Venus Transit Photo's - Volume 4

[Speed]

Hey, I'm going for a War And Peace length featurette on PR. Hehehe.

Actually, I'm winding down on these.

In these photo's the sun is yellow! I watched it go from red, to orange, to yellow, to white.

As some of you already know, the fog and clouds made for a natural solar filter.

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1276_1.asp

Anytime you consider photographing the sun, be sure to use proper protection. My solar filter decreases the sunlight to 1%, that's right, one percent, of it's intensity. That's a seven stop decrease. In this case, when the sun was at it's brightest, I could barely see the sun through my solar filter, and that was with my hat on and my hands on either side of the viewfinder. When I dropped one hand, I lost sight of the sun. So I shot all of these without a filter.

[Charles Hess]

Amazing shots. I have neither the technical skills or gear to shoot something like this, but I sure enjoy viewing these great shots! Thanks for the details. :-)

[Spike]

Speed, of the Venus/sun shots you've posted so far, I like these the best. However, you cropped for posting online, right? (I'm not crazy about the bullseye composition.) The last shot, with the warmer color is my favorite. Nice work!

Spike

[Speed]

Amazing shots. I have neither the technical skills or gear to shoot something like this, but I sure enjoy viewing these great shots! Thanks for the details. :-)

This was a matter of having the right equipment and having practiced with it. I can't shoot glamour shots - much to my chagrin. I don't have studio lights and reflectors, but mostly, I haven't practiced it enough. But I'm sure I could learn.

Astrophotography isn't harder than glamour photography, just different tools. Trade in your studio lights for a Celestron, and you could take shots like these as well. On second thought, hang onto your studio lights! (We like what you do with them!) Come down to NC and I'll let you use my Celestron.

Maybe that's what we need. Let's start having topical photogatherings. I'll teach astrophotography, you teach glamour photography, Nat could teach Self-Portraitograhy...

[megan]

These are the best so far. I love the wispiness of the clouds across the sun.

Megan

[Speed]

Speed, of the Venus/sun shots you've posted so far, I like these the best. However, you cropped for posting online, right? (I'm not crazy about the bullseye composition.) The last shot, with the warmer color is my favorite. Nice work!

Spike

I'm glad you liked these. It was interesting watching the sun go from red, to orange, to yellow, to white. Each has their own charm: except for the white - they're rather boring!

Yes, I had to crop these for posting. Half Hour Photo scans my photo's onto a CD at five different sizes. Medium is 768 pixels across, so I have to crop them or reduce them to get them below the 640 pixel limit. What the photo is of determines whether it gets cropped or reduced. Landscapes get reduced - Astrophotos get cropped. Sorry about the bullseye.

Thank you for the comments. They are appreciated.

[Speed]

These are the best so far. I love the wispiness of the clouds across the sun.

Megan

These were NOT shot with a Holga! :-O

Hehehehe. Sorry, I couldn't resist. ;-)

Thank you for the comments. The clouds really made these a lot more interesting. I wasn't sure if the clouds would show up, but they did, and I'm glad they did, for they definitely added some punch to the shots.

[coloradoamigo]

These are indeed the best posted so far. Great work once again, Robert.

[Chunk]

Wow! Fabulous.

[another view]

Great shots, Speed - thanks for posting them. Also interesting reading about how you do it.

[natatbeach]

THAT would be cool to attach a telescope to a Holga...woah...

nice shots by the way ;) I agree these ar pretty cool. especially the last one...very moody.

where's the pics your girl's took???

[Speed]

These are indeed the best posted so far. Great work once again, Robert.

I appreciate the comments!

I shot about 70 frames total. I've got 66 of them developed (shot on Superia Xtra 400) and I've got four or five on a roll of Sensia 100 that I'm dropping off at ASAP on Friday. I was tickled that the clouds showed up on film. It really made these shots IMHO.

:-)

[Speed]

THAT would be cool to attach a telescope to a Holga...woah...

nice shots by the way ;) I agree these ar pretty cool. especially the last one...very moody.

where's the pics your girl's took???

Hmmm, we could probably make it work. I took my first shot of the moon with 110 film. Note I said "film" not "camera". I projected the moon's image onto a metal plate, pulled the film out of my 110 camera, laid it on the plate for about one second, then put it back in the camera. It was blurred, and over-exposed, but you could tell it was a moon shot! Where there's a will, there's a way. I have much more sophisticated equipment now, so I'm sure we could work something out. ;-)

I haven't got the CD or USB cable yet to download the girls images. (She took them to her biological father's house). We may end up making prints from the memory card at Wal Mart, and I'll scan them in from that. But I will get you those shots!

Thanks for the comments.

[Speed]

Wow! Fabulous.

You have a way with words. Short and to the point. I like it!

BTW, I've been playing with Elements some. I've applied some "auto levels" to a few of my thunderstorm images. Some look OK, some don't. I read that the auto features don't give the best results, and I believe it. But I've been playing around and finding out for myself. I've also applied some Unsharp, Mask to some of my images. Again, some came out nice, some are different (neither better nor worse) and some were so-so.

I haven't found the "curves" - YET.

I also have yet to play with layers, but I will eventually.

Thanks for the comments. They are appreciated!

[Speed]

Great shots, Speed - thanks for posting them. Also interesting reading about how you do it.

I appreciate the comments. I really enjoy sharing photo's with each other on PR. I've learned a lot and the learning continues. I'm also more than happy to share what I know with others.

Astrophotography can be as simple or complicated as you want. It's as simple as mounting your camera on a tripod, pointing it at the stars and opening the shutter for a few seconds. It can be as comlicated as eyepiece projection through a telescope for many hours with constant tracking.

I don't claim to have all the answers, but if anyone has any questions regarding astro-photography, then I'll do my best to answer them.