Yay!
Seconded!
The most important thing is light. Most phones and point-and-click cameras produce mediocre results when lighting is low. But if you have lots of light, youâll get sharp pictures!
Okay, so I promised beherenow that I would start getting radical with some effects. I am really fond of this watercolor feature I came across. Itâs far out, but it caught my eye, so I took some of the photos and played around with it a bit. I really like these, out of the bunchâŚlike yo-yo paintings:
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Thatâs really cool! :o
Thanks Shadowz, really weird looking, but somehow I canât stop looking at them. 
Yeah, itâs kind of mind-bending. 
Wow, youâre getting really good at taking beautiful pictures⌠I wish I could do that. But right now I donât have the time nor money.
A cliff⌠Me wantâŚ
That cliff is glorious!!! My best so far is this picâŚ
Sho Nuff! ;D
Do the best with what you have is the name of the game! Like the old saying, âa good craftsman never blames his toolsâ. If you feel like doing photography just let that feeling guide you! Youâll learn. Iâm self taught and have learned by just shooting a lot of photos along with the couple books Iâve picked through. Thatâs the great thing in the digital age, no processing cost just to view your results, so shoot away!
âPractice is the best of all instructions.â - Aristotle
âStudents were taught by doing.â - Minor White
Ha ha ha. Donât ever care what others think, caring about the outcome is a weight and stifles creativity. 
But if you wanted to impress me, ha ha ha, find the stillness and see pristine⌠âBe still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.â - âVision without association - pristine vision.â - Minor White
Anyway, like Hitchens said, âIt doesnât matter what my friends think of me, it is far more important what I think of them!â ;D
Exactly! Iâve seen plenty of great shots from disposable cameraâs. I think people still do pinhole photography too and itâs ultra basic. Found this pinhole article for the digiâs!
As to learning, there was definitely a learning curve for me. Learning to âseeâ was the trick in my experience. By that, I mean learning to see like a camera and film (now a digital sensor). I could see âniceâ pictures with my eyes, but getting anything like that on film was another story!
âLet the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera.â - Minor White
Iâve noticed a lot of the digi sensors these days in the point-n-shoots do well in low light. Seems to vary from camera to camera and even year to year, but theyâve gotten much better. Mine does well and its 10+ years old. Youâll just be getting more light from a longer exposure time so a tripod or a place to sit it (many make their own bean bag) will be needed to keep from blurring the photo.
A G3 sells for an avg. of $29 on ebay the last 7 days (searched âcanon g3â). I would say itâs almost a 1 trick pony camera, but that would be selling it short. I really canât capture âaction shotsâ with it at all and the other issues mentioned in reviews (digital zoom 5.8x to 14x makes picture quality awful, regular 4x zoom is great). It is limited to an f8 aperture and very outdated megapixel wise, but for ebay or yoyoâs or other light box items it does well due to canons sensor, features, and the all glass optics. But, for $50 you might could buy a new camera that would well outshine one this old?
Those are great! Both versions. The Cliff does seem to be the stand out! The watercolor effect works great on the splash design.
Awesome pic and colors! That green really pops.
Some other good quotes to meditate on if you like photography.
"âThe photographer projects himself into everything he sees, identifying himself with everything in order to know it and to feel it better.â - Minor White
ââŚinnocence of eye has a quality of its own. It means to see as a child sees, with freshness and acknowledgment of the wonder; it also means to see as an adult sees who has gone full circle and once again sees as a child - with freshness and an even deeper sense of wonder.â
- Minor White
OMG this is horribly long⌠so to paraphrase Twain and be done⌠âIâm sorry this post is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter.â ;D
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Great post, beherenow⌠read the whole thing without even wanting to skip ahead.
Youâre so right about the tripod and long exposures. If you can get ANY sort of camera that allows manual settings (some âprosumerâ cameras like the G-series, for example), all you have to do is set it for ISO 100 and however long it takes to expose the picture. The yoyo isnât going anywhere!
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Yeah, just seeing that post today, it is a read!
An adjustable shutter speed is a must for long exposures. Manual is even better to goof off and have more options. If your camera only has the âsettingâ modes like: auto, landscape, portrait, macro etc. you would be out of luck. In darkness with a manual shutter you can hold it open and just shine a flashlight, laser, swing x-mas lights, etc. around and get some neat shots Iâve found.
One thing that helps that âtack sharpâ focus if your using a book or bean bag and even a tripod is to use your timer (if your camera has one) or a remote shutter release. It makes sure the camera is stable from the beginning of the exposure. Many can move a camera just-a-bit by a shutter press which this avoids.
All these âattemptsâ photographers make become worth it when you get that âetherealâ shot like TotalArtist! The one you keep looking at over and over. âAt first glance a photograph can inform us. At second glance it can reach us.â - Minor White
Maybe thatâs why people look again and again? Something reached them?
Anyone who shoots photographs should call themselves photographers too! From the 1st picture! Like I read somewhere, âitâs not self deception, itâs self direction.â This type of mindset may help in any endeavor. I did it with yoyoâs, it seemed to help. ha ha ha. ;D
Hereâs a long exposure scene I took last winter:
And hereâs a long exposure of my son goofing around with Buzz Lightyear toy that had spinning LEDs on it. It was nighttime in the room with no lights on. The appearance of light is simply the long exposure along with the bit of light provided by the LEDs!
We actually make a game out of âlight paintingâ, but I havenât posted any of the other shots up to Flickr or anywhere else yet, I donât think.
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Yes, BeherenowâŚIâm calling myself a photographer these daysâŚa starving artist type too haha. Wow GregP, those shots are great. Iâm loving the bridge for sure. My latest addition to the familyâŚI did a watercolor effect on this one too:
Watercolor:
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Your pictures keep getting better and better! And that is such a cool DM2. Where did you get it?
Its a special edition only sold at YYE. I think they made 24.There are currently 17 available if you want to pick one up!
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Yes Mr.Squirrel, thank you, I got it from YYE. 16 left now, they are going fast. It is prettier in person too. I loved photographing that oneâŚitâs gorgeous. I think that water color effect looks best on the DMII so far.
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Most of mine are taken on my phone and posted on my instagram (which can be found here: http://instagram.com/yuki_onitsura/). Also a few other random photos here and there.
Yuki
You guys inspired me to mess around with the camera tonight.
Took a bit of old wood from the fishtank and my TMBR Lovejoy. I wish my background were black, but itâs not too bad with the white.
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the DMII is one of my absolute favorite yo-yos ever. i canât decide whether to get that color or the toxic frog.