nice ones - the lightning shots are more awesome though.

Oh, now I see it.
How did you notice something so small??


Bah... I've been waiting for another good lightning storm. Seems like every time there is one it's accompanied by rain, which gets in the way.

@ Lani

for Weets!

More pichers?

Also, is there anything that would cause a camera not to take as good pics as previously, esp. macro's?
Canon Powershot A720 IS.

That's all the new pics I have for now... Anybody have any requests?

Hmmm, maybe a setting was changed. Do you have any examples?

Now those are some water droplets.
I'm actually still trying (every once and a while) to get a droplet hitting the 'bounce-up-thinger' of the drop before it.
Seems you have an awful lot of success, perhaps you'll be one of the first on here to get it!


Elby

That would require a precise set up with a 'dripper' dripping the water at a specific rate. And probably a trigger sensor to snap the pic at the right moment.. Or a camera with fast FPS continuous shooting.


I'm lazy.

nice and crisp

Ya, light background helps a lot with with these.

I've been using drip acclimation method ahah. Tie a knot in a small tube, start the siphon etc just like with fish. I just adjust it so that it's fixed at a certain height and gives so many drops per second. I've come close, but no cigar yet.

Can't wait to see what shots you catch.

Keep 'em comin' Kim!

Batteries are chargin'.

Don't hold your breath.

It kills me everytime I see your shots, Kim, because it's just another nail in the coffin for me selling all my random junk and buying a 100mm. Which... is kinda mean. WHY MUST YOU FORSAKE ME?!


Do I even need to say that it's all sweet as at this point? Really? Bah!

Sorry.
When do you think you'll have enough for the lens?

Ha, I dunno. When I finally get a job would be an approximate timeframe Have you used the Sigma 105 f/2,8 at all?

Nah, I haven't used the Sigma at all, but from what I hear it may be slightly better than the Canon. dshnarw uses one.

i use the 150, not the 105

Oh well... one of those.

Ha! Kim is actually infallible!

Happily, the Sigma is actually $450 less here and everybody seems to agree it is a better lens. Methinks I have some conning of the parental units to do...

Shhhhh, don't tell 'em.

And lol, good luck working on the parents.

I think I might try my hand at night/astrophotography again soon..... maybe even if the sky is clear tonight.

Meh.. junk shots to get a feel for the exposures again. Will use a darker object in the foreground next time.

30 seconds:


20-25 minutes:
Reflection of light from satellite?

Hey that's pretty sweet =] I wish I had a clear shot at the sky... oh wait, I do. Thank god for the coastline!

How'd you get it to expose for so long?

Must be nice where you live.

Bulb mode! Cloudy sky tonight, unfortunately, so my next attempt will have to wait. The next shot I'm going to try will be pointed more towards the North Star to see tighter trail circles.. the exposure will be more like 1 hour.

It is nice =] Maybe if you're lucky I'll go out tomorrow night and get some photos (even though it'll be like 30 degrees out!).

And for the exposure, I mean were you manually holding it, manual shutter release, servo rigging it...? I need to work out the best method for it because the sky has been so clear lately.

you should switch to stacking 30 second photos imo. long shots are too noisy



lol @ holding the button still for 30 minutes.

It was set up on a tripod and I used a remote to set it off so there wasn't any shake.


The only reason that 20 minute one is noisy is because I used a gradient filter in PS to brighten the sky.. because the settings weren't right in-camera.. As I said.. those were junk shots.
Noise isn't really a problem when you use the in-camera noise reduction, imo.

I know people who've done it. My old art teacher's sister had an exhibition of works she did where she held the shutter open manually for several hours. Ridiculous yes, but still cool.



Smart Lani is smart =]

Haha, I have my moments.. majority of the time, though, I'm a complete basket-case.

more detail prs

real long exposure photographers use the rubber band + tic tac method.

doesn't this essentially double the exposure time though?

i.e. one exposure to burn the pic and one exposure (of almost the same length) to give the noise reduction algorithm enough information to work with?

Yup, unfortunately.. I took a 1 hour shot last night (2 hour w/nr on) and it was a crappy shot.. wasted time. I may try the stacking next time. Wish I had a friggin equatorial mount.
Almost finished with a rough draft of the new website... will be uploading it later for y'all's inspection.

http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

^^program that stacks photos specifically for star trails. Set the cam on continuous shooting, 30 second shots for whatever time interval (unfortunately, must use jpgs), along with a shot with the lens cap on for noise reduction. If you have a foreground object that is too dark, you also want a shot that you've lightpainted your foreground. Then, stick all the images in the program, and it reduces it down to a tiff or jpg for you.



lol, troof. standing for hours with your finger on a button is NOT cool, it's stupid. rubber band and tic tac, tape and a pebble, all sorts of smart and cheap ways to do long exposures without holding a button down manually.

Yeah, it's called Bulb mode and a remote.

yeah, but before i had one of those, duct tape and a pebble

either way, i still wasn't holding the button

Almost done with the site.... just have to figure out how to put a clean and simple slideshow on the homepage.. and do the contact page... then I'm finished with the rough draft.

Imagine that, Daniel using duct tape.

I think I may have the solution...!

ORLY?

Ya rly It all depends if you prefer to use flash-based or, like a real man, use HTML/CSS.

First, how is Mom today??

Second, How long before you develop an eye?

Can you "learn" this?

Do you "see" the shot before you even take them?

Mom's doing fine. Thankfully, she never had any pain, just some minor discomfort. She's been taking it easy at home. Thanks for asking.

It's difficult to say. I could post some of the pics I took when I first started.... and you would think a kindergartner could take better pics, lol. It all depends on how much time you have to dedicate to the hobby. Some people are naturals, while other acquire the eye after a while. My best advice would be to take a ton of pics. After a while, you'll learn which ones work better than others and you'll develop your own style.

For me, I dunno.. With certain things, I just snap away, taking pics without thinking about it... Other times, I think before I shoot or go somewhere to take specific shots.

These hospital pics... I wasn't thinking about it... I was tired, lol.

do you have trouble with composition using that lens? filling the frame and whatnot. I mean obviously those photos worked, but in general.

Good to hear.


Pretty much what I figured, but, it's nice hearing your thoughts.