Ok so I yap a lot when it comes to photography. Few months ago I got hand on Canon EOS Rebel XT and my brother bought some sony SLR. Well i am out of school so in the night, I always carrying camera to refresh my old skills which by now i am totally forgotten. well that sucks :). Well anyway I am posting some pics. Hope you like it.

Oh and all or done on total manual settings. It means i set the shutter, aperture and iso speeds and all the other crap. If you have a comment or question then please do ask.

Benches on lower Jarvis


Twin towers of toronto in the night. View from front & Jarvis looking west. Sorry the stupid trafic wont let me stand on the perfect place.

Purple Haze on Front


Twin towers again but clear night.

Highway to Heaven



Sorry about the watermarks. will try to keep them to minimal.

Yaar, spectacular!
I take it you live around Jarvis then.
Should keep that in mind, never to go out on a date around Jarvis, Sobank is watching!!

I know the first pic very well, it's just off the exit from Gardiner/Lake Shore into Jarvis, couple of blocks in, right?

Ive always wanted to know a thing or two about photography but have never really got into it. Its a very expensive hobby but soon I need to investdecentm oney in a high quality camera for my company. Some high profile clients require professional photos of their premises etc so i guess i need to learn quick lol

I have a question is it possible to make photo's and sell them?

Yes if they are good enough. But by good i mean exceptional

Thank you. :)

Yup.

heheheheh Big soban is watching you. (soban is my real name:) )


You nailed it.


Well you are lucky. The price for the equipment is like peanuts considering there is no development equipment and film cost involved. and those like me and my brothers ,who are switching to digital format, we lost tons of money. Between we three brothers, we owned more than 20,000 worth of lenses, cameras and filters etc. more than 80% is going to garbage. So you can imagine what kind of tears we have in our eyes when we were shelving our old equipment including those tele lenses. All i could port is filters which frankly i dont use much. I was just looking at prices of some digital replacement of lenses and after seeing their tag price, my condition (which can stated correctly only in punjabi) was "bund phat kay galay vich pay gai". You know buying first time is easier but second time same thing looks like expensive like Koh-e-noor diamond.

But if you are looking to start then go ahead pick a camera (nothing less than SLR) and a basic lens. The pics that i took were with canon rebel xt and 15-55 mm lens. Put another $300 and get a 75-300mm tele lens. Dont be afraid. This one do all the work of fully automatic and SLR so you can take out on any situation (or like me just carry it around all the time. hehehehehe)


Yes. what do you think peter parker do. :)

You have to be good enough to take the picture properly and recognize the moment that needs to go on photo and be extremely patient.

For example look at at the second picture called "Purple Haze on Front". I soaked in rain storm for straight one hour (Just ask any toronto dude how strong the storm was on 13th may night). I was soaking in the water and cold like no body business (6 degree with wind chill is a killer if you have no warm jacket). So after hour of labor i took like 20 pics. 18 of them ruined because camera was shacking because I was trembling or car would pass too close with headlights screwing the picture etc.(you try taking a picture with out a tripod stand and on 1 sec shutter speed.) Two pics came out good. one you already seen and second one is this.

Red Light OF George


The blur is intentional to make red bleed a little more. Its all about two red lights and there reflection. Nothing else matters.

Yesterday i went to an apartment on wellesley st. east. went to 7th floor to take some great toronto skyline. after half hour of bicycling i find out that the guy has a bird net in the balcony and the fog is around the buildings.

So you see if 100% of skill is required than 200% of patience is needed. But good news is that its very rewarding. If you think (and other too) that you have a good pic then there are forums where you can upload your pics and if people like them, they will buy them. Again you have to have patience and atleast way above average skills.

Any way guys i am going out to get some more pics. will take some firework pics on victoria day. Lets hope i can find a place from where i can use this small lens which is being a pain in the rear end lately. :). Will post more pics if I get anything good.

Thank you all for appreciation.


Ok i have just noticed that scaling down the pix of above pic has made it more blur than it is. oh well.

Thankx bro...I might try taking pictures to get some extra cash.

But now my question is this, once I have taken a good picture in my opinion are their special places to get them developed that your regular film developing places like (Walgreens, etc)? Then just go around and sell them or make a brochure and sell them?

(I may take a photoshop class next fall to get some info as well, but I want to start before that).

wow easy dude. Its not that easy. but you might wanna start with some local newspapers see if they buy stuff. And obviously it is going to have some news related value. Its a very tough and competitive field. dont expect to make cash or lots of it. you have better chances by working part time at some place rather than depending on bringing in cash from pics.

O yaar, do you know what we mean by high quality. Look on these royalty free photo sites like gettyimages and forbes. them are the qualities whihc im sure will take a good while to learn

Soban, give us some more Jarvis.
You can't just start such a good thread and dissapear!

The Black



Ok yes its photoshoped. But i just cut out the white out of the pic. the shadow is the real me. will post the untouched a day or two later.

took 20 shots before i got this. oh and i used the table lamp to replace the soft light back umbrella lights. And as usual no flash. And finally a barney (yes that stupid little dinosaur) was used to get the focus right.


As i mentioned before. I am going out tonight to take the fireworks pics. I dont have the right lens so it is a big gamble. well anyway i will try.


I am at my brother house and he doesnt have the photoshop (I want to add watermark). So wait a couple of days and I will post a couple of skyline pics. There is one specially good one.

Good luck yar, we will be waiting...for more pics.

Nice pic bruv, I really want to get into soem form of photography. Love the quality of pics on sites like Getty Images. How do they get such crisp and clinical photos Soban?

lol@ the fact that barney was used for focusing...that's the only thing that dumb idiot is good for (sorry i have a young cousin who watches barney CONSTANTLY so...)

anyways, I've always tried to practice my 'skills' given the chance but I don't get it that often. I've attached a few random shots below. Any constructive comments you guys can provide would be well appreciated. They really aren't that amazing but any constructive comments the experts here can provide would be well recieved....obviously I'm not giving up the day job to pursue photography ;)







regards.

P.S. I had to upload them to imageshack but I'm not sure they uploaded properly so let me know either way.

Sobank, if you want to have honest opinion, there is a long way to go for you with this type of pictures. I was Okay with black and white picture, but rest all are crap, Why?

You need to work on lights, there is lots of hays, subject is dull etc etc, night photography is particularly difficult, is not just look and click there is lot to it, you said you got canon rebel?, its a great camera, but you need to use it smartly. in the eye of amateur, it may sound good and you have already see how you have been appreciated for the great shots, but for a eye of a photography it is a waste of time. You need to play with aperture and shutter speed to get this right, also I recommend you to use tripod for night shots, as you will need slow shutter speed and large aperture, or try using bulb function in manual mode, try that and then let me know if you need more help.

Good luck, I pretty much started the same way as you are trying, and it got better and better, with lots of trial and error, so take my advise as positive rather then criticism, you will love your shots, night photo are great to look but only if you get it right.




Faz!! What can I say, excellent shots, good lighting and well framed, loved your work man!! keep it up, buddy well done.

For Sobank, one more thing, check for the framing of the shot taken by Faz, this also goes for you, you need some work on that. try to visualize the shot when you take or before you take, eye of the director I would say.

Jag,

thanks man I appreciate it. I've got exams soon but I intend to be out and about once they're over so watch this space.

regards.

Cheers man, look forward so some hell of a good work.

i have tonnes of picture here are few of them

Guys, no cheating!

Dollar store sey postcards khareed kar scanning karney ki nahee ho rahee hai.

lol. hope that comment isn't aimed at me bro....my stuff is all genuine 100% mine!

IMOH , I have a professional Photographer experience. if anyone need my expertise in Toronto Canada do let me know, Next year i am going to my Motherland Pakistan, after 8 years and anxiously waiting for it. to take pictures of every part of Pakistan.

Here are few more

You guys are so touchy.
Relax, I was just adding some humour to the thread.

Oaey professional Inamski, Yeh harey peeley phool chor.
Show us your pics of The Toronto Gay Parade man, the lesbian march.

Inamski, Nice work, there is some room for improvement if you want to, I myself makes some silly mistakes but then we all learn isn't it.
Nice framing but you tilt your camera, hold it straight specially check the last picture of yours, it is very noticeable, money shots goes waste for that little mistake. Thank God we have photo shop and such tools now a days, please correct the alignment and you will nail it, mate.

i will be covering the dragon boat race, not sure will i get time to take pictures on gay parade or Lesbo's march, are you planning to go Shehz.

Oh, yeah!

Last year, for 2 blocks, all the Lesbians were permitted to walk 100% naked, why would I miss it?

Guyies someone awhile ago about 6 months, posted 2-4 pictures of a Pakistani flag on a hill top, the photographer was Ahmed something, can someone get it if they see it on the forum?

I wrote a long reply and i guess forgot to post it or the PDF had its one of those famous moments where it forgets to enter the post.

anyway so i am not gonna go long so summary of original post.

Jag: my original pics are not hazy or out of focus. using a tutorial to put a watermark and something goes wrong. will check it. Though last red light pic is intentionally left with little depth so i can have bleeding red light effect. but thanks for pointing it out. I will take care of the hazey effect.

Finally inamski, give me that wide angle tele lens or i will kill you :) nice work.

Took 180 shots at victoria day fireworks. Now i have good news and bad news.

Bad news first. I was too close, so major number of the pics are gone bad. Dont wanna go technical over here for those who dont know. simply put some fireworks were close and some far so the focusing was not possible at the infinity. so screwed up tons of pictures there. and most spectacular one is ruined. I will try to save it with photoshop.

Now good news is some of them are breath taking so i will post them. This time i will do it without watermarking. I will pic some good ones and post them here.

anyway enough yup yup. here is one

here is another. I dont know what i am doing in photoshop. Its been long time since i used it. I just tried to reduce the size hope it worked.

And Toronto


Another fire works



These people that you see here ruined so many of my shots.

And on shez request :)

The Triangle



Peolple Please

Dont quote the posts with pictures. It puts extra burden for the people with low speed.



How about donating me that lens :)

Another Fireworks






sorry i didnt see your question.

well to put it simply, its called equipment of thousand dollars :). For example, I am using what is universally accepted as a crap lens. Not my choice but money was the problem and i was out of job for 3 months. A better lens comes with 566 dollars tag. frankly i dont have that money.

Another reason is use of telephoto lens. good ones cost over a 1000 bucks. I dont have that either (right now it sucks to be me). As i said earlier all of our old equipment is down the drain.

Third, is the fact that you dont see all the pics. you see selected ones. For example if i was making a portfolio, i wont put the jarvis pic (no matter how amazing the haze over the TD tower looks). simply because its not framed very well. but unlike other photographers, I believe that if pictures are for capturing the beauty. if it follows the rule great. but if it doesnt, than it doesnt mean that you rule it out as a bad pic like jag just jumped on calling them crap. Let me explain it like this: those who live in toronto and have been on front st. know that its a curvy street to begin with. and then there is a line of poles in the middle. toping that is the fact that you cant take any picture with a good framing unless you are standing in the middle of right lane cause those poles will come in view. Now unless you wait for a really really long time or just get lucky, or risk your life to stand in the middle of the rode with one eye shut and other looking through hole of camera, you will not get the best framed shot.

But i am not making portfolio. I am here just to show some non torontonians that how good looking the front and jarvis intersection is (and i believe the message is reached). but if i was making portfolio you would have never seen these things.

So why you see the amazing pics? well bottom line, they want to impress you period. what they have done before and after that pic is not mentioned. but its understood by the photographers. That fact is that no one is perfect. All the photographers takes 100s of shots and you get to see only few of them :)

Take the victoria day shoot of mine. I took 180 shots. see how many i put here. (three are posted but i doubt the number is gonna go more than 15).

Oh and one more thing. I am tired of taking the "good" photos in color period. Either they will be over exposed or under to get some emotional rising out of me. obviously they are not for everyone. but those like them great. otherwise too bad for them :) but i am not changing myself. my next photos if colored will also are going to be under or over, wrong shutter speeds etc. etc. hehehehehehehehe.

ok let me give you another practical example. U saw all the fireworks pics above right. They are good if not great. Everything is right in the middle (no cropping whatsoever) and focus is sharp.

What you dont see is

yup its a pic that i took and i am not kidding :)

check this one. the shutter was released too early and nothing was captured. and then the absence of wide angle lens was a killer.


And i got like another 100 like these. Simply because i couldnt know where and when fireworks are blasting.


So dude if on average you can take out 1 pic every 10 pics to show everyone, in my opinion you are good photographer. But dont be like I am. Follow Inamski. you see how among all of his pics, he selected good ones and posted those.

Hope you get the point.

Another fireworks





Take the pic of only one tree. you are cutting edges. either capture half of both or capture the whole.



I wish you had a better angle (i understand you couldnt).


never break the 2/3rd rule unless its absolutely necessary

Good work. Keep it up.

sobank,

the tree photo was honestly just a point-and-shoot thing i didn't pay too much attention at that time although the photo turned out really well. the bridge pic could have been better i agree and for the third my main aim was to make the building look as imposing against the skyline as possible (it's quite imposing when u look at it in real life).

i like the fireworks pics. I tried taking photos of a local fireworks event here last yr and ended up with just a blurry mass of lights so i'm very impressed with the quality of those you've posted.

regards.

Soban, even with cheap equipment (as you put it), your pics are really good.
I wonder what the results will be like, if and when, you do buy the new equipment, awesome.

Ok, I'm patronizing you for a reason.
You will, without fail, take your camera and cover the Gay March.
Do we understand each other?

*Kidding (just the lesbian parade will be good enough)!

I'll tell you how to do it once i am done with uploading all the pics. But i am looking for a better picture server so i can upload quickly. cause this way its taking long and long.

Happy independence day

Shehz. I am going to break your head if you ask me where the old spaghetti factory is :)

Somewhere in Belleville ontario.

Kiyo-n?
Mey ney kiya sarey pubs aur bar ke thikaney liyea huae hai-n?

The one's I don't know the directions of, I'll ask you, and vice versa.

Somewhere in Fonthill ontario, close to Niagara Falls on highway 406.

You have seen nothing if you have not seen canada in falls:)

Edited

An old Pic, of my youngest chacha, getting ready for a training flight, in the early years of PAF:

I just sharpened the image a little bit. The colors are all true. Man that was some view. I dont have a really good wide lense or other wise i would have captured the whole tree line.
I compressed it a lot. If someone wants then email me and i will hook you up with the higher resolution.

Sobank, very nice picture dude!! Looks like I have to visit Canada!

Nice pics, looks nice a nice place i definatly have to visit one day.

I made this video, it also has some scenic views. Regardless of current political situation in Pakistan, and hoping that our people wake up one day, this song always remind of my teenage year days in Pakistan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfn7f-fRqeI

Me and shehz went to a performance in toronto. This is the pic of a asian artist.



In toronto downtown.

Truck stop in bowmanville. When i took a pic, i thought i should delete it cause my shadow was in it. but then i thought maybe my shadow should be in it. I took the same shot again with my shadow in it. I think it looks good :)

Bowmanville, ON. so this dog comes out of nowhere and stands right outside my car. stared at me for two minutes and then walked away quietly. Big dog, without leash. first i got really scared but then realized that he is just investigating. I took a pic and he played nice model :) good looking dog.isnt he?