb. Merry has a photographer's eye.

If she is not actively seeking a more complicated camera system, I'd let her continue with what she has for awhile. She seems to be doing very well with it. The only issue I might have is image quality for prints and enlargements, because I know nothing about the particular model Nikon she's using and it's impossible to judge from a low-res monitor image. Have you printed any out? That might be cause for an upgrade.

Many point-and-shoot cameras have a wide array of features for aperture and shutter speed selection as well as a reasonably large zoom range so they are not limiting in the sense that an old Kodak Brownie with roll film would be. She seems to be using the camera she has to good effect and perhaps can learn more about issues like depth of field and blurred motion with slow shutter speeds without new equipment.

I toted a lot of camera equipment around for a lot of years. I used to go out with 2 SLR bodies loaded with different films and a bag full of lenses, filters, etc. If you like photographic technology, that can be fun, and some shots require special equipment to get (very long telephoto shots, fisheye views, perspective corrected architectural photos, ultra close-ups, wide area night photography, and things like that) but most sacrifice the spontaneity and convenience of a small, easily portable camera. I believe I could now shoot about 90% of everything I've taken over the years with a moderately priced digital camera. I often grab my wife's camera and slip it in my pocket on the off-chance that I see something I want to record.

If she wants to take a class or get into something more complex, all well and good, but right now I'd let her enjoy what may simply be a very rewarding hobby and see where it leads. When it came to avocations (and to a large degree, vocations), I tried not so much to push my children as to facilitate their way in directions that were both constructive and pleasurable. I have a daughter who does TV production full-time now and two engineer sons, but I only gave them the chance to do those things. I bought a lot of musical instruments that were well-used and some that still are, but I didn't push too hard that way either. If they wanted lessons, we arranged for them and if they progressed and they needed a better horn or guitar, we'd help them get it, but life is so much more pleasurable when you're doing something because you like or love it, than because someone is making you do it.

Bottom line: If she has asked for an SLR or has expressed frustration with what she is working with now or her level of knowledge of the photographic process, it might be time to upgrade or sign up for a class and she should be part of that decision. Absent that incentive, I'd let her enjoy what she's doing now.

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
Al, I appreciate your post. Be assured that, with three kids who are close in age, and whose directions in life couldn't be any more disperate, along with my own career and interests to pursue, I've never had the time to push them into anything. I've delighted in watching them assert themselves in their own areas of interest. They've never seemed to need anything much in the way of encouragement...although I hope I've been a little bit encouraging :lol:

The reason I brought up the question is because, as I wrote earlier in the thread, Merry has been studying photos and wondering about how things are done. She's asked several times how much good cameras cost, and she's been writing back and forth to a friend's daughter who is a few years older, just graduated last spring from Hampshire College, in cultural studies and photography, so I think she's very much wishing she knew more, and could do more, than at present. I think we printed some photos from the camera a while back but they weren't enlargments. There were pics on it of a concert she attended with a friend, so we printed the photos for the friend. It doesn't have much of a zoom or very many settings that are up to the user (she can set it to b/w, but I'm not sure she can even manually focus like I can on my Canon) as it is the very lowest end one they make, it's called a Coolpix L16 and I paid about 55.00 for it on sale at Best Buy in Tulsa during a summer promotion. I actually only bought it because I thought she might want to take a bunch of pictures around the studio during the three weeks of the dance intensive and three week's worth of disposable cameras was going to be more money than the little Nikon.

FWIW, I'm the polar opposite of a stage mom. Having made my career in the arts convinced me completely that the motivation of a successful person has to come from their own passions. I believe Merry's main area of interest will probably always be dance. We've been through the whole, "If you can possibly be happy doing ANYTHING else besides music/dance/stage, then you should do it" speeches with her, but it's in her blood. I am so low key about her dancing that the other parents think I don't care about it...which is not true, I am amazed by her dedication and accomplishment, but I just absolutely refuse to stick my oar in her process. Nobody's foot was in my butt when I started singing and that was a good thing. Nobody who really understood the arts would be stupid enough to push their kid that direction, so if she goes that way, she'll be doing it with my blessing and deepest sympathy :lol: Having said that, she is, without a doubt, the most disciplined of my three kids, and also the most focused. All three are pretty disciplined and focused, but she's got a quiet professionalism about her that's impressive. She has a real sunny disposition and rolls with the punches without so much as a hard swallow. That's a dance studio thing. She's in class there for a minimum of 15 hours a week plus another 5 or more of rehearsal. That is work time for them...they don't waste time. Dancers either groove on that sort of discipline, or they quit. They have fun, but when they're supposed to work, they work. I think that photography could be a really great hobby/expression tool/release etc for her. But...she's kind of like me with regard to her quest for information and acquisition of skill. She doesn't really do things half-way. I have an associate's degree in one of my hobbies :lol2:

I think I want to do as you suggest...hold off for a little while on purchasing a camera. That's mostly because I really don't have the $$ right now and because I need to make a smart choice when I can buy one for her. She asked for a better camera for her birthday this March, but her birthday choice had to be between a new camera or returning to Tulsa for the ballet intensive...she chose the intensive but she did put away her birthday money from Grandma to start to save up herself. I found a website that has some online lessons...in composition and stuff...I think I'll send her those links and let her continue to talk to her facebook friend and get real hungy for this thing. My guess is that by next Christmas, she'll be telling me what she needs. That will give me some time to put some voice lessons aside to pay for it.

It's all her...I'm just trying to figure out how best to utilize my limited funds.
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RosemaryTwo
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HOLY CARP!!!
Quote:
 
I have an associate's degree in one of my hobbies 


And that would be?

Please share....
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
RosemaryTwo
Apr 28 2008, 05:54 PM
Quote:
 
I have an associate's degree in one of my hobbies 


And that would be?

Please share....

Interior design. It was a job for a few years. I had a business called...Deborah Green Interiors. :lol: But when we bought into Sonic and moved, I stopped doing that.
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big al
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Bull-Carp
Deb, thanks for your thoughtful reply. Merry definitely sounds like she'll be moving up to a more capable camera before too long (when you said inexpensive, I wasn't sure how basic you were talking). It sounds like she'll have a carefully researched choice. She'll obviously make great use of it. It may be well that she started with some simple hardware, though. It's easy for some of us to become more enamoured with the technology than the results. I think of golf clubs as an example where the idea is prevalent that the latest driver will do more for your game than regular practice. Tain't so.

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
I SO agree with you Al! We've always had to be real careful with the expenses but I think that's worked out nicely for the kids. They have always waited because they had to, but I'm not sure I'd change that approach even if we were loaded.

After 25 years of marriage, when David bought me a grand piano, the kids weren't allowed to play it until they did a certain amount of work on their pieces on the spinet. They progressed a lot during that time because they were so excited to play on the 'big piano'

I wouldn't get Amy a guitar until she learned to play her dad's. He taught her to play some chords. I figured her fingers would hurt and she'd quit. I told her she'd have to learn some music...not just a couple chords. So he taught her to play Blackbird. I love that, and so I was just about ready, but I told her she needed to learn something on her own and play it for me. The day she plucked out the melody line of mvt 1,Mozart K545, I bought her guitar :-) That's been the nicest thing.

They all learned piano as a consequence of my feeling that nobody's really literate if they can't read music and find notes on a keyboard. I wouldn't be able to talk to them if they couldn't do that, it's like a second language in our house. Will had the most interest and is really pretty good now, very interested in composition and well-heeled with regard to music history, lit, and rep. Merry plays nicely, is really musical, and I bet she'll pick it up for recreational purposes at some point. She invests so much time in dance that she really doesn't have the hours left in a week to practice an instrument. About once a week, she sits down and plays through a couple things, picks around a bit, and moves on. Amy merely tolerated my insistence that she learn to read clefs and rhythms, key sigs, and play rudimentary piano. She went to town on that guitar though. She plays in a little band with some kids at school and spends most of the time she doesn't have a basketball in her hands, with a guitar in her lap playing, noodling with it, writing little songs...I love that she has some outlet that way. When the basketball people find out, they're always surprised. It's a nice surprise!
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1hp
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Fulla-Carp

I, like Kenny, use a Nikon. I have a D200 with an 18-200mm Nikkor lens (probably the most popular combination with this camera body). It's a great camera, but a lot of settings to figure out (even for an engineer!) - I'm still working the instruction manual after a year and a half! Also a little on the pricey side.

There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those that understand binary and................
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Cathys
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Senior Carp
WOW Deb; I'm going back through from page 2 :) once again. I always love threads with pictures. This one sure caught my eye, she has a wonderful eye for composition, my youngest loves to take photos too and we are often surprised by what he captures but she has gotten way too many captivating shots to chalk it up to simply chance.
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