Meteor Showers

Good morning,

With a meteor shower just recently passing and one coming up, I thought that I would write about how I take meteor shower images. They happen every month or so, for example the shower that happened recently was the Leonids in mid November and the Geminids are coming in mid December. If you are not familiar meteor showers are loosely named by the constellation they appear to radiate from. Leonids radiate from Leo, Geminids radiate from Gemini.

This was done a while back, iso 100, f3.5, 28mm, 140 seconds.

So what I do just do a long exposure of the sky with a remote and a wide angle lens. I pick a spot in the sky and stick with it. I have tried changing the spot in the sky without much luck. I have watched multiple shooting stars go just outside of the frame so I moved it over to capture those and the next ones close by were outside of the frame on the other side. It takes some luck. I prefer to have some foreground in the frame, that is me though.

The better part of having the camera on a set and forget type of control is that you can enjoy the meteor shower. Seeing dozens of meteors streak across the sky is something to behold even if you don’t catch a single one on a sensor.

The Geminids are coming up on the 13th/14th of December so if you can find a dark spot I recommend going out and seeing them and not just to photograph them. I know that I will be. If you do capture any I would love to see them.

Revisiting Photographed Locations

Good Morning,

If one has been photographing a while they probably have an old haunt that they enjoy photographing. Some of us do not though feeling that it has already been photographed. Different times of the year can yield greatly varied results, even a different time of day can, or a different mind set even. 

Below is the same location. One shot during a rain and the other shot the day after one, granted the rains were nearly a year apart. The two images have a completely different feel to them. Same camera, lens, tripod, and focal length. They were taken probably 6 feet or so from each other too. 

This was a calm pool taken the day after a rain in Red Rock Canyon National Conservatory. I found this spot while I went hiking with my daughters and it was empty. I knew I had to come back after a rain and photograph it.

After taking the calm picture and how full the pool was I wanted to come back during a rain and see it with flowing water.

So those places that capture us should be looked at again and imagined in different times of day or year, with different weather, etc. The results might be ho hum or they might be spectacular. So grab a camera , revisit locales, and go out and shoot.

Can wait to see what is produced.

~Scott

Situational Packing

Good morning,

Sorry it has been so long, work and holiday stuff has been taking  a toll. Today we are going to talk about packing gear. Most photographers have more gear than can easily be packed into something that is portable like a backpack. Take the example below.

This is digital cameras a57 on top and a77 on the bottom, then lenses and flashes. This is just the basics not counting chargers, batteries, filters, etc. For size reference each square is 6 inches.

Now most of us probably don't want to have a rolling suitcase in tow or have the ability to have an assistant carry our gear. Most people opt for a backpack or an over the shoulder bag for storage.

Here is my trusty camera bag with a storage area on top. With kids as travel companions it is quite handy. Even with the flap open is doesn't cover the same amount of 6x6 tiles that my gear does.

Situational packing is key for this situation. We can't always bring every piece of gear that we have. First off we can knock out one long zoom, not great lighting anticipated take the faster 70-210 f4, or do we need a little extra zoom the 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 is better. Is macro photography the goal, take the 50mm f2.8 macro if not then the 50mm f1.7. Just those 2 drop it to 6 from 8. Now comes the trickier part. Are wide landscapes or getting the whole room in the frame the goal? If so take the 11-18mm instead of the 35-70mm. If not then we can switch those. If we are taking the 35-70 then the ultra wide and 50mm can be left at home unless you need the 50 for macro. Keeping one lens with a wide aperture is a good rule, in this case it is either one of the 50mm lenses or the 28mm f2.8. The 35-70 covers the 50mm range so the 28mm would be in the bag, if the 11-18 is going then so is a 50mm. Through our image processing software we can see which lenses we use the most to help decide what to pack. Just what has been covered with the lenses cuts them by half.

Not everyone has more than one camera body. So this might not pertain to everyone. If we do though then this is a choice to be made as well. If the situation requires a quick lens change or missing the shot (wedding, sporting event, children playing, etc) then bring two if not then one should suffice. If the environment is not a place we want to change a lens (windy, sandy, dusty, etc) then bring two with the lenses attached that will most likely be used. Most times one camera is fine.

Now to the flashes. If you need them bring them if you don't then don't. If people indoors or in shaded areas are the subject being them though. There are so many times that a fast lens doesn't suffice in those situations.

I will be adding a picture soon of typical packing for different situations.

Lenses: Focal Lengths

Good Morning,

Today we are going to talk about focal lengths and their effects on images. We have discussed different focal lengths and what they are generally used for. We have not talked about how they affect the image or rather the relationship between subject and background. Below is a series of a red rose with a praying mantis on it in my backyard. I tried to stay focused on the same spot of the rose but moving and changing lenses does not help, thankfully the wind didn't give me any issues. First image is at 11mm, some distortion can be seen on the wall and the area of focus is wide and it looks like the wall is pretty far away. The second is at 18mm and the wall looks closer, pretty much everything looks closer or tighter, the distortion at the wall is negligible, and praying mantis is still judging us. Third we have 50mm and we can barely see any of the wall, the image is a bit brighter, I didn't have it on manual and it changed shutter speed was changed in Av. The honeysuckle doesn't look as far as it did before and out area of focus seems to have shrunk.  Fourth is 100mm and it was switched to manual mode. The praying mantis is so judgemental and has been for a while. It appears that the honeysuckle is just behind the rose bushes leaves and is rather out of focus. Fifth and final image is at 300mm, sorry the angle changed a little to keep in the same size I had to go up a step. The mantis stared directly at the camera, finally. The leaves are hard to make out on the honeysuckle now and look pretty close.

As can be seen through the images. If a subject is kept the same size the relationship with the background can be greatly affected by the focal length of the lens. What we are trying to convey with our images can be changed by zooming. Now go out and shoot.

~Scott

Equipment: Lenses

Good Evening,

We haven't really talked about primary equipment. It probably should have been done before filters. Let's start with lenses. The camera lens focuses light onto the sensor through an assortment of different shaped lenses inside of it. The eye changes focus by changing the shape of the lens with small muscles and this is how we have such a wide range of focus, from around 6 inches in front of our eyes to infinity. Glass lenses can't, at this time, change shape like that so they change the distance between the pieces of glass for a similar effect. The aperture takes the place of the pupil, opening and closing to let more or less light in as the situation demands. The aperture affects the image as well with things such as bokeh and starbursts.

There are many types of lenses which can be broken down pretty far. I am trying something new with the blog, carousels. Click on the pictures to cycle though the images.

Below is the same shot of the moon at 11mm, 18mm, and 35mm.

Wide angle - used for landscapes, cityscapes, and interiors (this would also include ultra wide lenses). Depending on the person this is anything less than 35mm in crop sensor and 50mm in full frame there is wiggle room in those numbers though. There is a wide angle of view on these lenses, not as wide as the human eye though which is about 180 degrees if you have both eyes functioning. For example an 11mm lens on a crop sensor has 104 degree angle of view, a 35mm has 42 degree, and a 50mm has 32 degree.

Below is the moon at 50mm and 70mm.

Normal angle - used for portraits, general shooting. This focal length is more or less how the eye sees the world. If we open both eyes while looking though the view finder each eye will see everything about the same size. For full frame I always heard 50mm and I have heard the same for crop sensors too which doesn't make sense. I just picked up a full frame (FF) and crop sensor (crop) camera and found it to be around 50mm for the crop and 70mm or so for the FF. More or less anything between wide and telephoto.

Below is at 100mm and 300mm which is about a typical or so range for a telephoto zoom.

Telephoto lens - used for sports, wildlife, celestial events, aviation. This type of lens brings everything in close. On the lower focal end they have use in portrait photography and macro photography. The price that we pay to get far away object closer is we loose wide angle of view. As an example a 75-300mm lens has field of view range of 21 - 5 degrees on a crop. If we want a close up of a bird or the moon then we don't need those extra degrees though.

Then there are zooms and fixed. Fixed lenses can often have wider aperture, can cost less, and can be sharper. We have to have many of them though or decide to "zoom" with our feet. Zoom lenses cover many focal lengths, the downside is that they are usually more expensive, they might have apertures that aren't as wide, and less expensive ones might not be as sharp. We come to a point where we make a decision of one over the other and deal with the downsides. I have both zooms and fixed and take which ones I need on each outing that I feel will be suit me. Now lenses don't only have to fit into these boxes. A telephoto lens can be used for landscapes and a wide angle can be used for sports and celestial events. Be creative and see what works for each situation.

I feel that lenses are worth more of an investment than the camera. I have multiple lenses that are still functioning fine that were discontinued in the mid 80s. It was all film back then. If a lens is taken care of it will last longer than the camera it came with. We can get into specialty lenses at a later date. Now go out and shoot.