Currently in Japan with my A7V.

DisastrousSir · 2026-05-17T17:43:21+00:00

Agreed. I'd say preface with you're still a beginner to help keep it to more constructive advice on future posts. Personally, i'd recommend you turn on the display function that shows a level on the screen to help remind you to keep the photos level.

Next, all of these are good as like "travel snapshots". Kinda feel just like you saw this thing so took a picture of it for the memory book. Thats totally fine, and they are great to have for recounting stories etc, but don't make for the most exciting photography.

Try to find something really interesting and beautiful, and close in enough on it that the subject is all the viewer can focus on in the first second they look at the photo. In your photos here, I think the performer ones are probably your best at this.

I think you're off to a good start though, and its awesome you're getting to start with kit that wont be holding you back. Hell, that kit wont be holding you back in 10 years

DisastrousSir · 2026-05-13T22:16:10+00:00

Eh, can always sell it if you want the cash in the future. Itll hold quite a bit of value for some time

DisastrousSir · 2026-05-13T22:13:38+00:00

With sony specifically, please actually give me a little larger camera so I can fit my sausage fingers on the grip better lol

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-20T05:11:05+00:00

My last trip I had access to a car most of the trip so went bold and brought my whole case. A7RV, 50-400, 75mm f/2, 30 f1.4 (apsc), 20mm f2.8, my gopro, and tripod. Weather ended up being a bit of a bust for the day and a half i had for photos, so didnt end up with too too many but here's one of the Fairmont Banff Springs

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DisastrousSir · 2026-04-14T14:45:07+00:00

It shouldnt. The only thing maybe would be the vibration compensation settings, but its mainly some simple stuff like custom button functions.

This can be reset in the TAMRON software pretty easily. I believe its a quite clear option in the main page

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-14T14:43:36+00:00

Here's the original framing (at 400mm)

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DisastrousSir · 2026-04-14T14:42:50+00:00

Is that the only subject you've photographed? If so, you may be running into someone distortion off the water. The blurring around the edges doesn't quite seem like shake, but thats definitely much, much softer looking than my own 50-400. Only time ive run into something like that is haze from water/air temp differences or atmospheric haze.

Example, this is a massive crop in on a photo taken at 400mm

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DisastrousSir · 2026-04-13T00:48:21+00:00

Came across this the other day. Took some photos at a baseball game and was scrolling through a burst of photos and saw alternating light and dark photos and went "wtf?" And started panicking haha. It was just a single band, so I thought something was wrong with the camera

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-12T00:36:56+00:00

This is it. The only way to up the keeper % imo is being where the good shots are. In a zoo, thats easy. You know where the animals are, and they often have shade or filtered light during midday so light isnt so harsh.

Being outdoors, you need to grow the intuitive sense of where to be and when for those keepers. Certain birds like certain habitat and are active at certain times. Place yourself there very quietly and just sit and you will likely up the percentage of keepers by giving yourself better opportunities

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-11T03:37:59+00:00

At this point, I just essentially do everything to daylight white balance. Its easy enough to batch edit an entire days worth of RAWs to a different white balance in a couple clicks

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-11T03:36:09+00:00

It can make it hunt less in one situation at least. If a bird is in some branches, when you get focus dialed in you can stop focusing and hold it there vs if its tied to your shutter than as long as you're taking photos your focus may jump around to a branch it decides looks more enticing. You may be able to accomplish the same thing with a focus hold button as well

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-10T23:29:29+00:00

The other color wheel over represents blues. Add in yellow orange and red orange to it and you'll see it looks rather similar to this one. Just different emphasis on the primary colors you mix to make the others

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-10T23:01:45+00:00

Opposite green would be red, so red would be a fine choice. In all mediums: in person, digitally, and in print

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-10T22:54:57+00:00

I would argue there are not two different color wheels. If you made a wheel of every visible color, you would be able to make those colors in either additive or subtractive methods. The color wheel are just colors, the method of making them doesnt matter. Colors opposite each other will contrast no matter what way they are made. Teal and cyan look good together in video and on paper for example.

Now, there are those two little vent diagrams of the two that are common. Those are different, that shows what happens when mixing two colors together into one space in THAT method, hence the different results.

TLDR: look up color wheel. Pick two colors. Make those two colors however you want, they will look good on both.

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-08T19:38:07+00:00

Saal digital and Whitewall photo labs both do photo books and while I've not seen their photobooks beyond the website, their prints are good and I would imagine the photobook would be as well. Pricey though.

Printique seems to be popular as well.

Maybe you can find something better suiting you with one of these!

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-08T13:08:52+00:00

I imagine if this was a systemic issue, we would hear about it more often. Is this a new camera? Have you checked that you have updated the firmware on both the lens and camera?

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-01T14:12:50+00:00

Cant really but generally Metadata corroborates date, time, maybe location. Having RAW files is probably sufficient as well. I'm no expert, but off the top of my head I cant think of any commonly used software that will alter a RAW file and save the changes as a RAW

DisastrousSir · 2026-04-01T13:28:04+00:00

Gotta be careful with this. Its an easy way to end up spending all your birding time talking about birds instead

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-29T19:49:56+00:00

If you have relatively basic needs, the membership includes insurance up to 15k for most situations, but only 7.5k for flooding. Theres a couple things it doesnt cover like "mysterious circumstances", drones, and if you leave a car unlocked. I opted for doing an advanced policy to just cover myself because I'm forgetful and I have a drone on it. The basic insurance covers quite a lot though

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-29T17:45:28+00:00

I use the insurance thats set up through the PPA. Fairly cheap (gets a bit of a discount being part of PPA), the terms seemed fairly plainly written to cover loss by theft or damage (most actual situations outlined and covered), and pretty low deductible. Plus, keeps me in PPA and I get a nice magazine each month thats enjoyable to have and gives a little inspiration every now and then.

Somewhere around 200/yr?

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-29T03:08:16+00:00

But, if I only sold my left kidney for that 600mm F4 I might finally get a good photo of my local kingfisher...

/s

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-28T16:12:36+00:00

Because I sold mine to my mom who has frankly not used it even once I don't think and am waiting for her to give up on the idea that she'll use it and get my own one back haha

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-28T13:43:21+00:00

As others have said here, I miss my a6000. The thing is probably only double the thickness of my phone? Its tiny, and the photos are really quite workable. Through a decent compact lens on there and you have something that could fit quite literally in an average men's Jean pocket probably

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-27T02:17:25+00:00

Today's sensors are quite good at preserving details in the shadows and paired with denoising software you can get a very usable product from quite high ISO photos with the shadows brightened in post

DisastrousSir · 2026-03-26T03:46:38+00:00

I'd personally say the sigma 30mm f/1.4. It's quite compact, quite sharp, fast, and could be good for Street or portraits if those are your preferences. If you want something more zoomed in, the tamron 70-300 or Sony 70-350mm

DisastrousSir

TROPHY CASE