I really enjoy photography and I know I’m not the only one here. I thought it would be fun to start a thread in which we post our favorite photos. The subject can be anything—artsy stuff, portraits, your pets, landscapes, whatever—as long as you took the picture yourself.

A few guidelines:
1. Post only photos you took personally, not those you got from someone else or found online.
2. As I mentioned, the subject can be anything but let’s keep this family-friendly!
3. Pace yourself. Post more than once (I will!) but let’s avoid embedding your entire iPhoto library in this discussion.
4.  Be kind to people with smaller screens or slow Internet connections. Put a modest-sized copy of the picture in your post(s) and link to a larger version.
5. Critique, whether complimentary or critical, is welcome as long as long as it’s constructive.

Edit: Also, feel free to share the camera/equipment you used. I like to consider myself a photography geek and I enjoy finding out what people use, even if it’s a simple point-and-shoot setup.

Ready, set, go!

I’ll break the ice with a simple pet photo. Nothing fancy, but I like it.
Taken with my Canon EOS 350D and 50mm, f1.8 lens.

On top of the IDS Tower looking down at the Metrodome. Yes I took this picture myself. Taken with my Canon ZR45 MC miniDV Camcorder.

Sunset at my favorite beach on the first beach day of the year.  Clicking it will make it bigger.  Taken with my handy Canon Powershot S650.

Thanks for the contributions so far. It’s nice to see people posting a variety of different subjects. Keep ‘em coming!

The below is from a just-for-fun shoot in Portland several months ago. Click to enlarge, as always. If anyone cares, it’s the same camera with a Canon 28-105mm, F3.5-4.5 USM lens this time. I wish it were faster, but it does fine when the lighting is decent.

David, nice picture. You said constructive criticism was welcome, so here’s what I think could make it better:

You should NEVER post an interesting picture like this without telling us about your subject!   

These two are photos of a guard I took in the Paris subway line 7 a few months ago (Yes they still have trains like that).

There’s not much to say, really. It was what the amateur/wannbe-pro photo world calls TFP—Trade for Portfolio. Aspiring photographers and models shoot together for free so each party can get more experience and portfolio material.

[quote author=“macinnerd”]These two are photos of a guard I took in the Paris subway line 7 a few months ago (Yes they still have trains like that).

I like the first one best. My little critique is I think it would have looked nicer without a flash, but I know have to work with the lighting you’re given. Hard to control that kind of stuff in a subway.

Outstanding photographs David!

Great control of the depth of field and the rule of thirds of the portrait of your cat.

The contrast of color in the portrait of the girl is simply beautiful.  The rich color of her red hair along with the whites of her eyes and skin are made to stand out with the black chocker and her black blouse.  Great pose, great lighting, great photograph…  Mesmerizing…

macinnerd, your photograph of Le Metro brings back memories of late night excursions through the Paris Underground.  This Summer, after an abscense of about fifteen years, I look forward to riding what is the lifeblood of Parisean transportation. 

While in college here in the states, I chose to take a class in Black and White Photography in order to satisfy a general education requirement, and I was surprised at the amount of time and work that the course demanded of me.  I must say that I look back on it as one of my most rewarding and enriching courses that I ever studied.  I especially enjoyed the avante garde works of Edward Weston and the landscapes of Ansell Adams.  In class, we were given a wide variety of assignments that included essays of photographic composition as well as practical exams of our work that included darkroom techniques.  With that, I learned to appreciate the creativity and technical composition that is often seen in outstanding photographs.  I enjoy viewing your photographs and I look forward to the work you submit next.

Tourists silhouetted in front of tuna at the Monterey Bay Aquarium . Click to enlarge.

I can’t see the white head-phones hanging from their ears…

Nor can I, but whose?
The tourists, the Tuna—or both?

Come on, people. Keep the pictures coming!

A statue of Jeanne d’Arc (aka. Joan of Arc to us Americans) in a French cathedral. Unfortunately I don’t remember the exact location, as it was several years ago. Taken with my very first digital camera, a 2-megapixel Fuji FinePix2800Zoom.

Nice pics everyone. I’ll post some more soon.

I’ve had a DV camcorder for many years now, but have never had a real digital camera. The Canon takes beautiful movies, but, it’s camera mode stinks. I’ve tried photoshoping them every way I know how for years, and they still look grainy and blotchy no matter what I do.

I’ve got some serious scanning to do here very soon. The family photos (3 generations on my side and 3 on my wife’s side plus our family) are finally going digital. I have maybe 3,000+ pics to scan. I’ll let you know the final number when I’m done.

Wow. “Good luck” or “have fun” or “I’m sorry”... whatever you feel applies best.

Clicking makes it bigger.

Bryan and I went to a wedding this weekend.  Here are our friends Geoff and Kylie doing the wedding meet and greet.