Sharp and well-exposed

Moon over Cashio Street

I just wanted to demonstrate that I can produce a well-exposed and properly-focused image of the moon. This is one is severely cropped from a file made with my Sony Nex 5N and 18-200mm f3.5/6.3 lens

Santa Monica Moon and Ferris Wheel - but not together

The moon rose over the palms and beach go-ers carried on. I have several of these palmy shots on a balmy night because it was fun to watch the moon's progress while the population below shifted around. I didn't make enough for a time lapse, so only two went into my gallery - the first one and the one with the iPhone man.
I need to work on moon exposure. Ansel Adams nailed it in Moonrise over Hernandez on the run and without a meter because he remembered that the moon's luminance is 250 cd/ft.  Sadly, that did not help me.

When the moon was high, I turned around to look at the pier and was surprised to see people still playing in the waves and basking in the moonlight. There is a small collection of colorful Ferris wheel snapshots in the gallery, too.

Let there be light...

A series of unrelated episodes has bathed my world in new light.

A couple of weeks ago, I endeavored to capture better photos of the Milky Way in the landscape and in doing so, I've been shooting the widest and brightest lens I own, a 16mm f2.8 pancake lens. This little lens mostly rides around in my camera bag "just in case". But now, I'm thinking, what a joy to use!  In nightscapes and Milky Way imagery, it allows me to start with a lower, less noisy ISO and it seems to be so much sharper than my 18mm to 55mm zoom. Plus, it's very compact and light in my hands! I want to use it all the time!

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This week. I took down all the sheer curtains in my kitchen and service porch to launder. Those rooms returned to the open, airy state I remembered from my 2009 remodel! It has been a joy to sit with the windows open and a nice breeze wafting through.

Construction and new dining area 2009

When Janet asked if I was going to wash the windows. I balked but reason won out as I thought about it. Better to do the windows now without the curtains and curtain rods...  So I borrowed the vacuum and did the job right.  It took me hours but it increased the wattage of the light flow substantially!

The 2015 dining area

Ultimately, reluctant to "stop down the apertures" but more reluctant to live in a fish bowl, I hung up the curtains. Now I am extra happy I have crystal clear windows!

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Coincidentally another brightening was under way in our neighborhood and it arrived at our house yesterday. The City's tree trimming crew came up Alvira from south to north "lifting" all the park way trees, trimming away low-hanging branches and artfully thinning the canopy.  All up and down the street it has brightened the aspects. The liquid amber and jacaranda trees on our east side look great.

Today, the crew reached around to Cashio and cleaned up our tall, once stately palm trees and it was quite the performance. The palms went from stately to gangling in less than 90 minutes. It's like they just got an awkward haircut and now it has to grow out.  I'm not sure I like the "do" it but it opens up the north light in my living room more than I ever expected it would.

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This post would really be complete, if I could wrap up with a report of re-reading William Faulkner's Light in August, but lately I've been reading Sally Mann's Hold Still. 

She lives in a world of light all her own.  I recommend it!

Perseid Meteor Shower - Trona Pinnacles

A few of us went to Trona Pinnacles for the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower after Allan sent a link to a PhotoPills page with details about the event. We had minimal camp equipment, plenty of water, numerous cameras (one with a new ultra-wide lens) and tripods, one smart phone, a couple of compasses, high hopes.

What a night!  I could barely close my eyes to nap.

With reasonably dark skies and the new moon rising on Thursday, at an elevation of about 1,800 to 1,900 feet, we had a great view of the broad heavens and saw lots of meteors streaking past us.
I made a lot of still images in the 13 to 20 second exposure range and caught about five meteors.  When I set up for a 12 minute star trails exposure at about 1:15am I caught one. Obviously, I was not looking in the right direction.

Allan set-up a time lapse camera and captured LOTS of meteors. His lens was open 15 of every 20 seconds. You can watch it on YouTube.  Be sure to go full screen to see all the meteors.

In the meantime, you can browse my little gallery of Trona photos. I was looking for "available" light (car headlights passing by, walkers with flashlights, the occasional flash from some distant photographer). I may not have captured meteors in pixels but I have many indelibly recorded in my brain and I had a marvelous night under the stars.

Next year, I'll be better prepared for the long meteor-catching exposure and choose my composition more carefully!  I'll also have a walking around camera and tripod to snag the opportune moment before a pinnacle.

Waiting for Perseus

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Midnight in the Bristlecones with the CamCo

The prime target of our photo weekend:
an ancient bristlecone pine tree.

How can a photo go wrong when the subject is as grand as this ancient bristlecone pine?
Well actually, judging from my out-takes there are plenty of ways. I don't want to talk about those...

Converging on this point along the Schulman Grove Discovery Trail with nine other photographers is not the best way to shoot in such close confines as a mountain trail on a moonless night. I usually think of Camera Committee outings as scouting expeditions, but this evening, the nine photographers included creative lights like Peter V and Clive and resourceful fellows like Peter M and Jeff, so the chances were good and the results were excellent!

I hope you'll look at the additional images in my Bristlecones gallery.  I expect to return to that set in the coming weeks to add more images.

Some of the crew at work on the lights.  It's not a war scene, it just looks that way!