Intro - Paul Thompson

[captbunzo]

Hey folks, thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Paul Thompson. I am an amateur photographer from the central United States. I first got into photography at the hobbiest level a couple of years back when I came home from a week long summer vacation with over 1000 photos. And it's all been downhill from there as this summers 11 day trip resulted in 3000 pics.

Thank God for digital cameras and infinite storage space.

Anyhow, my equipment would include a Nikon D50. I have been enjoying the wonderful world of Digital SLR for about 18 months. My favorite lens, which is relatively new in my collection, is a Lensbaby 2 (and the accessory telephone and wide angle lenses, and the close-up filter set). I have 2 primary lenses at the moment:

1. Nikkor 18-70 mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX
2. Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED AF

My dream lens at the moment is the Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX lens. But I suspect many of us want one of those...

Anyhow, my primary areas of interest include taking pictures of my family (wife & kids), my sal****er fish tanks (etc), and various outdoor, nature, etc, pics. A random shmattering of my pics can be found in my filckr album.

And lastly, here are a couple of my best shots...


Volitan Lionfish, Oklahoma City Zoo


Coral, Ricordea, my fish tank in Ardmore, OK

And a recent favorite of mine....


Orange Brittle Star, my fish tank in Irving, TX

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum. I like what I see so far...and I look forward to seeing some of your travel/vacation shots as well.

 

[captbunzo]

To be honest, my initial impressions of the board have not been so great, unfortunately. I asked a simple question about close-up filters in this thread, and was subsequently demeaned, my question was never actually answered, and then I was told that "if I asked for advise, I needed to be willing to listen to it".

This really seems like a great forum, sort of looked to be my photography home on the internet, sort of like reef central is for my hobby of reefkeeping.

 

[captbunzo]

For better or for worse, I did get an excellent response a little bit ago in that thread from a gentleman named Digital Matt. Matt, if you come across this thread, thank you again...

 

[Big Mike]

Matt is a very knowledgeable member here, we are lucky to have him. But so are the other members who responded to your post. Sometimes things don't communicate on the screen, like they would in face to face conversation...so take that into consideration when you get a response that may or may not be what you were looking for.

I don't know how it is on many other forums...but asking a question with a poll...usually isn't the best way to do it. Maybe that doesn't make sense...but that's my take on it anyway. So it's understandable that someone would question your use of a poll when a simple question would have sufficed. Although, in this case...the poll was clearly defined...but could have included 'none of the above'.

This is a great forum with many knowledgeable member who are almost always friendly. As with any forum or web site for that matter...take in the information and form you own opinions...if you don't like someones advice...then don't follow it...but please don't fire back if you don't have to.

Once again, welcome to the forum.

 

[Chase]

Welcome to the forum! Poke around a little more and keep asking questions. I believe your first impression, as unfortunate as it was, will quickly change. We are a very friendly bunch and there is a lot of knowledge out there to be shared

 

[captbunzo]

It's the geek inside of me that appreciates the nature of a poll. And at other forums that I have been a part of, polls are regularly used to get collective opinions on things.

I do appreciate that fmw and folks over there likely know what they are doing. However, I know what I am doing as a marine aquarist, but don't use that as an excuse to be rude to folks. For better or for worse, his response made this forum appear elitist and snobbish. Treating newbies poorly is always a bad idea.

I guess I get very passionate about this sort of an issue as I believe forum etiquette & courtesy are so important. A large part of this stems from my experience as a marine aquarist, where being a newbie means actually killing (accidentally) living animals and, consequently, treating newbies badly has bigger consequences then simply someone continuing to take bad pictures. Anyhow, I just think there are better ways to respond.

And on top of it all, responses (both bad and good) are here to stay, which means another newbie wandering into the forum, doing a search and finding a rude response, might just move along as well.

Anyhow, I suppose that's all a big topic that is better not gotten into....

Perhaps my next question posted should be: I run a Photo of the Month contest for my local reef club. How the HECK do I get people to STOP resizing their pics down to punyville and actually submit original resolution pics? We are making a 2007 calendar out of the winners (and others) and could have used higher resolution pics.

For anyone REALLY bored, checkout our pics from this year here: http://reefshots.mycomas.com.

 

[Digital Matt]

For better or for worse, I did get an excellent response a little bit ago in that thread from a gentleman named Digital Matt. Matt, if you come across this thread, thank you again...

You're welcome Paul.

 

[Mitica100]

Nice shots, I wish I could vote for all of them at the same time. Meanwhile, welcome to TPF.

 

[Alex_B]

my clear favourite is number one.

To be honest, my initial impressions of the board have not been so great, unfortunately. I asked a simple question about close-up filters in this thread, and was subsequently demeaned, my question was never actually answered, and then I was told that "if I asked for advise, I needed to be willing to listen to it".

i think your question was answered in a way in the poll. if you ask a question where not many people are qualified because they never used a close up lens that often, then you do not get many replies.

And, with due respect, if two members give answers which do not fit into the scheme of the poll, then those answers are not meant to offend anyone. Actually they gave the answers which are best by their knowledge and experience. Maybe the wording in one of the answers did mislead you. However, this wording was not targetted at you personally if you read carefully, but at the choices of lenses you gave. That is a subtle but important difference as one thing would be rude, and the other would not.

From my personal point of view both answers were meant to help and not to offend - it is totally ok if someone has a strong point of view on a certain subject. And I am not just saying this because I think that single element close up lenses are no good (they certainly have the problem of chromatic abberations, which two element lenses are compensated for).

If an answer goes beyond what you asked, or if they do not fit into your expected answers, they are still valid answers.

There are worse cases where a thread torally goes in the "wrong direction" (sometimes also my fault i have to admit) where I could understand your critizism. But that one seemed to be full of friendly answers.

Actually, I do use a close up lens, but was too scared to answer in that thread as I thought any answer could offend you.