Panasonic GF3 and 100-300 lens in St. Petersburg

Just bought 100-300 lens a week ago. My copy seems to be sharp enough at 300 mm.

I enjoy shooting buildings and investigation of little architectural details at home. Any comments are appreciated

smithling wrote:

Since you have the C&C label on these, I'll be honest with you. I just don't know why anyone besides yourself (as memories) would be interested in these as photographs. #6 is mildly interesting as documentary. I'm sorry.

Besides the "you we there" aspect of these, do you feel there is anything particularly interesting in them?

It's the question which I address to myself for 2 years after buying the camera (why I take these photos of my home city?) and I have to admit that I have no answer yet. I just like the process of shooting and investigation of details. I even cannot use "I-was-here memory" answer because I always can return and take a similar shoot. So my thread can also be treated as a question: Is it interesting to someone else? And I understand your answer

I came in here expecting car pictures, since the first Indycar race of the year was just held this past weekend in St. Petersburg... Florida. Haha, oh well.

Thanks for sharing!

Electriq wrote:

I enjoy shooting buildings and investigation of little architectural details at home. Any comments are appreciated

Since you took the trouble to post (thanks), let me try to be helpful. I think you need to look for more interesting angles and focus.

• The constant wires were more obtrusive than  interesting subject. If you had somehow told us wires were a focus, we might have worked harder to compare  their positioning, etc.
• The string of lamp posts in number 4, viewed from another angle, could have been compressed and interesting. Though, of course, I don't know if that perspective was accessible.
• Framings do not seem to be very thoughtful. Things cut off, "the focus" is not heightened.
• People are often a good subject, but seldom in a random crowd, milling around. I think perhaps you're too wed to this particular lens. Interesting characters and configurations are more likely (but not always) to be found close up. Though I'm not good at it, "street photography" is certainly an inspiration for me. Get right into the action.
• Different angles on many of the buildings could have been interesting. Closer and more vertical shots? I don't know, but I would be wandering around to look.

You have a wonderful city to show. I'd be looking for more interesting "stories," foci, scale, angles, and framings.

Best...

Consider using one of the wire removal pluggins/programs (do a Google search).

I agree with previous posters. I am a big fan of travel photography.  For me it gives me an opportunity to find the extraordinary in the mundane, or the unusual in the often photographed sights.  If you want to enjoy photography take a walk on the street, pick something thats interesting to you, then imagine it through different angles, perspective, light, and magnification.  Thnink about how the wires can be used to lead you to an object in the distance. There is no method to this.  It is not a task but a escape, a hobby for me.

I find these gf3 pics quite pleasing pixelwise imo, that led me to check the samples of the gf3 review back then on DPreview and I found the quality of the gf3 output very nice, not too "sharp", good volume, good colours, not like the rez is gonna cut through your brain like a razor, lol, as with the latter sensors. So the 100-300 lens looks pretty ok as well.

This being said, I understand you're a St Petersburg native and I envy you living in such an amazing city. I also like to shoot long zoom because I like that compression of perspective very much but I think it's not that easy to find a good perspective, that will allow for a good compression, and I think this is the angle you should work on.

I hope you will come back here with more photos from your city.

These shots would not make me want to buy a 100-300, though a closer look at the original shows your lens and camera do have good detail.

I kind of like the wires and lines. Maube they should be darker!

If you have the software, boost the contrast a bit. Make your city look vibrant.

boxerman wrote:

Electriq wrote:

I enjoy shooting buildings and investigation of little architectural details at home. Any comments are appreciated

Since you took the trouble to post (thanks), let me try to be helpful. I think you need to look for more interesting angles and focus.

• The constant wires were more obtrusive than interesting subject. If you had somehow told us wires were a focus, we might have worked harder to compare their positioning, etc.
• The string of lamp posts in number 4, viewed from another angle, could have been compressed and interesting. Though, of course, I don't know if that perspective was accessible.
• Framings do not seem to be very thoughtful. Things cut off, "the focus" is not heightened.
• People are often a good subject, but seldom in a random crowd, milling around. I think perhaps you're too wed to this particular lens. Interesting characters and configurations are more likely (but not always) to be found close up. Though I'm not good at it, "street photography" is certainly an inspiration for me. Get right into the action.
• Different angles on many of the buildings could have been interesting. Closer and more vertical shots? I don't know, but I would be wandering around to look.

You have a wonderful city to show. I'd be looking for more interesting "stories," foci, scale, angles, and framings.

You've put the points I was going to make, but much better!

I think there are some interesting stuff in the pictures, but they need a more selective cropping. Here's an example of one that appealed to me:-

Mike

St Petersburg is a beautiful city rich in Architecture, been there, and all you can come up with is that?

Sorry, hardly inspiring, shots of daggy traffic and overhead power lines doesn't do it for me.

Sergeg wrote:

St Petersburg is a beautiful city rich in Architecture, been there, and all you can come up with is that?

Sorry, hardly inspiring, shots of daggy traffic and overhead power lines doesn't do it for me.

I agree with most critic but I want just notice that I did not aimed to make a beautiful city advertisement booklet

Michael J Davis wrote:

<...>I think there are some interesting stuff in the pictures, but they need a more selective cropping. Here's an example of one that appealed to me:-

Mike

-- hide signature --

Mike Davis
Photographing the public for over 50 years
www.flickr.com/photos/watchman

Love this crop! Thank you!

I think the problem here is that you need to post process a little bit more.  Not that I condone doing it overly and claiming it's still a photo when it's really art.  What I am saying is that our eyes gather light differently so those photos aren't quite real yet.  Sometimes you can get it right, especially once you've reached a certain level you can get some pretty close true-to-life images from jpeg.

I'm not going to tell you exactly what to do, but as you can see the camera and lens light gathering relationship can be deceiving so I would bring more things in detail with some extra contrast.  This would give it a more dimensional feel.  Then I would work on popping some of the colors.

Honestly, your photos are really not bad.  I can see why you took those shots regardless of what anyone says.  You are imaging it a certain way and all I am asking is for you to bring that vision out.  If that is not how you envision it then don't show it.  Go back and take that photo a thousand times if you have to.  If it would be better if 3 red cars passed by that scene then go each time waiting for that to happen just like in your mind, and snap it.

One other thing you can try is to do sunset/sunrise photos on these scenes.  If this is truly dull to you then adding the sun makes a huge difference.  I would even compare that amazing moment as giving life to anything God put on this earth.

I hope I wasn't being critical and my intent is to just share my thoughts.  Thank you for the shots and opportunity to C&C.

GL!

Electriq wrote:

Sergeg wrote:

St Petersburg is a beautiful city rich in Architecture, been there, and all you can come up with is that?

Sorry, hardly inspiring, shots of daggy traffic and overhead power lines doesn't do it for me.

I agree with most critic but I want just notice that I did not aimed to make a beautiful city advertisement booklet

I think this is a pretty harsh thing to say to you and I'm sorry for that.  If you take a look at some other photos from your negative critiquing peers you can see that they are skilled with the post process.  What you need to realize is that if your eye can't see things past continuous exposure in the distance then there is no way the camera can either.  The dodge and burn techniques are used to make these images come "to life".

I guarantee you that the RAW from some of these people who are being harsh to you are night and day.  So I just want to remind you that just because someone else can't see what you're seeing doesn't mean anything other than that.  OR just send your photo to a digital artist just to annoy people.  

GL!

ambercool wrote:

I think the problem here is that you need to post process a little bit more. Not that I condone doing it overly and claiming it's still a photo when it's really art. What I am saying is that our eyes gather light differently so those photos aren't quite real yet. Sometimes you can get it right, especially once you've reached a certain level you can get some pretty close true-to-life images from jpeg.

I'm not going to tell you exactly what to do, but as you can see the camera and lens light gathering relationship can be deceiving so I would bring more things in detail with some extra contrast. This would give it a more dimensional feel. Then I would work on popping some of the colors.

Honestly, your photos are really not bad. I can see why you took those shots regardless of what anyone says. You are imaging it a certain way and all I am asking is for you to bring that vision out. If that is not how you envision it then don't show it. Go back and take that photo a thousand times if you have to. If it would be better if 3 red cars passed by that scene then go each time waiting for that to happen just like in your mind, and snap it.

One other thing you can try is to do sunset/sunrise photos on these scenes. If this is truly dull to you then adding the sun makes a huge difference. I would even compare that amazing moment as giving life to anything God put on this earth.

I hope I wasn't being critical and my intent is to just share my thoughts. Thank you for the shots and opportunity to C&C.

GL!

Thank you for inspiring comment!

ambercool wrote:

Electriq wrote:

Sergeg wrote:

St Petersburg is a beautiful city rich in Architecture, been there, and all you can come up with is that?

Sorry, hardly inspiring, shots of daggy traffic and overhead power lines doesn't do it for me.

I agree with most critic but I want just notice that I did not aimed to make a beautiful city advertisement booklet

I think this is a pretty harsh thing to say to you and I'm sorry for that. If you take a look at some other photos from your negative critiquing peers you can see that they are skilled with the post process. What you need to realize is that if your eye can't see things past continuous exposure in the distance then there is no way the camera can either. The dodge and burn techniques are used to make these images come "to life".

I guarantee you that the RAW from some of these people who are being harsh to you are night and day. So I just want to remind you that just because someone else can't see what you're seeing doesn't mean anything other than that. OR just send your photo to a digital artist just to annoy people.

GL!

Nothing harsh about honesty, how is anybody going to rise above mediocrity if people insist on pandering to the lowest common denominator? The OP said they liked buildings and detail, where is there any evidence of that? The best of Europes artisans were commissioned by Peter

the Great to creative a "Venice of the North" and this is reflected here?

Stay in down town LA if you want to shoot that. What an insult!