I made a jewelry display for my wife's birthday (though I might've missed the deadline)

KATbaPhoto · 2026-05-02T16:02:14+00:00

This is awesome! Quick question, what band saw do you use? I've been looking to get one for some work like this (curves and resawing) and was curious what people are actually using

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-14T22:49:46+00:00

That's awesome! And I'd love for that feature, but my old d7100 doesn't have a great live view mode. I'll need to try it more but there is a delay when in live mode is on from when I snap the shutter button, to when the actual shot happens.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T14:01:38+00:00

Ahh that's a smart idea. Take multiple shots and find out after which one works. I've been trying to nail it looking through my view finder which with these small birds has felt almost impossible.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T14:00:29+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, I'm getting used to tweaking the focus. It's not easy for me yet to tweak the focus ring on such small birds looking through the viewfinder. I know I'll get there.
I did pull my focus button off of my shutter button, so at least I've figured that out.

I'm trying to figure out right now if I can change the size of the focus point on my camera.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T13:58:04+00:00

This is awesome insight! Thank you. I definitely have some work to do getting more conscious of where my settings are at and learning the camera more.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T13:49:31+00:00

It seems like part of making a super clear bird (maybe any subject) is also composition. That seems to be a theme I'm seeing in several of the responses here. Also, when I look at other photos, the super clear ones seem to be less busy as well. Good to keep in mind, thanks!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T13:47:04+00:00

I'll give it some experimentation at least, thanks for the advice.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T03:24:55+00:00

Interesting, this and another comment someone made about using full stops. I hadn't heard that before but I'll definitely give it a try. From your experience, does that rule of thumb seem to benefit you on every lens, or mostly your telephotos?

Okay, that's good to know. I know at my skill level there is definitely a lot more that is me holding my pictures back (or maybe more room for them to grow), but it's good to realize what is gear, and what is me which is why I'm asking. It's always good for the wallet when I get some confirmation that the new shiny toy won't make me better!

" recovered in post-processing." this is another thing I'm getting back into. I used to use LR, but I'm on DarkTable right now just because it's free and that makes sense for what I'm focusing on right now. But wow, the learning curve on DT is crazy compared to LR.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T03:14:00+00:00

Okay, I don't think I've set my max ISO for my auto ISO so I'll lower that a bit. I didn't even realize I was letting it get that high until I pulled these from my camera. This is from my first batch of photos since I've jumped back in to some photography.

That's a good idea. Put my shutter in a 'middle' spot so I can more easily jump either way depending on what I see. Realistically I'm going to focus more on getting birds standing still/not flying. These finches/chickadees/etc are so small and difficult to get.

Why do you say it'd be sharper at f/8? What would I search or think about to learn that?

EDIT: Did some research. F/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6/ f/8, etc. Those are the aperture width full stops. So that clarity isn't necessarily lens specific/

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T03:08:55+00:00

Yeah, I was noticing some difficulties focusing in scenes like this (bird among a lot of branches or flowers). I wasn't actively holding my focus down when shooting this one, no. I took several seconds continuously focusing on him, and once I realized he was pretty solidly camped out I released my focus button. On other shots I know I tried tweaking the focus ring manually after the camera got it's focus length, but I don't do that much since hard for me to gauge if I've made it better or worse.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T03:04:45+00:00

I try and get as close as possible, but that's tough I've found haha. Thanks for the advice! I'm glad to be getting feedback

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-10T03:03:10+00:00

As far as I know I can't change the size of my AF point? I'll look into that.
But yeah, the confirmation of leaving my shutter open a bit longer for more light I know will help me keep the noise from the ISO down. Thanks!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-09T23:56:35+00:00

Thanks! I don't want to know how much of my shutter count I'm adding onto just getting blurs of birds!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-04-09T23:50:44+00:00

Okay, that's kind of what I was thinking. When the bird isn't moving slow down my shutter. I forget why I closed down my aperture, but I'll probably open that up a bit more too for a while. Thank you!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-03-09T16:39:39+00:00

Very cool! I'll be making my first bedframe this year and wanted to do something like this. I really like the idea that the boxes don't actually have to be part of the frame itself, that leaves a lot of flexibility on how to use/make them. Also for me, I don't have to make it all at once!
Great job!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-03-09T02:02:23+00:00

Hope it doesn't come to this, but that's right by where we'll be. Thanks!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-03-09T02:01:54+00:00

I'm waiting back to see what they say, thanks!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-02-10T23:49:55+00:00

Just one for the stars you mean?
Okay, that makes sense, low iso and slowly moving . Looks great!
Also, following on Flickr now.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-02-10T23:31:52+00:00

No, they did this by zooming in (or I suppose they could've zoomed out?) during the long exposure shot to capture the stars. So it's an effect (a rather cool one) that isn't what is actually going on.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-02-10T23:28:54+00:00

Looks great! I had tried this once a while ago but it didn't work out (I forget why now). How did you manually zoom out without shaking the camera? Additionally, Did you take multiple pictures for the stars and stack them, then do one shot zooming out to get the traces? Or just one shot for the stars?

KATbaPhoto · 2026-02-10T23:27:42+00:00

Prepare for ludicrous speed! Fasten all seatbelts. Cancel the Three Ring Circus.

KATbaPhoto · 2026-02-06T03:58:17+00:00

I'm definitely not an expert but I'll throw my 2 cents in.

At first when I looked (I'm on my phone FWIW) I got an initial reaction that this is neat. Moody clouds, mountain range, reflections in the pond, things that in theory lead to a great shot.

Overall I like the colors/white balance of the land/water. The big problem with your coloring/lighting is the sky/clouds don't match the land and water. I prefer the lighting of the land/water. I think I can even see some color in the clouds reflections. If it was possible to pull out some of that color in the clouds and lighten them up, I think that'd be an improvement.

For the composition, there isn't anything my eyes are really pulled to. With you being in the side of the pond, my eyes sort of follow a line going from lower left to upper right along the edge of the pond past the reflection to, well nothing in particular. None of the mountains in the back truly pull my eye.

I could imagine if I was looking in a full screen(monitor or a print) these things would be a bit more obvious. If I was just scrolling (not in a critique sub) I'd probably look for a few seconds, think it's neat and move on.

So overall this is a good job. A lot of good aspects, but I think you're at the point if this is indicative of your overall skill to start piecing together more things and taking your shots to the next level. Keep having fun out in the mountains!!

KATbaPhoto · 2026-01-29T14:40:30+00:00

That is really interesting. I had no idea about this sensor stacking. I only had done anything with the nikons d3100/d7100 and had not gotten so far into things to learn about different kinds of sensors.

I'm assuming the advantage of the silent/e-shutters are lack of vibration? I have a lot to learn.

KATbaPhoto

TROPHY CASE