John's 2010 52, Week 27 Art (July 10th)

Tracer said:
These are amazing - I don't really understand how you do it but your hard work certainly pays off.
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Thanks very much

philthejuggler said:
Fantastic shots, John. I'd have no idea how to go about taking a 13 hour exposure!! Love the pinwheel particularly!

Phil
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Cheers Phil... It's a combined exposure totaling 13 hours.. it's actually 76 x 10 minutes. Even so, getting 10 minute exposures of the apparently moving night sky requires a heavy duty mount that tracks well, and in this case I had a second telescope mounted, with a second camera, that acts as a watchdog and keeps an eye on the mount to keep it honest ;)
 
Full marks for this shot, amazing mine would just be a "blob" :lol: how you have the patience to do this I will never know I thought wildlife was bad enough but at least you are in the warm:thumbs:
 
Wow. Superb shots there John. So much detail. Excellent. - I could 'stare' at the stars all night long, sadly the light pollution in my area won't allow it.
 
John, When you said in Simon's Week 16 announcement that you knew what you would do, I was dying with curiosity, and it's been bugging me all week. :razz:

But it was well, well worth the wait! Two totally stunning images with more staring than you could shake a stick at. Most definitely no crowbar in sight. :D

If I had to choose a favourite it would be a close call, but I'd go for the pinwheel for the colours, the distance and the time involved. It's completely mind-blowing. :clap::clap::clap:

Jean
 
Amazing as you are at these shots John and these shots are amazing you need to find something different to push yourself. I don't want to see a peaceful night sky next week :nono:


:D
 
Briony said:
Full marks for this shot, amazing mine would just be a "blob" how you have the patience to do this I will never know I thought wildlife was bad enough but at least you are in the warm:thumbs:
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Thanks very much Nicki, it's surprisingly relaxing, and you just can't beat that thrill when the data finishes the stacking process, and comes together on screen. The problem is, that's usually when it starts costing more money... I really want a dedicated, cooled astro CCD now, and I could buy a lot of camera kit for the price of one of those... Oh... I've done the blobs too... ;)

holryn said:
Wow. Superb shots there John. So much detail. Excellent. - I could 'stare' at the stars all night long, sadly the light pollution in my area won't allow it.
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Thanks very much Paul. I'm not that far south of Gatwick, and whilst I do have reasonable skies, the LP can be quite tough too. I used a clip in LP filter for the Pinwheel, and the moon is not affected as the exposure times are way to short, and the moon is so bright. Of course the moon puts paid to deep sky stuff too...

justlooking said:
wow the pin wheel is amazing.
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Thank you :thumbs:

jeangenie said:
John, When you said in Simon's Week 16 announcement that you knew what you would do, I was dying with curiosity, and it's been bugging me all week. :razz:

But it was well, well worth the wait! Two totally stunning images with more staring than you could shake a stick at. Most definitely no crowbar in sight.

If I had to choose a favourite it would be a close call, but I'd go for the pinwheel for the colours, the distance and the time involved. It's completely mind-blowing. :clap::clap:

Jean
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Sorry about that Jean :D.. there's a lot of staring at computer screens involved too.

foggy4ever said:
Amazing as you are at these shots John and these shots are amazing you need to find something different to push yourself. I don't want to see a peaceful night sky next week :nono:


:D
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Scott :razz: :D...

But a PEACEful night sky would fit this weeks theme so well :lol: I've been making up for lost time this year... the first 3.5 months were so rubbish it was unbelievable, and now we're getting into the summer months and running out of night...
 
Stare . . . Star . . . what's a vowel between friends? ;)
And there's plenty of staring involved in getting these shots.

I'm pitifully under qualified to offer any sort of critique on these, other than to say that I'm completely in awe of them as usual.
Like Jean I'd been wondering what you'd come up with after reading Simon's notice and I'm not disappointed at all.
 
I love your astro photography John and and you've got two lovely shots here. I could stare at them for hours to see what's hiding in the detail. Bravo :clap:
 
Great shots John, you have provided an image not many of us could create.. both with lack of equipment and lack of patience... haha.

I'm always amazed with the star shots, brilliantly done.
 
SarahLee said:
Stare . . . Star . . . what's a vowel between friends? ;)
And there's plenty of staring involved in getting these shots.

I'm pitifully under qualified to offer any sort of critique on these, other than to say that I'm completely in awe of them as usual.
Like Jean I'd been wondering what you'd come up with after reading Simon's notice and I'm not disappointed at all.
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:D... you got me .... I know the pinwheel has a lot wrong with it, not least being it's too small on the sensor to get it done properly... but without yet more huge expense or hacking a webcam, there's not a lot I can do about that... Glad you liked htem.

dlh said:
I love your astro photography John and and you've got two lovely shots here. I could stare at them for hours to see what's hiding in the detail. Bravo :clap:
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Thanks very much Darren :thumbs:

dan_yorkshire said:
Great shots John, you have provided an image not many of us could create.. both with lack of equipment and lack of patience... haha.

I'm always amazed with the star shots, brilliantly done.
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Thanks very much Dan :thumbs:
 
Crowbar schmowbar, these images are fantastic.
You have certainly been rewarded for your patience and effort.
I like both these images a lot, the level of detail in them is fascinating.
Haven't really much else to add to what has been said above, again great images well done:thumbs: Iain
 
Thanks very much guys :thumbs: it's very rewarding when the image comes together after all the capture time and processing.
 
Produce a ticket is a great idea :thumbs: thinking outside the box, as they say Quad picture while looking simple probably was not as easy as it looks, did you take photo on a lightbox or just against white background with flash?.
 
Thanks Shaun, It's on a piece of white paper...lit by 2 flashes. one lying on the floor firing across the paper (optically triggered), underneath me, the other, mounted on the hotshoe, trigging onto the other side to remove shadows, and coincidentally trigger the first flash. As I now have a set of wireless triggers, I don't need to worry about the optical path being clear which would have made this easier.
 
And so onto week 17, we're really motoring through the year... I can't believe we're here already...

My first thought for this was "oh what to do" which was closely followed by the comment a bowl of petunias once made "Oh no, here we go again!!"...

In the end, it was one of those moments, I happened to be looking around for something to try out my new wireless flash triggers on... so here we have...

Cat at Peace (only broken by the random blasts from 2 flashes as I tried to work out what settings and flash position to use :D). It's also a piece of a cat, as I deliberately cropped out the hind quarters...

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It's gonna take me a while to work this wireless trigger stuff out... it gives me so many more options than the optical triggering.


Second shot
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I'm sure this has lots of flaws in it, so tell me what they are please.
 
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Certainly says peace to me John (apart from the one eye half open with the cat thinking "leave me alone" :lol: )

I had a similar thought when I read this weeks theme. In fact I still have :gag:.

Loved the Petunia qoute. Arthur Dent had a lot to answer for as far as Agrajag was concerned.

Andy
 
Thanks very much Andy... couldn't resist the quote :lol:
 
I'll trade you a crowbar to see the whole cat rather than a piece? :)

Not that I'm taking the peace you understand :lollerpops:

Not sure the crop works for me tbh, but that's my opinion. Love the colours and sharpness - especially in the whiskers. Did you up the contrast & saturation too?

Ian.
 
Not sure on the crowbar Ian, I'll see if I can catch her laying down... I ended up going for this framing as I couldn't managed to achieve a decent image without doing it... perhaps she'll be more obliging for me ;)...

as for taking the peace :lol:...

My default import set for Aperture does a small boost of contrast and vibrancy, I don't normally do anything with the saturation.

In fact... I'm going to post a second shot of Peace... a bit different and experiment number 2 with the triggers, first one with only the one off camera flash...
 
cat certainly looks peaceful. I like the lighting on the tulip against the black background.
 
Love the second shot - the colours of the tulip really contrast against the black background and I like the simplicity of the composition,

Phil
 
Really like the colours in your cat. I'm not normally one for pet photos but this one has changed my view.
Very sharp and fits the theme perfectly well until you disturbed it
 
I like both of these, John. The cat looks so peaceful, but I agree with Ian, I would have preferred to see the whole cat. The colours are lovely.

The tulip is really good. A very simple composition and the colours really jump out. Doesn't say peace to me as much as the cat does.

Jenny
 
Another vote for seeing the whole cat . . . sorry John. Looks like you might have to make her pose again.
Fantastic colours and great detail. Those whiskers really do stand out, but I'd just like to see the rest of her.

The tulip is a beautiful shot. I have no idea whether it was deliberate, but there's something very odd (in a good way) with the lighting.
It almost looks like the tulip is lit from inside with the glow radiating down the stem . . . I probably won't understand what you've done even if you told me, but all I can say is that it works for me. I love the way that the stem fades out to black on the unlit side.

Not sure about these loads of flaws that you think are in it . . . I can't see any ;)
 
Two really nice images John, I love the cat shot.....it's very rare we ever see our cat looking this peaceful, he is usually lying in wait for the next pair of unsuspecting ankles :lol:

The tulip shot is really beautiful! I LOVE the lighting and may pester you for details sometime as I would love to try this one :)
 
Thanks very much everyone...

Sue, defo not wagging furiously, in fact you can see her tail curled up around the front on the lower right.

Sonia, she's getting a bit old for that, although it does still happen on occasion.

The lighting on the tulip (I'm sure Dean and Simon amongst others, could work it out easily) is actually very simple. I put my flash on the wireless trigger pointing straight down the bell of the flower, the intent being to give it a look as if it was lit internally. I fired a lot of shots trying to get the flash power and distance right, I don't recall the exact settings (must remember to take notes...). PP involved a bit of a burn on the top of the background and a dodge on the stem, all in Aperture with some other minor tweaks.

And for those that requested it, here's one of the shots I decided not to use of the whole cat, it's probably more peaceful, but I felt it just didn't have enough definition in her, and too much rumpled bedding around her and the shadows... I was trying not to disturb her...

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jgs001 said:
The lighting on the tulip (I'm sure Dean and Simon amongst others, could work it out easily) is actually very simple. I put my flash on the wireless trigger pointing straight down the bell of the flower, the intent being to give it a look as if it was lit internally.
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Well it worked !!!!
That was exactly how it looked to me when I saw it.

Glad to see the cat fully restored to one piece too ;)
 
Ach, I'm deluded. Never realised that wasn't your original peace shot there! And am I glad I came back and spotted your original, becase I then came across your stare shots. I've always loved your moon shots, but that shot of the pin wheel is awesome! I really must get into some star trails and astronomy shots. Need to find me a nice telescope first... how much exactly was that heq5?
 
A busy week for you again, John. :)

First cat shot: A lovely shot of a gorgeous cat. But there's always somebody to buck the trend, and I think this would work even better with a slightly tighter crop - to take out the white patch on her hind leg.

Tulip: Wow! The lighting does exactly what you intended. Lovely simple composition and absolutely nothing to criticise as far as I'm concerned. :clap::clap::clap:

Second cat shot: That's one laid-back puss! You could always crop out some of the background if it bothers you, but it gives the shot context and cats are notorious for finding warm, soft comfy beds. :D

Jean
 
SarahLee said:
Well it worked !!!!
That was exactly how it looked to me when I saw it.

Glad to see the cat fully restored to one piece too ;)
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Glad it came out that way... and glad you like the cat too ;)

karmagarda said:
Ach, I'm deluded. Never realised that wasn't your original peace shot there! And am I glad I came back and spotted your original, becase I then came across your stare shots. I've always loved your moon shots, but that shot of the pin wheel is awesome! I really must get into some star trails and astronomy shots. Need to find me a nice telescope first... how much exactly was that heq5?
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Cheers Conor. Star trails just needs a tripod, it's easy... the heq5 is worth more than my scope kit or my camera kit. Non Goto. That's the non goto version, but I use a laptop to control it. Goto that's the goto version. The scope, really, is far less important. One of my favourite Deep Sky images was taken with my Nifty Fifty.

jeangenie said:
A busy week for you again, John. :)

First cat shot: A lovely shot of a gorgeous cat. But there's always somebody to buck the trend, and I think this would work even better with a slightly tighter crop - to take out the white patch on her hind leg.

Tulip: Wow! The lighting does exactly what you intended. Lovely simple composition and absolutely nothing to criticise as far as I'm concerned. :clap::clap::clap:

Second cat shot: That's one laid-back puss! You could always crop out some of the background if it bothers you, but it gives the shot context and cats are notorious for finding warm, soft comfy beds. :D

Jean
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Thanks Jean. I'll take a look at the image have a bash at the crop for you. The Tulip, that's very much, the single wireless triggered flash really makes an enormous difference and is amazingly flexible, just need to work out the control and not get nearly half the shots blown out, and the rest so dark you can hardly see anything... with only 1 about right... ;)

Thinking back on it, I probably should have used this second cat shot... but hey ho... :D... She's old now and spends a lot of time asleep.
 
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woah.. stare is just.. immense. When I see images like that my boyfriend gets annoyed because I start asking him questions about the possibility of more earths and parallel universes.. just.. stunning
 
Thanks Louise. In terms of the multiple Earth like worlds. There has to be. Our own galaxy has billions of stars in it, and we've found over 400 exo solar planets, all in the local vicinity. There are millions of galaxies in the universe, and each of them has billions of stars (check out Hubble Deep Field)... There is theorised to be a multi verse with billions of parallel universes, but that's getting hard to prove ;)...
 
As a big kitty fan you get a big aawwww and a :nono: as I said no stars and she is definately a star! :D
 
Thanks very much Scott... as for your :nono:, :razz: you actually said no more peaceful night skies... not stars :rules:
 
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