Andreas...my thoughts and prayers are with you. I'm so sorry and hope that they'll get you fixed up soon!!! let those nurses take good care of you!!! Hope you'll be hope very, very soon! all the best, sheila

Cindy, well, i'm glad to know my post was not deleted. hmmm...perhaps i hit preview post instead of post. you asked if i thought YOU were being insincere, Cindy. Why in the world would i think that, Cindy?????????????? On the contrary, i think you tried very hard to keep him here. Cindy, you said you don't know what i'm going on about. Well...it's just a feeling. I FEEL like something is not right here. It's just an instinctual feeling. I am not gonna go around singin' Zippidy Doo Dah just because many of ya'all think it's time to FEEL BETTER about the situation! Sorry, i DON'T feel BETTER about what has happened. i don't understand any of it! I can't say that Tedz was a "friend." We exchanged a few IM's and letters and that's it. But you know, during those exchanges and from seeing his gallery and his comments, i really came to like Brian as a person. Obviously, i am not alone in that. His art...well...i've always been in awe. Anyway, i did contact Brian and received a letter from him this morning. i still feel something is not right here. that's how i feel, and now that i've had some sleep, i will decide if RR is still a place i want to be involved in. Andreas, as for negativity...sorry buddy, but i am not gonna go around pretending to be all happy and smiley when i'm very unhappy that Tedz is gone for LIFE from this place.

since my last post i wrote was deleted, let me just say i echo was Azy said. something does not feel right here, and i, too, feel like the wool is being pulled over our eyes. Claudio, i wish you all the best. it's been a pleasure to view your most beautiful and creative images! :)

i can imagine the cardboard ones would wear out, especially if you are shooting in conditions which are anything less than dry. i might have to try using a gray card. might really help. i'm sure the camera shop we go to has them. thanks, tom! :)

i can't look at Dandi without thinking of Ralph Rotten and Tedz. sigh. anyway, will you please take me off the Dandi mailing list, doug. thank you.

Tom, phew i thought maybe i had upset you or that my tone didn't come across the way i intended. Nah...don't be silly, Tom...your post didn't sound like you were talking down to me. :) you are a very nice person and a gentleman, and you were just trying to help me 'cause i said i feel like i'm groping in the dark when it comes to spot metering. anyway, no...we don't have a hand meter yet. i use spot metering on my digital cam, and kemal meters the same way. i ran into some problems over the summer when i was metering differently. when i went back to spot metering, my images started looking more the way i wanted. tom, i believe with my cam it meters a rectangular area. Simon/Tom...i'm not sure what the percentage is with my cam either. it doesn't say in my manual. i might have to dig a bit on the web to find that info. Simon, i don't have a gray card. i probably need to do that. thanks for the advice. :) now if i could only get composition down...sigh. dunno why that's so damn hard for me! oh well. thanks so much again, Tom, for taking the time to help me by posting those pictures and sharing your expertise. and thank you, too, Simon! :)

i have some things i want to say, but i have to go to work now. Richard...thank you for posting his email addy! :)

tom, your images showing those examples were VERY helpful! Did i say they weren't???? oh gosh, if i did then i owe u a HUGE apology!!! reinforces just how important it is to meter in the right place. i never really know where to meter. i just kinda go by what i see. anyway...again...your examples Did help me. i'm so sorry if what i said made you think otherwise. i was so sleepy when i wrote that last night. and i just found out that Tedz was given the BOOT from RR and i was steaming mad. i guess my post didn't convey my gratitude to you, and i'm so sorry for that. :( Please forgive!!!!! pretty please!!! :)

OMG...my memory sucks... Brian's last name. oh i must know it, but what the hell is it? i forgot. somebody help me out here, please. i really want to talk to him. thanks. :)

thanks, Tom! :) i also use spot metering most of the time now. Yes, there IS significant differences in the images depending on where you meter. i guess where we meter depends on how we want our image to look. when i said i just kinda feel my way around blindly i guess what i meant was i just meter based on what looks right to my eye. is that what you do too? my cam also has exposure lock but i forget to use it most of the time. i wish i didn't forget stuff. when you're shooting landscape shots do you still spot meter? i am. my understanding (which may be wrong) is that with zone metering we do want to spot meter. am i understanding that correctly? basically if we're shooting snow we overexpose by a stop or two. if we're shooting black, we underexpose by a stop or two? what else am i missing Tom? anyway...that's all i can articulate right now. i'm exhausted...worked tons of hours the past couple of days and gotten too little sleep. night, Tom...and thanks so much again! :)

would someone be kind enough to give me Brian's email address please. i had it a long time ago, but never saved it. i really want to write him. I AM VERY ANGRY AND UPSET!!!! Brian is an incredible artist and i don't understand what in the world his crime was that the punishment is to be permanently banned here. you're right, Cindy. everything's NOT fine and dandy. i may join michelle in saying farewell to this place also. i guess i'll decide that very soon. michelle...you know what i think of your work. you're a helluva photographer. in case you're still here reading...take care and good luck. :)

i so much enjoyed my time here as always! Such wonderful images!!! Thanks Doug & Cindy for all your effort & wonderful work! and huge congrats to the excellent photographers!! :)

would it be better to have shown the trees and beautiful background? i guess. like i said, this image is not right technically but i like it anyway.

might show more later. gotta go to work. how the hell am i gonna go to work like this? sigh. man i feel weird. edit: can't remember if it was this overexposed in the original image. i may have pushed it even more in postwork. can't remember for sure.

Message edited on: 01/15/2006 14:27

Richard, what you said about making realistic photographs is what i was talking to kemal about last week.
we were outside and i said, "Look at that sky, honey! the highlights are blown!!!" :) LOL!

to shoot realistically exactly what i was seeing, my highlights would be blown i reckon. if that's what i want to do and i like how the image looks, then that's fine with me.

i like your image, Richard, and i think the highlights look just fine.

i've been studying Ansel Adams' images a lot these days. i spent $26 on a weekly calendar...each week has a print. i got sick of looking at his images on the web. Like Charles said, with different monitors and settings, the image will look different. i wanted to see his images in print.

anyway, kemal and i were studying them and some of his images look overexposed to us. But when you look at the image in its entirety, there's such an incredible balance to to it! and the contrast between the darks and brights make for such a visually stunning image.

have you seen Adams' image "Oak Tree, Snowstorm, El Capitan Medadow, Yosemite National Park, California, 1948" Also, Adams' "Salt Flats, near Wendover, Utah" (1941) looks like the salt flats are blown. are they really blown? hell...i dunno. i think they are. looks pretty damn bright. Does it bother me? No way! when i look at the image as a whole it looks magnificent!

i think i can get a better understanding if i don't have to worry if my monitor is callibrated right. i believe my monitor is callibrated right, but who knows. looking at the print takes away that factor of "does it look blown out because of my monitor."

sorry for rambling about Adams, but when you talk about highlights, his images are ones i look at and study.
anyway, sometimes i think blown out highlights can be a major distraction. other times, a few hot spots don't bother me. i guess it depends on the image and how hot those hot spots are.

i have a few images where i was trying to take a realistic image and the lighting was extremely harsh and i was trying to show that in my image. is the image visually appealing? dunno. some i like; some i don't.

sorry if my thoughts seem incoherent. i'm exhausted. i've had my coffee an hour ago but i still feel half asleep. i have to go to work in 10 min. & i still feel have asleep. what's wrong with me?

i like the picture Andreas, but if it was mine, i would see if i could work on it a bit. brighten the shadows to bring in more of those details. dunno if you can recover some of the details in his ear.

anyway, all this is just my silly 2 cents worth. :)

tom, i'm still not sure i know where to meter. LOL! i just feel like i'm groping around in the dark sometimes. feels like playing music by ear is the best analogy i can come up with. i do what "FEELS" right. can you give me some insight into how you meter. you're spot metering most of the time???? am i remembering correctly? i'm doing that, but i'm never quite sure if i'm doing it in the right place. it all hasn't gelled yet. i'm confused this morning. my brain is like scrambled eggs. :(