Different events often force different approaches. This years Exploring The Light Show, by The Lone Tree Arts Center adapted well to the challenges brought by social distancing into a show environment. Online gallery access and digital booklet are available via the link above.
The show did go on, and from 400 some entries, 43 were selected for display and judging. Judge Erik Holladay-McCann walks you through the show and his judging process in this video.
The show categories were Architecture, Astrophotography, Landscape, Portrait, and Still Life. I entered the image Abbott Trails in Astrophotography and was please to have been selected for third place. It is available through my Etsy store. click for a larger view.
A small group of volunteers had a first time opportunity this past week to shoot the night skies over the Fountain Valley formation @ Roxborough State Park. Here are the processed images from the nights event.
All images were shot with a SonyA7M2 and a Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens.
See the latest additions to the Milky Way Gallery in the Night Images Album. I have been experimenting with stacked panoramas for noise reduction and clearer, sharper images.
The technique requires a “stack” of images – 9, 16, 25 – with the same settings right after one another. These are then software processed to align and eliminate random hot pixels and noise.
Multiple stacks are then done for each panel of the image. The resultant images from the stacks are then stitched for the panorama. Normal processing in LR or PS then follows.
Check them out. As always, prints of images are available for purchase. If you don’t see the one you want in my Etsy Store, contact me for details.
August 21, 2017 A photography friend and I met at the Grayrocks Reservoir area, east of Wheatland, Wyoming to capture the solar eclipse. According to published info, this area would achieve totality – 100% coverage – for just under 1 minute. We actually found a relatively uncrowded area to set up our gear.
Sunset over the bluffs prior to the eclipse
I had 2 cameras – my Sony A7M2 with the f4 24-70mm lens for the partial phases using stacked 10 & 16 ND filters . My Sony A77 had the unfiltered 70-300mm with a 2x teleconverter to capture totality. (And some weird halo effects post totality.) The results are shown below.
As the moon covered more of the sun (starting about image 8 below), the temperature began to drop and light started to dim. The coyotes and crickets started making themselves known about this time, too. As totality peaked it was like a deep greyish blue dusk. The bluffs were lit by a smaller version of the colorful cloud band seen the night before. And people cheered! It was an incredible experience and difficult to find the right words to describe the experience.
Have you heard of the crescent effect? The last image shows the shadow crescents that appear through the tree leaves during the event. I have seen images of colanders being used for the same effect. Makes for some interesting patterns!
We did not capture post totality in an effort to avoid the waves of traffic from Casper and Glendo State Park that we expected. Talking to folks who were in Glendo we heard stories of 4.5 hours just to get out of the park and then another 7-8 hours to return to Denver! We left around 12:30pm and were home by 4:30pm. Good timing.
Having arrived the night before to claim out viewing area, I took the opportunity to shoo the Milk Way a bit, with a timed exposure as well as a few standard shots.
30 minute timed exposure of the Milky Way for star trails effect.
Overlay of the 2 previous images.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me using the form below.
It was a cold February night/morning for our trek down to Eleven Mile Canyon State Park and Reservoir, but the location was ideal to capture the first Milky Way images of the season with a new moon night. We had enough time to capture images from both sides of the lake despite the galaxy not rising until 3:30 am.
As always, click thru on any image for a larger view and EXIF data for the shot. These images are optimized for web viewing and are not suitable for printing or enlargement. If you have a desire to do that, please contact me.
