Photography Chat

@rfusca 500px ratings are ultimately based on give and take. What gets up to popular has less to do about quality, and more to do with how good each photographer is at schmoozing other photographers and getting them to like theirs.

Matt S.

:p I'm already pretty preferential to Nikon.

jrista

Some people just have NOOO talent, but they are superschmoozers, and have tons of followers.

rfusca

@jrista sure

@MattS. ah, ic :) I was Nikon ;)

Matt S.

Although lumix surprised me with how good of a camera the TS3 is.

(Waterproof point-and-shoot I have)

rfusca

12:34 AM

@MattS. cool

for P&S i think the lumix line is decent

AndyML

@jrista Mhmm. I've amassed a whopping 4.

jrista

mreclipse.com/LEdata/TLE2014Apr15/TLE2014Apr15.html

@AndyML If you want people to see your stuff, upload something, then go on a like/fav spree. Just go through popular and like/fave everything you like and fave.

Then do the same to upcoming.

Matt S.

@rfusca I'm thinking the ds3300. I kind of want the 5300, but money is a bit too tight still and it's not showing a whole lot of difference.

jrista

Its the only way to get any views if you aren't already superpopular.

rfusca

@MattS. The Nikon D3300?

Matt S.

12:37 AM

Yeah

rfusca

I had the D3200 it was a solid camera

a good place to start

just get a decent lens with it

Matt S.

And to answer the other question I like nature photography, landscapes and wildlife.

AndyML

@jrista I'm sure it makes a big difference, but I kind of like uploading from a fresh start to see what sticks.

Matt S.

@rfusca Yeah, amazon's doing a sale, if you buy a nikon dslr you get like $200 off of lenses. Which is partly influencing my decision :)

rfusca

@MattS. off which lenses?

Matt S.

12:41 AM

amazon.com/gp/feature.html/…

Entry level I'm sure. I'm not too familiar with lenses since I haven't dealt with them much.

rfusca

ya, the lenses there are definitely all 'entry level'

Matt S.

500px.com/photo/5254471?from=user

rfusca

not to say they may not 'fit' for you, but they're definitely not super great lenses

Matt S.

So how do you tell which lenses are good, and which ones are great?

rfusca

@MattS. well, better lenses typically have lower f-stop numbers. And beyond that, different review sites.

But a 'good' lens or a 'great' one for wildlife costs A LOT

Matt S.

12:51 AM

Yeah, no kidding... amazon.com/Nikon-28-300mm-3-5-5-6G-Nikkor-Digital/dp/B003ZSHNEA/…

rfusca

@MattS. no, thats not a good one...

@MattS. amazon.com/Nikon-400mm-Telephoto-Format-Digital/dp/B000VDF5JC/…

^^^ thats a good one

Matt S.

yeah, or I could get a new car >.>

rfusca

@MattS. i believe this is what @jrista shoots wildlife with

amazon.com/Canon-EF-600mm-USM-Lens/dp/B004M8SWBA/…

@MattS. indeed

just warning you that the difference between 'okay' and 'great' for wildlife lenses is HUGE

Matt S.

Yeah, I know I'm not going to get super impressive shots without spending a lot of money. I just don't have the money yet.

rfusca

definitely :)

i don't drop that much either on stuff ;)

Matt S.

12:58 AM

I'm used to compensating with point-and-shoots so I just need a step up so I can have more to work with.

rfusca

definitely :D

70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR lens is probably your best bet its IQ is higher than the 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX lens i believe

and its 200 off

Matt S.

sweet, thanks

500px has changed in the last 2 years. Plans and pricing?

AndyML

1:19 AM

@MattS. Not to mention an new scoring system and sell your soul for $250

Matt S.

scoring system?

AndyML

@MattS. New logic. Less unfair advantage to super popular photographers.

Matt S.

Ah

Dunno if that's something you can really fight against without unfair handicaps.

AndyML

@MattS. Yeah, they don't really say how it's calculated.

Matt S.

500px.com/photo/57060150

^^Now that's cool

jrista

1:32 AM

@rfusca That is indeed it.

@MattS. I was lucky. I made a bunch of money on a discounted ESPP. I invested about $7800 and ended up with over $12,000. :P If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't own the EF 600/4 II either.

Rfusca is indeed right, though...the differences between say the EF 100-400 and even just the EF 300mm f/2.8 L II with a 1.4x TC are HUGE.

Thats WITH the TC. The 300/2.8 stomps all over the 100-400 with the TC.

The 300/2.8 + 2x TC III is still better than the 100-400, at maximum aperture.

You really get what you pay for. Until you get into the high end supertelephoto range, it really doesn't matter what lens you use. Right now, for the budget-concerned, the Tamron 150-600 is probably one of the best bangs for your buck that you can get.

It magnifies your subject an extra 2.25x over a 400mm lens, and 4x over a 300mm lens, when used at 600mm.

There is no substitute for more native, optical magnification.

@AndyML Trust me. When I first started at 500px, my work got practically ZERO recognition. The only way to get people to see your photos is to see theirs, and cast your votes.

Tit for Tat.

AndyML

Fun little edit

Matt S.

@jrista A bit pricey still. But at least that's something I can save up and get in a couple months. Thanks!

jrista

Pricey?!? At what, $1100? LOL, appreciate it for what it is! It's a 600mm lens that has optically competitive quality for less than 1/10th the cost of a comparable 600mm prime. :P That ain't pricey, it's what we call DIRT CHEAP! :P

Matt S.

comparatively yeah :P

Out of what I can afford is a better term.

Matt S.

1:59 AM

@jrista Are those nebula shots with the 600mm lens then?

ah, I see on 500px

rfusca

2:17 AM

ug, I've got strep throat

Anonymous

3:01 AM

can you people link me your personal photography sites for inspiration?

Anonymous

also, there's gonna be a lunar eclipse, get your cameras ready

jrista

Camera is on my Atlas, pointed at the moon, tracking in lunar time, and already programmed to take the image sequence of the entire eclipse. :)

AJ Henderson

@jrista -ML ftw

jrista

My work is at jonrista.com, 500px.com/JonRista

@AJHenderson I'm actually using BackyardEOS

Anonymous

@jrista nice! I don't have my camera with me damn it

Anonymous

3:06 AM

;_;

jrista

That's a bummer, Pato. :'(

Anonymous

@jrista oh, I was asking about personal custom sites

Anonymous

like

jrista

try jonrista.com

Anonymous

ajhenderson.com

Anonymous

3:06 AM

or rukes.com

rfusca

@PatoSáinz plus.google.com/photos/105175019341696802847/albums/…

jrista

I've got a completely personal site partially built.

AJ Henderson

@PatoSáinz I have like 10 different domains

jrista

I'm building an online web store for my work, but work on it kind of stalled as my other job is taking up all my time.

AJ Henderson

synthesissoftware.com

hendnet.com

hendersonfamilies.com

Anonymous

3:07 AM

@AJHenderson what is your site for photography?

AJ Henderson

thehendersonwedding.com (saving it until my brother gets married atleast)

ajhendersonphotography.com

jrista

mreclipse.com/LEdata/TLE2014Apr15/TLE2014Apr15.html

Anonymous

because ajhenderson.com seems to be just a blog

AJ Henderson

danihenderson.com (my wife's page, though currently mostly unused)

jrista

mreclipse.com/LEphoto/LEphoto.html

AndyML

3:08 AM

andrewmichaelphoto.com

Anonymous

oh nvm found it in my history

Anonymous

ajhendersonphotography.com

AJ Henderson

I have a couple others hanging around too

AndyML

Ack, can't get the hyperlink

Anonymous

@jrista @AndyML @AJHenderson how well do your sites scale to mobile?

jrista

3:09 AM

Mine scales perfectly.

AJ Henderson

all my wp based sites have interfaces specific to mobile

jrista

It is a fully responsive design.

AJ Henderson

there is even an app for my phone to post content direct from an application

jrista

It'll scale to small form factor phones, small and large tablets, and desktops.

AJ Henderson

my webmail page doesn't scale so well, my cloud services do scale pretty well and support a native client

AndyML

3:11 AM

My new layout doesn't scale well to portrait orientation. I'll be dropping zenfolio soon and will likely switch to wordpress

AJ Henderson

some of my older galleries don't scale so well though

WP is where it is at

unless you want to go really in depth and dig in to something like Joomla or Drupal

but I've yet to find a site that really needed to go that deep

Anonymous

@jrista @AndyML @AJHenderson any themes/layouts/templates/toolkits/frameworks/twitter bootstrap or are they custom-written from scratch?

AJ Henderson

all of mine are templates to start from atleast

jrista

My site actually runs on WordPress, so it's a wordpress theme.

My personal photography store is built on BootStrap 2.0, jQuery, AngularJS, HTML5/CSS3, and ASP.NET MVC.

Anonymous

custom themes? can I has a link to just shop around alternatives?

jrista

3:13 AM

just go to wordpress, create a blog, and you'll have full access...it's free

(Well, you may have to pay for themes, but creating a wordpress blog itself is free.)

AndyML

@PatoSáinz I like rawfolio.com

jrista

It's tough to beat WP...they offer SO much, for so little or free.

Anonymous

@jrista i'm talking about the themes

Anonymous

I do know how to set up a self-hosted wordpress instance

jrista

Who are you hosting with? It's very likely they already set it up, and all you need to do is activate it.

AJ Henderson

3:15 AM

@MattS. you can go away now ;)

<-- Canon fan

2

jrista

As for themes, I've always accessed them from within the wordpress administration site.

Anonymous

@jrista DigitalOcean

jrista

oh, wow...that;s REALLY basic

Anonymous

@AndyML ugh, paid themes

jrista

dude, check out winhost

Anonymous

3:16 AM

I do really like them

Anonymous

winhost as in windows host?

Anonymous

@jrista dude I don't need a CoLo in motherfucking rackspace

jrista

For $4/mo, look at what you get: winhost.com/windows-hosting-plans-basic.aspx

Anonymous

it's inexpensive enough and works well for me

jrista

@PatoSáinz wow, dude, hate much?

Anonymous

3:17 AM

also, I use my VPS for other things while not hosting

Anonymous

@jrista lol no i love you <3

Anonymous

I love you but I just took a peek at winhost.com

Anonymous

holy damn they are a "budget" host, also Windows. Thanks for the advice but I trust DO more (also, Linux)

AJ Henderson

@PatoSáinz if you want to see my photos without the slashes across the background, I also have an unlisted gallery at ajhendersonphotography.com/gallerywall I think it was

jrista

Winhost is the most popular windows host around.

Plus, they offer wordpress as part of all their packages.

Anonymous

3:18 AM

@jrista also, that's shared hosting?

AJ Henderson

or ajhendersonphotography.com/galleryimageflow

jrista

Their server specs trounce DOs.

Anonymous

I like to manage my servers myself

jrista

@PatoSáinz Depends on the package.

Anonymous

@jrista how cheap is the most basic VPS?

AJ Henderson

3:19 AM

@jrista I was talking about video and follow focus. ML has some pretty advanced video features available

Anonymous

@AJHenderson your site needs more dependencies

Anonymous

AJ Henderson

@PatoSáinz what tool is that?

jrista

@Pato: DO offers wordpress, LAMP, MEAN, etc.

AJ Henderson

you don't actually need all of them

Anonymous

3:20 AM

@AJHenderson Wappalyzer for firefox

jrista

You already have what you need.

Anonymous

wappalyzer.com

Michael Clark

@AndyML Not true. When converting to DNG the maker notes section of the EXIF info is stripped. Canon uses the maker note section for recording data needed for some of the tools in DPP such as Digital Lens Optimization which is far superior to any lens correction profiling I've seen in any other RAW convertor. It does double the size of your RAW file since it appends a second RAW file to the original one and preserves both.

AJ Henderson

but it will make use of a bunch of things if you have them

Anonymous

@jrista oh I think they offer pre-set instances

jrista

3:21 AM

@PatoSáinz no, its the apps

one-click app installs

Anonymous

but I still build everything myself, just a quirk for me

jrista

apparently, it just takes 55 seconds to install WordPress

Well, wordpress isn't difficult to install

Anonymous

@jrista I like to take 5 hours and tweak every parameter in every config file

AndyML

@MichaelClark I corrected myself afterward

jrista

You don't have the benefit of the wordpress community if you self-host, though.

Anonymous

3:22 AM

@jrista you don't?

Anonymous

You do lol

jrista

But overall, wordpress is pretty easy, it's PHP, and there are bazillions of plugins.

Anonymous

Forums, etc

jrista

No

I mean, the wordpress community.

Anonymous

also, open source

Anonymous

3:22 AM

@jrista what is that exactly?

Anonymous

part of .com or .org?

Michael Clark

@AndyML Converting to DNG also strips the data from masked pixels used to compute black point and "bakes in" the black point it automatically selects without input from the user.

jrista

When you host at wordpress.com, your hooked directly into all their social stuff. All the other wordpress users can see your posts through the wordpress reader, so you get much better discovery. You also have a chance for your posts to be selected for "Freshly Pressed", which is similar to getting an Editors Pick on 500px.

It's a lot easier for people to find your blog and read your content when you host at wordpress.com, and you can always use a custom domain.

If you self host, you lose the community aspect, but then you gain all the custom plugins. And there are LOTS of custom plugins for WP.

AJ Henderson

@AndyML rawfolio is WP based

as is prophoto and a couple of the other popular ones

jrista

With plugins, you can pretty much do EVERYTHING...blogs, full blown web sites, ecommerce, rich galleries, databases, etc.

Anonymous

3:24 AM

@jrista yep I know, I forgot about the "social media" side of WP.com tho

Anonymous

It's nice but not my number one concern

jrista

So, you pick what's most important. Do you want better discovery? So people can find your blog easier? Or do you want plugins?

Anonymous

hah silly me thinking I should bypass wordpress and just write a website from scratch or maybe with a framework

jrista

IF you want plugins...hehe, you'll spend a LOT more than 5 hours tweaking. :P

wordpress.org/plugins

AJ Henderson

@PatoSáinz my theme for ajhenderson.com was free, my theme for ajhendersonphotography was only $45. It was far cheaper than implementing it myself would be. I'm a professional developer. $45 covers about 40 minutes of my time, if that

Anonymous

3:25 AM

@jrista I'm not new to WP

jrista

over 30,000 plugins :D

AJ Henderson

and that's at salary rates

Anonymous

is it still that unmaintenable mess tho?

AJ Henderson

at consulting rates, it wouldn't cover 20 minutes

Anonymous

I remember WP to be easy to break

jrista

3:26 AM

@PatoSáinz You said you'd never installed it...that seems pretty "new", at least as far as self hosting goes.

Anonymous

and then to have XSS in some of your plugins

Anonymous

and suddenly sell cheap viagra in google

Anonymous

@jrista oh where?

AndyML

@MichaelClark Interesting

jrista

The WP 3.x platform is much improved.

AndyML

3:26 AM

@AJHenderson Mhmm. I was pointing out a "theme"

jrista

WP 2.x had it's problems, but I rarely have any problems with WP3

Now, if you self host, it's ALL ON YOU! :P

Anonymous

come at me ~~hackers~~ ~~nsa~~ hackers

jrista

Especially if your a tweaker. You break it, it's your fault. You can't blame wordpress.

If you use the DO app installer, I bet it would be otherwise flawless.

Anonymous

@jrista lolno

jrista

I've never had a single issue hosting at wordpress.com, and I've been there for a couple years now.

Anonymous

3:28 AM

there was a time when pre-made ubuntu VMs by DO shared the same private keys for SSH

Anonymous

I don't trust DO in that aspect

jrista

well, whatever, point is, WP3 is much better than WP2 was.

AJ Henderson

@jrista sure you do, jetpack ties it in

Anonymous

@jrista oh yea, wp.com is just magnificent but I'm too cheap and too much of a control freak

AJ Henderson

they even support authentication via wordpress.com user accounts now

jrista

3:29 AM

Plugins, that's a different story. Plugins are third-party products, so it's a tossup...you gotta do your research, pick the good, stable, supported ones.

Anonymous

@AJHenderson wp.com = gravatar isn't it?

AJ Henderson

might be

Anonymous

@jrista any known plugin maintainers?

jrista

not personally, no

AJ Henderson

I do have the WP.com authentication turned on on ajhendersonphotography.com

jrista

3:29 AM

@AJHenderson it does?

AJ Henderson

yeah

jrista

oh, well sweet

AJ Henderson

the wp.com user tie in is fairly new, but they've had stats for a few years now and some of the other features have been getting worked in more and more

jrista

I've been debating what to do about a blog engine for my photo store.

AJ Henderson

jetpack is fantastic

jrista

3:30 AM

@AJHenderson hmm...reader/freshly pressed?

AJ Henderson

huh?

jrista

well, the WP reader is the central area where all the social stuff takes place on wordpress.com, and its from blogs found in the reader system that freshly pressed features are taken from.

AJ Henderson

@jrista wp takes 30 seconds to install without a one button install

create DB user, go to link, click button

done

jrista

@AJHenderson Unless you go in and tweak every setting yourself. ;P

AJ Henderson

true, but I mean the base install

jrista

3:31 AM

Pato is apparently a config file guy.

AJ Henderson

it is by far the simplest installer I've ever seen

but yes, you can spend weeks tweaking

Michael Clark

@rfusca You just think you are old. I turned 50 a week ago.

jrista

yeah, it's pretty simple, although it's never taken me only 30 seconds

rfusca

@MichaelClark lol nah youre just ancient

Michael Clark

AJ Henderson

3:33 AM

@PatoSáinz nah, the code is pretty easy to follow now

jrista

@MichaelClark LOL

I've recently gotten into full stack javascript development. AngularJS, Node.js, MongoDB.

It's great using a single language to develop your entire product.

Doesn't matter what the hardware or server OS is...it's universally supported.

AJ Henderson

@jrista I'll double check in a second, but I think some of that is tied in now

jrista

Angular is wicked simple.

AJ Henderson

but requires some configuration on the WP.com side

@MichaelClark if it makes you feel better, I'm not even 30 yet and AARP sends me mailers

jrista

@AJHenderson You would have to have a WP.com account at least. I figure you would need some kind of single-sign-in and maybe a WP.com "app authorization" kind of like facebook, is my guess.

@AJHenderson ROFL

rfusca

3:36 AM

@AJHenderson me too

AJ Henderson

@jrista yes, you do need a wp.com account for the services

under the hood, the plugins tie in to a WP.com api

Michael Clark

@AJHenderson I don't think it has ever been in the 90's in October in Chicago.

jrista

lol: personalliberty.com/boehner-lasts-23-years

AJ Henderson

@MichaelClark yeah, I was talking about memphis in july vs october

@jrista - Reader works without any configuration it appears

it just hooks the RSS feed

dpollitt

Popular chat tonight it seems :-P

jrista

3:42 AM

But does it feed your new posts into the WP.com reader feed itself.

So that OTHERS following your blog can find them.

The whole idea is exposure for your blog.

Historically, if you self hosted, you lost all the avenues of exposure that hosting at wp.com offered.

AJ Henderson

if they put your url in reader, it will show up in their reader

jrista

I love this tracking mount. It tracks the moons transit across the sky very well.

AJ Henderson

on wp.com

jrista

@AJ: You know about the follow links and buttons on wp.com blogs though, right?

You just have to click follow, and it adds the blog to your reader.

AJ Henderson

and likes on WP.com are supported

jrista

3:45 AM

If you self host, does this jetpack plugin support the follow button and the WP.com header bar?

Or do people have to manually find your RSS link, copy it, go to their reader, and manually add it?

AJ Henderson

try logging in to ajhendersonphotography.com/blog

jrista

"We couldn't find an account with the email jrista@hotmail.com to log you in with. If you already have an account on AJ Henderson Photography, please make sure that jrista@hotmail.com is configured as the email address, or that you have connected to WordPress.com on your profile page."

That's the error I get if I try to log in with my wp.com account.

"ERROR: Invalid username. Lost your password?"

That's the error I get if I try to log in directly.

AJ Henderson

interesting

standby, might have account creation disabled

jrista

but this is already too much, really

if it integrates with wp.com, it integrates with wp.com

I'm already logged in on wp.com

the entire point is that I could simply discover your blog by poking around the WP.com reader

But if I have to find your site first, log in, etc. then the purpose of integrating with the wp community is already lost

AJ Henderson

try again

I enabled account creation

I can see my blogs on wp.com

I'm not sure if they show up in the reader or not

or alternately, if you do the facebook association, I should show up now

jrista

3:55 AM

"We couldn't find an account with the email jrista@hotmail.com to log you in with. If you already have an account on AJ Henderson Photography, please make sure that jrista@hotmail.com is configured as the email address, or that you have connected to WordPress.com on your profile page."

I can't log in with my wp.com account.

AJ Henderson

interesting

jrista

Well, I'll keep an eye on the plugin.

If they eventually get it fully integrated with the wp community, then I'd like to self host.

AJ Henderson

is your wp.com account linked to your facebook?

jrista

But the community aspect is important for me. I've got almost 200 followers now.

Um, not sure.

AJ Henderson

because you didn't show up on my facebook friends with blogs

jrista

3:57 AM

I've linked my jonrista.com blog to both facebook and twitter...but that is pretty specifically the blog, not my account.

AJ Henderson

you can link your twitter and facebook to the wp.com account so that people can find the blog more easily

jrista

I'm looking through the settings for my user account...nothing about linking.

I did link my blog to twitter and facebook, so that when I post, it will automatically send updates to both, with links back to my blog.

But that's a blog setting, not a user setting.

AJ Henderson

you can even use WP.com's CDN for images on your self-hosted blog

for free mind you

jrista

css-tricks.com/video-screencasts/129-emmet-awesome

@AJHenderson sweet

AJ Henderson

I also have the wordpress.com notification bar

on my site

so I assume it actually does connect in and show up on all the directories and such

even if I don't have the site perfectly configured for the user experience side of things

it appears possible though

jrista

4:13 AM

ok, cool

I'll have to check it out more thouroughly

wohoo

about an hour to go before I start imaging the moon

AJ Henderson

what happens if you go to ajhenderson.com now

that site has account creation turned on I know

and now should have the integrated login

I suppose I should really make a secondary wordpress.com account and try testing

jrista

"We couldn't find any account on AJ Henderson Photography that is linked to your WordPress.com account to log you in with. If you already have an account on AJ Henderson Photography, please make sure that you have connected to WordPress.com on your profile page."

AJ Henderson

not ajhendersonphotography

ajhenderson.com

jrista

"We couldn't find an account with the email jrista@hotmail.com to log you in with. If you already have an account on AJ Henderson, please make sure that jrista@hotmail.com is configured as the email address, or that you have connected to WordPress.com on your profile page."

IT starts out looking as though it's going to work...then it fails.

AJ Henderson

just keeps going to the same page?

well, I'm now digging in to this

because I'm curious

it appears you can actually override settings to have the wp.com integrated login create users even if the site doesn't otherwise allow it

AndyML

4:36 AM

@dpollitt I see smugmug profiles have improved significantly!

dpollitt

4:56 AM

What do you mean profiles?