Dave's View

Red Hills

2011-11-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Spent a few minutes at Saguaro National Monument West this afternoon. The Red Hills Visitor center has a magnificent set of arched ceiling beams on the back porch that - at certain times of the year and certain times of the day - present some amazing shadows.

The mountain upon which Kitt Peak National Observatory resides - seen in Infrared light.

The reflection of the porch in the giftshop windows.

If you take the image below . . .

and perform a little transformation trick called "Magic Circle" . . .

You get this . . .

Desert Heat

2011-10-23T20:54:00.002-07:00

In infrared light the landscape takes on an ethereal quality I deeply appreciate. I hope you do too. The images below were taken with a camera sensitive to IR light and I used it to capture a couple panoramas out in Saquaro National Park West this afternoon.

The Painted Picture

2011-10-18T23:29:00.002-07:00

In commercial photography it is the duty of the photographer to not only provide the client with images that promote but also transform the product into something that captures the attention of the customer. Recently I was given the opportunity to work with Login, Inc. - a provider of Business Voice, Internet and Colocation services in Tucson Arizona. They operate three Data Centers located in Arizona and Colorado - fascinating places only techies can truly appreciate.

Data Centers typically contain racks and racks of expensive, high tech computers and equipment in windowless, secure, cold rooms lit by blinding florescent ceiling lamps and encased in the cacophony of sound from power generators and cooling fans - isolated from the torturous, dirty world outside. Matt J. Ramsey, the Co-founder and CEO of Login, being the astute and artistically sophisticated gentleman that he is - had admired my long exposure astronomical work and knew that such techniques could be used to document his data center for promotional purposes. My job was to make this sterile, self-contained world somehow look beautiful and inviting. I happily accepted the challenge.

Now I had done this sort of thing before - in the darkened studio and out in the desert at night - using shielded flashlights with colored gels to "paint" the scenes to my liking. This is a slow and painful process, as you must determine - empirically - the duration and intensity of the light laid down on the subject. Trial and Error - hour after hour of experimentation for a payoff of just one decently painted and properly exposed image.

This picture is the result of a single 12 minute long exposure made out in Saguaro National Monument West one night in October of 2003. I used 5 different mini-maglights with shields and colored gels to create the "painted desert" effect. (With apologies to my idol - William Lesch)

For the Data Center images, with the florescent lights turned off, I used the power and signal LEDs native to the equipment in the racks as the primary light source. I gauged my exposures as to allow these lights to provide most of the ambient illumination. For those areas that remained dark (or darker than I thought appropriate) I dropped back to my light painting experience at night in the desert and used gelled flashlights to add some artistic nuance and color to the scene. Exposures were typically 60 seconds at F/4.5 and ISO 400. Below are some of the more colorful results.

A special thanks goes out to "Heather" - the model in the one picture with a person in it. She expertly stood absolutely still for over a minute while the camera shutter was open and I painted her with a flashlight. Oh - and for those of you that are certain to ask - Yes - I was in frame in every single shot here. Why am I not visible then? I never stood in one place long enough to register "on film":-)

Of Telescopes, Astronomers, and Comets

2011-10-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

I repeatly wonder why I practice photography - especially astrophotography. It requires lots of equipment, time and effort. On Friday I had an engineering run on the 2.3 Meter Bok telescope on Kitt Peak. The moon was nearly full and didn't set until nearly 1.5 hours before morning twilight - leaving precious little time under dark skies. Knowing I was going to finish working on the BOk Telescope long before sunrise, I decided to bring my trusty Takahashi Astrograph and mount and attempt to photograph the early morning comet - 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova. This periodic comet made a close pass to Earth earlier this year but was poorly placed for northern hemisphere observers. Now close to the sun in the early morning sky - photographing it was going to be a challenge. Though it is sporting a modest tail, it is buried in the morning zodical light and only achieves 12 degrees above the horizon before the onset of morning twilight. To make matters worse - from Kitt Peak I would have to shoot through the heavy glow of the city lights of Tucson. Sigh.

After finishing my duties with the 2.3 Meter Beast - I returned to the dorm around midnight and setup my mount and scope in the parking lot favored by a good eastern horizon and shielded from the wind by low trees.

At about 2:30am as the moon was about to set I decided to attempt a few minutes of imaging on the old standby - M42 - the Orion Nebula. Yeah - I know - everybody shoots this thing - its like a flower for the terrestrial photographer - pedestrian, but pretty. After about an hour of fighting a bad USB extension cable for the autoguider I finally was able to get about 30 minutes of integration with the 5D II on the neb - here is the result.

At 4:15 the comet was supposedly about 5 degrees above the eastern horizon. Not visible with the naked eye (and not having my binoculars) I was forced to search for it using the autoguider. My mount is not a "Goto" model and I had to fall back on my skills I learned as a lowly amateur and star hop to the expected location. After about 5 minutes I found a fuzzy "star" in the guider that was near the predicted postition. Without the luxury of time to decide on whether or not this was the comet - I started taking 1 minute long subframes of the field. 40 minutes later, twilight stopped further efforts on the comet. After inspecting the images - indeed the comet was there - though buried in the fog of the city and zodical glow. After processing - 40+ images revealed the object below.

After a few hours of shut-eye in the dorm I wandered back to the 2.3 Meter dome and finished working on a couple of hardware issues with the spare control system computer. This evening was the annual Tohono O' odham visit to their sacred mountain. All the Observatories were open to the public and the o'odham nation for inspection. The Tucson Amateur Astronomers association (TAAA) were on hand to show visitors views of the moon and celestial objects through various small telescopes (small compared to the monsters that permanently inhabit the mountain). My friends Dean and Melinda Ketelsen are members of the TAAA as well as docents for Kitt Peak. Seeing a note on FB from Mel that they planned on being on the mountain - I made the trek across the hill to where the TAAA had setup teles. It was good to see a couple of fellow astro-nuts and chat briefly with them before having to return to tour duty at the 2.3 Meter. Here are a couple of snaps of the K's setup near the 0.9 Meter that evening.

More off the Top

2011-09-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Some more images from the top of Mt. Lemmon. Closed out the "Making Every Pixel Count" seminar with a group shot. To all my new astroimaging friends . . .

Making Every Pixel Count

2011-09-24T20:59:00.001-07:00

Up here on Mt. Lemmon at the Sky Center continuing my edumacation 'bout astropicturing. Thanks to Adam Block (our instructor) I think I'm gonna have a stroke. Too much data . . . Error 601 . . . must dump core. System failure imminent . . .In the mean time - here are some shots of the environs . . .

In Memoriam

2011-09-16T18:55:00.002-07:00

Today was the memorial service for Dr. Tom Gehrels, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. I knew Dr. Gehrels as an undergraduate, and when he ran the Spacewatch Project. To mark the moment and begin the ceremony, a fly-by of four F-16 fighter aircraft was scheduled. Below are images from the unique event. Rest in Peace Dr. Gehrels.

McMath Sunset

2011-08-28T21:38:00.008-07:00

Tonight's sunset behind the McMath Solar Telescope atop Kitt Peak. 800mm lens ISO 400 1/200 sec @ F/7.1 through Baader Solar Filter. This image was captured from 12.2 miles away from the mountain top where the telescope resides.

The video below was obtained from the same location using a Questar 3.5 and a Canon 5D Mark II in video mode at 1080p. The video is sped up by a factor of 2 for brevity.

Evening in SA

2011-08-24T20:43:00.007-07:00

This evening in my front yard ...

Last evening on Mt. Graham . . .

From across the pond

2011-08-17T20:34:00.009-07:00

It always nice to have visitors from across the Pond here in AZ. We were lucky enough to have a great couple from England spend a few days letting us drag them around the desert.

Carmen and Andy - two intrepid travelers - spent two weeks touring Arches national Monument, Canyon Lands, The Grand Canyon, Sedona, Monument Valley and even (brave souls) Death Valley, before coming to see the Sonoran Desert. They had wonderful stories about their adventures and I love the way Brits speak - such an classy and elegant tone.

Andy being a fellow photographer was great to work with in the wilds of the Desert Museum, Titan Missile Museum and San Xavier. Old haunts for me - but always interesting to visitors.

Here are a few snapshots from our desert wanderings . . .

Skyfire

2011-08-02T22:54:00.006-07:00

Well - I'm at Kitt Peak National Observatory for the next three days. Its offically "down-time" for the summer monsoon season and we have the next 4 weeks to perform upgrades and maintenance on the the telescopes.

This afternoon however, the monsoon storms began rolling through the valleys surrounding the mountain and I was treated with a SPECTACULAR show of lightning and clouds.

Around sunset the rain showers in the valley west of the mountain became backlit with the setting sun and provided some very interesting telephoto abstract imagery.

Later, as the storms intensified I witnessed a violent down draft south of the small town of Sells, AZ that produced a large dust storm - and what appeared to be a rain shaft not unlike the look of a tornado . . .

As it got darker, the lightning became so intense south of the mountain that you could point your camera just about anywhere and with a couple of seconds capture astounding strokes with the observatory domes in the foreground. All images shown here were made with either a 200mm or 400mm lens. Exposures ranged from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

Mt.Lemmon

2011-07-19T20:32:00.005-07:00

On the mountain again - workin' on the 60" telescope, waitin' for the clouds to go away, watchin' the sunset and the lightning from 9000 ft.

20 minutes with Becky

2011-07-15T23:05:00.007-07:00

It's rare when a photographer dad gets asked by his 23 year old daughter if he'll take her picture. As such, I was granted twenty minutes of her time today in broad daylight to photograph her.

In the backyard - trashin' the sun with two 1600ws AlienBees, I managed to get these shots . . .

Selene behind Kitt Peak

2011-07-14T18:26:00.005-07:00

This morning at 04:37 am from a calculated position on Sandario road, I got to see this sight. The atmospheric seeing was atrocious at the 2 degree elevation of the event from the desert floor - but . . .

This image was taken from 25 miles away from Kitt Peak. The larger of the two domes in the silhouette is the Mayall 4 meter telescope. The dome is 187 feet tall. This shot was obtained using an 800mm lens @ F/5.6.

A montage of images from the event . . .

Silhouette

2011-07-04T16:05:00.007-07:00

After admiring Dean Ketelsen's amazing Kitt Peak sunset images, last month I had an idea for a spectacular image of the Moon setting behind the 4 meter Mayall telescope on Kitt Peak. I predicted the where, and when this would happen and subsequently made this image. The image is real - the only photoshop used was to composite the individual 7 frames of the scene taken at 1.5 minute intervals. Unfortunately clouds obscured the moon just prior to the actual silhouette.

The images were obtained with a Canon 5D mark II camera attached to a 400mm lens and 2X teleconverter for an effective focal length of 800mm.

Bad Vibrations

2011-06-04T16:12:00.008-07:00

Spent the night at SLKP (Secret Location- Kitt Peak) intending to image IC 4592 - "the Blue Horsehead" nebula in Scorpio with the 300mm and the 85mm lenses. When I arrived about 18:00 local - it was windy. Steady winds of 8 mph with gusts up to 25 mph swept the site from the east and south - though I believe this was a local phenomenon due to the high terrain all around. There seemed to be a degradation in sky transparency too - possibly from the dust kicked up by the winds and from smoke from the brush fires to the south and east of the site.

I considered bailing, but the engineer in me wanted to see how the mount would perform in the wind and how the cameras would perform at the increased ambient temperature (@ 67 degrees F). DSLR's are not cooled like CCD cameras designed for astrophotography and suffer from increased thermal induced noise as the ambient temperature increases. DSLR astrophotography in the summer in the desert southwest is hence extremely challenging.

I set up the mount and cameras and waited for twilight to deepen enough for sky flats - in the mean time I was treated to a beautiful moonset behind a nearby western hill.

After taking flats and darks I aligned the cameras on the region of scorpius with IC 4592. the autoguider was calibrated and I left the equipment to do the best it could in the poor conditions. All told I lost about 30 minutes worth of images from the 4 hour sequence due to wind vibrating the astrophotography setup. Below are the results - first the 300mm view of the "Blue Horsehead".

Second - the "widefield" view of the same region showing both IC4592 and the Rho Oph region.

Lastly, I stuck the fisheye on one of the cameras and acquired 55 minutes of data on the Milky Way.

Click on the images for a larger view.

Imaging in the weeds

2011-05-28T22:59:00.013-07:00

As planned - I spent last night at the "secret location" intending on doing some long exposure astrophotography. All was well - the sky was clear, the equipment worked well, but the wind was an issue. Gusts up to 25 miles per hour ruined about 1.2 hours worth of exposures out of the 6.5 attempted.

My first target was Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) - a BIG beautiful globular Cluster. A challenge from my latitude as it never gets higher than 10 degrees off the horizon. I managed to get 2.1 hours of data on the bugger though.

Lastly, M20 and M8 - both in the field of the Takahshi E160 and the 5DII camera body but also never very high off the horizon. I was not happy with the results from my "one-shot" color system. The IR blocking filter and the bayer mask made the H2 regions look very blue and washed out. Sigh, I guess its time to consider something with a little more efficiency and red sensitivity.

Below are images of the observing site and my equipment as well as the final products for the evenings effort. Click on the images for a larger view.

Star testing the Canon 14mm and 17mm TSE

2011-05-25T20:24:00.007-07:00

Well - my visit with the two Canon L series lenses from CPS is going to end tomorrow - have to send them home. But - before I do I have to give them the ultimate test for any optical system capable of focus at infinity - the star test. The most severe test one can perform on a telescope or lens is to see how it handle point sources across their field of view - especially in the extreme corners of the field.

So - I took them with me up to mount Lemmon Observatory last night. I had to help the CSS astronomers Steve Larson and Ed Beshore work on their new 1 meter telescope and decided to take a few portraits of the new scope with the 14mm . . .

When it finally got dark I setup the camera and lenses on a tripod and made a couple of short exposures at high ISO and the lowest f ratio for each lens - doing critical focusing on a star near the middle of the field using the live view mode of the 5D mark II body I employed for these final images. I then examined the stars at the corners of the field of view (highlighted in the full frame image.) Note that coma is apparent in both lenses - not unexpected and not as bad as other lenses I have. All in all the 17mm performed best and it is most likely my next lens purchase.

UMC Architecture

2011-05-21T22:54:00.007-07:00

More from the front lines with the Canon 17mm TS-E lens - this evening - University Medical Center.

One problem with the 17mm - lens flare. Bright light sources as much as 40 degrees outside the field of view can produce lens flare in the large protruding front element. In the image below - the light source that produced the flare was 90 degrees to camera right!

Tilting and Shifting

2011-05-21T15:01:00.007-07:00

As a member of Canon Professional Services (CPS) I have the opportunity to get "evaluation" use of some of their lenses and cameras. Last night I was fortunate enough to get to use two high-end wide angle architectural lenses - the 14mm F/2.8L rectilinear and the 17mm F/4L TS-E - the later being a "Tilt-Shift" lens that is designed specifically for architectural photography.

What a TS-E lens allows you to do is to keep the vertical lines of a building from "converging". For example - take the image below taken with the 14mm tilted up to frame the Madonna sculpture at the San Xavier Mission . . .

Note that the vertical lines converge toward the top of the photograph. Now - the same subject from the same position taken with the 17mm TS-E shifted to correct for the perspective distortion . . .

My student and I spent the afternoon and evening downtown playing with the new lenses and evaluating their capabilities. I have access to them for the next few days and will be testing them thoroughly - including some astronomical work with them. So far - amazing!

Panned

2011-05-19T21:33:00.003-07:00

Earlier this year I entered the Epson International Pano Awards. According the Epson:

"The Epson International Pano Awards showcases the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and is the largest and most important competition for panoramic photography."

Well - the results are in. No I didn't win - but I got a couple of "Silver" Awards which entitles me to have my images displayed in exhibition in Sydney, Australia later this year. Of the 3,586 entries they received I placed 7th and 19th. Yea.

Winners

An all nighter

2011-04-29T17:38:00.007-07:00

For several weeks now I've been Jonesing to take my portable astrophotography system out and send some "quality time" with one of my favorite astrophotography subjects - the Rho Ophiuchi region of the Milky Way. I had to wait for the moon to wan enough to get dark skies, the weather to be clear and the winds to be mild to get the images I wanted.

The weather forecast for this weekend looked promising except for the winds. A Red Flag warning was out for Friday and Saturday with gusts expected to be 40 mph - not a good prospect for my little Takahashi mount. Thursday night looked like the best option - so I packed up the van and headed to Kitt Peak.

My target wasn't available above the horizon until after midnight so I spent the early hours of the evening taking calibration data for the later targets. Flats, and Darks were finished by 20:30 and so I decided to spend the remaining three hours until "Rho rise" getting a deep image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies centered around M87. The mount held my two Canon 5D Mark II DSLRs one with a 300mm F/2.8 L and the other used a 400mm F/2.8 L lens. Working at ISO 800 and at F/4.0, I made 36 five minute subexposures of the field - below is the result - a 3 hour exposure of the region around M87.

At 00:30 I started a 4 hour sequence on Rho Oph with both cameras. By 4:30 the sequences were finshed and I packed up for home - arriving shortly after sunrise. My first "all nighter" with my little portable system. Click on the images for a larger view.

Arivaca Aviation

2011-04-16T21:08:00.004-07:00

Went to Arivaca to photograph Hummers today with Frank. Met a nice couple with a nice restuarant for the little fellows - here is a peek at the colorful beasties. Click on the images for a larger view. Thanks Bill and Rosemary.

Spring Fling

2011-04-08T13:04:00.003-07:00

M51 from the backyard

2011-04-04T01:08:00.002-07:00

Well it finally cleared up tonight so I could test my 6" refractor and autoguider. It was a little brezzy but it didn't seem to affect the setup. I used ISO 800 and the telescope at F/9 for an effective focal length of about 1370mm. 8 ten minute exposures combined to produce the image below - taken through a LPR filter of course (my backyard is VERY light poluted). Click on the images for a larger view.

Below is a crop at 100% . . .

Long Glass

2011-04-02T15:12:00.002-07:00

Well - finally got all the stuff I needed to test the 6" refractor's suitability to astrophotgraphy. I ran a couple of preliminary tests on M3 last night - five ten minute long exposures at 1370mm using a newly acquired Lodestar autoguider. Results were extremely promising. Stay tuned.

Willie Williams 2011

2011-03-19T22:43:00.008-07:00

Gymcats one last time

2011-03-12T15:45:00.009-07:00

The U of A Gymcats had their last home meet against three other teams and pulled out a win over all three with a season high score of 195.675. Here are a few images from the final home venue. For more on the meet itself click here.

Click on the images below for a larger view.

Orion's Belt

2011-03-10T09:17:00.013-07:00

For a long time now I've wanted to do long exposure astrophotography in the field. To do this properly I needed to have my Takahashi EM-200 mount, my DSLR, my autoguider camera and my laptop all working simultaneously - for hours at a time. The quickest solution (for me) was to get a portable generator to power the whole lot. Last week I finally broke down and bought a Honda EU2000i. Great little generator, very quiet, efficent and puts out 1600W of power - far more than I needed for my current setup but there's room for expansion.

So - after work on Kitt peak last night I finally got to try out the new setup at the 6000 foot pull-off of the mountain road. Though there was a 25% waxing cresent moon nearby I attempted a 150 minute exposure of Orion's belt using a 300mm lens @ F/4. A standard Canon EOS 5D Mark II was used at ISO 800. Thirty - 5 minute exposures were combined using ImagePlus and PSCS5.

The three bright stars running diagonally across the field are the three belt stars of the constellation Orion. IC 434 (the horsehead nebula) along with NGC 2024 (the flame nebula) can be seen making up the environs of the left-most belt star - Alnitak - or Zeta Orionis.

Note:

If everything is working properly this kind of photography is pretty boring - I spent the nearly three hours it took to make this image watching "Avatar" on my DROID. Ha!

Crowded Skies

2011-02-28T22:14:00.008-07:00

Tonight NASA's solar sail satellite passed over Tucson at 7:35pm. A difficult object to see as it is realively small. I decided to try and capture it "on film" (well - with my digital camera). Because the event happened in late twilight, lasted only 60 seconds (for the field of view I chose) and I was imaging from my light polluted house - exposures had to be made at high ISO (to ensure capture of the satellite) and threrefore realtively short (as not to overexpose the bright sky background).

Below is the result - NanosailD is the dashed diagonal line running from top-center to bottom left. The trail appears dashed because this image is actually a combination of 15 four second exposures with a one second gap between exposures. the NanosailD trail is but one of 6 satellites captured in the 60 seconds worth of exposures - can you find them? Click on the picture for a larger view.

Old Haunts

2011-02-27T22:55:00.009-07:00

Hangin' with the photographers at Sweetwater and San Xavier. Remembering again how much I hate ducks . . .

Gymcats miss the bird

2011-02-20T11:26:00.013-07:00

Another evening at Mchale for womens gymnastics. This time I was determined to stop the action of this very dynamic sport. Photographing almost any indoor sport is an extreme challange, but gymnastics is especially so.

Low light levels, fast action, cluttered relatively close-in backgrounds, prohibited use of flash, limited angles from which capture atheletes - make this a "target rich" yet photographer unfriendly environment.

So - to better my chances of "getting the shot" I brought my fastest lenses (85mm F/1.2; 70-200 F/2.8 and 300 F/2.8), my fastest camera (Canon 1D Mark II capable of 8 frames per second) and my highest ISO/ Low Noise camera (Canon 5D Mark II) all in the hopes of negating the handicaps previously elaborated.

Here are some of the results - pretty noisy due to the use of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400. DOF was extremely shallow (@ F/1.6 and F/2.8) and focusing was very difficult, and many shots were lost due to the lack of sharp fcous. Shutter speeds varied from 1/800th to 1/2500th of a second.

And while I'm at it - if there are any Canon engineers reading this - please put me down as first on the list for the new Canon 1D Mark V - the 21+ MP full frame camera with low noise ISO 12,800 operation; 10 frames/sec with 40 frame RAW buffer and a 1/500 sec sync speed . . .

BTW- the Cats lost to the Cardinals. Sigh.

Wildcats put out Chicago Flames

2011-02-05T13:13:00.011-07:00

Last night got to witness the University of Chicago women's gymnastics team the "Flames" get doused by the University of Arizona "Wildcats". Final score was 195.4 to 193.45.

A complete recap of the compettion can be found here. Here are a few of my shots from the games . . .

Moonrise over Tucson

2011-01-19T21:53:00.005-07:00

Tonight's Wolf moon rising over Tucson. It's called the Wolf Moon in folklore: northern Native Americans named it after packs of singing wolves they once heard during the winter month of January.

I predicted this scene using TheSky and Google Earth software and positioned my camera just so. Shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a 300mm lens. Enjoy.

Narrow Vision

2011-01-12T16:25:00.008-07:00

Ever use a long telephoto lens? I mean a LOOOOOONG telephoto? Like - around 22,000 mm? Well that's about the focal lenght of a 2.3 Meter F/9 telescope. Here are a couple of snapshots taken through the BOK 90" Telescope on Monday night of M1 and Hubble's variable nebula. FOV is about 4 arcminutes.

A Canon 5D Mark II was used set at ISO 3200. Exposure times were 28 minutes at F/9. Processed using ImagePlus and PS5. Seeing was about 2.0 arcseconds.

Starlight

2011-01-04T21:50:00.008-07:00

Spent the last two nights on Mt. Graham at the VATT Telescope training the new observer and making sure the science instrument was operational. While I was working, I put my Canon 5D Mark II to work watching the Earth Rotate under the dark skies of the mountain. (Actually I was hoping to catch a few Quadrantid meteors - which I did - but the meager showing of this shower from our location was less than impressive). Here is a one hour long effective exposure looking east toward the SMT and LBT Observatories.

Solstice Eclipse

2010-12-21T04:05:00.008-07:00

Fighting a head cold and clouds - I managed to get a few shots of last night's lunar eclipse. Taken through a Questar 3.5 with a Canon 5D Mark II. Exposure times were between 3.2 seconds and 8 seconds.

Below - a collage of images taken through a 400mm lens with a Canon 5D Mark II showing the progression of the eclipse throughout the 3 and a half hour long event.

Ducks, I hate Ducks . . .

2010-12-18T20:00:00.009-07:00

Frank wanted to practice wildlife photography this weekend. Not surprising after he captured a great image of a duck at Sweetwater last weekend while working on his own. So, I thought I would indulge him. Back to Sweetwater sewage treatment plant we went.

I HATE Ducks. Noisy, foul smelling, ugly birds, with clumbsy flight characteristics (IMO). And, like most wildlife, completely uncooperative photographically and difficult to capture in any real interesting pose. After four hours at this foul smelling watering hole for these creatures, I was only able to snap a couple of passable images.

Frank demonstrates the proper way to complete a self portrait.

And - oh yah - Frank's favorite - yellow headed black birds. Baah!

Geminids!

2010-12-14T02:11:00.005-07:00

My 15 seconds of fame . . .

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And an APOD!

Pima Air Museum

2010-11-27T20:54:00.007-07:00

Portraits at the Zoo

2010-11-07T23:14:00.006-07:00

From the backyard

2010-11-06T19:57:00.008-07:00

As with most other "hobbies", true practitioners spend lots of time, money and personal angst plying their art. Astrophotography, for me, is one HUGE time and money sink. I started out small- film and a crappy Sears telescope when I was 11 years old. Now - a Takahashi equatorial mount and astrographic telescope, high-end digital SLR cameras, laptops, computers to process all the dang images . . . All for a measly $70,000 over the past 30 years.

And this is truly peanuts compared to what you can put out for high-end equipment to practice this very demanding art. Up until last night, photographing deepsky celestial targets had been a hit and miss proposition for me and my equipment. My mount, though capable, had some serious issues with tracking. Periodic error in the gear train and mechanical flexures tended to ruin 100% of exposures over 4 minutes in length and nearly 50% of exposures shorter than 2 minutes. Needless to say the frustration and throughput of my photography was intolerable.

So - last night I finally broke down and bought an autoguider. An autoguider is a seperate camera attached to the same or co-mounted telescope on the same mount as your primary imaging telescope. The autoguider takes short (usually less the a few second long) exposures of the starfield the mount is tracking and, by examining the position of a pre-designated star, makes corrections to the mount tracking to keep the stars from being trailed by drive inaccuracies, flexure of the mount, wind buffeting and the like.

A picture of my new setup is shown below - the autoguider is attached to the small telescope "on top" of the larger one.

With my setup - a laptop is used to interface to the autoguider camera and to the telescope to "close the loop" and effect the "autoguiding." Last night I tried it for the first time - from my light-polluted backyard here in Tucson Arizona. I would point the telescope at my selected photographic target, select a guidestar from the displayed images from the autoguider on the laptop - push the autoguide button, star the main imager exposure sequencing - and walk away. An hour (or two) later I would come back to collect the perfectly tracked images from the primary camera. After some experimentation - exposures as long as 10 minutes showed nosigns of tracking issues. (Longer exposures could have been tried but light pollution prohibits exposures in excess of this before serious fogging occurs.)

Below are two of my targets from last night. Messier 42 (the Orion Nebula) and Comet Hartley 2. Both images are the sum of 15 four minute single images, coadded together to create an effective 1 hour long single exposure. A Canon EOS 5D MarkII camera @ ISO 800 was used as the primary imager along with a Light Pollution Rejection filter.

Rally to restore sanity - Tucson

2010-10-31T12:54:00.007-07:00

U of A Homecoming

2010-10-24T23:18:00.013-07:00

Football! Homecoming! 125th Anniversay for the U of A! The CATS clawed the Huskies 44 to 14. Ouch! Go Wildcats! A few snapshots from the celebration and the game . . .

(click on the image for a larger view)

Close Approach

2010-10-19T19:01:00.005-07:00

Comet 103P/ Hartley 2 is making its close approach to Earth this week. Here are two images of the comet as it appeared last night from Kitt Peak. The first image is a sum of 43 two minute exposures aligned to the star field showing the comets apparent motion during the nearly one and a half hours of exposure. The second image is a sum of the same images aligned on the comet. The dust tail is barely visible in the later as we look directly at the comet head-on.

Images acquired using a Takahashi E160 astrograph and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera. Steward Observatory's Bok 2.3 Meter Telescope was used as a guide scope for the camera system. The diagonal streak of light was produced by a passing earth orbiting satellite that crossed the field during the last 2 minute exposure.

Panning the U of A

2010-10-18T19:46:00.011-07:00

This Sunday, bored to tears, I decided to go down to the University of Arizona and capture some 360 panoramas for an architectural VR study. When I figure out how to get "blogger" to accept my flash files for 360 VR Pans - I'll post them here so you can move around in the image in detail. Below are some of the results. Click on the images for a larger view.

The Flandrau Planetarium . . .

The ILC . . .

The Eddie Lynch Pavillion . . .

The Mineral Museum . . .

Comet Cluster

2010-10-08T13:49:00.006-07:00

Comet 103P/Hartley 2 is passing very close to Earth this month (only 11 million miles!) and last night presented a nice photo-op as it posed with NGC 869 - the double cluster in Perseus. Below is my portrait of the threesome taken from my backyard using a Takahashi E160 astrograph telescope and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera. Total exposure time was 20 minutes through a broadband LPR filter.

This image was featured on SpaceWeather.com for 10.9.2010

San Xavier - Again.

2010-09-26T16:08:00.011-07:00

Sigh. My student is getting better at photography - thanks to an investment in better glass and constant abuse by yours truly. Anyway - back to San Xavier - again - yes - I guess my refrain of "go back and do it again until you get it right" was a mistake.

Anyway - here are few shots from my portfolio of the expedition.

A couple of 360 pans of the interior of the mission . . .

A fisheye view of the ceiling . . .

A portrait of a parishioner . . .

"art" . . .

The mission pooch . . .

More "art" . . .

My student - who can't read . . .

Yawn - the mission . . .

Hey! Don't stand in front of the !%$#* camera!

Swingin' in the moonlight!

Islands in the Sky

2010-09-15T15:18:00.003-07:00

M31, M32 and M110 - the Andromeda galaxy. Shot last night at Kitt Peak using a Takahashi E160 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera. Total exposure time was 100 minutes.

Seven Sisters in HDR

2010-09-14T14:17:00.006-07:00

The Pleiades - Messier 45 - through Takahashi E160 | Canon EOS 5D II | 140 minutes.

Up Close

2010-09-07T22:02:00.002-07:00

The Moon and Jupiter through the Kitt Peak 2.3 Meter Telescope.

FINA - day 2

2010-09-06T21:02:00.007-07:00

FINA International Diving Championships

2010-09-05T21:52:00.006-07:00

NGC 7000

2010-09-01T18:57:00.008-07:00

From Kitt Peak last night - NGC 7000 - The North American Nebula. Takahashi E160 | Canon EOS 5D Mark II | 2 hour and 20 minutes effective exposure.

Sunset Storm

2010-08-28T23:41:00.003-07:00

My student and I dared the Mountain top again to photograph lightning. Here's mine . . .

The Sky is falling

2010-08-13T00:28:00.006-07:00

First image hot out of the camera for the Perseid meteor shower over Mount Lemmon, Arizona.

A gathering of planets

2010-08-12T22:32:00.004-07:00

This evening four planets (Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury)and the Moon bunched together in the western sky - a conjunction. I had a front row seat for the presentation, being atop Mount Lemmon hoping to get some shots of the Persied meteor shower peaking tonight. If I don't succeed in the later - the show in the early evening was reward enough.

Sky Lights

2010-08-05T20:48:00.002-07:00

Finally! A distant thunderstorm almost worthy of photography. Man, Tucson monsoons have been pretty lame this year!

Image details:

Location: Mount Lemmon, Steward Observatory 60" Telescope (9,170 feet)
Camera: Canon EOS 5DMII
Lens: Canon 24-70 F/2.8L @ 35mm F/11
Exposure: Composite of 11 images with exposures between 20 and 60 seconds.
ISO: 100

Desert Icon

2010-08-01T00:26:00.009-07:00

Student got some new lenses yesterday and just HAD to try them out. So, after much pestering from him, I finally gave in to a sunset outting to the old standby - San Xavier Mission. You really have to try hard to take a bad image of this monument to Catholicism.

We were only there an hour - here are a couple of my captures. Because of the late summer light - with the sun behind the face of the mission I used the HDR technique to better display the enormous dynamic range I was dealing with. The technique involves taking several images at various exposures bracketing the optimum and combining the images into a single "High Dynamic Range" (HDR) image.

Saguaro Sunset

2010-07-18T22:28:00.004-07:00

Traveled to Saguaro National Monument West this evening - with the thought of catching some lightning. Haaa! Yeah right. This monsoon season has really sucked!

Solar Transit

2010-07-10T20:47:00.005-07:00

I'm sure most of you have seen some of the spectacular images of the International Space Station in silhoute against the sun. Such images are difficult to get as these events last only a fraction of a second and the observer must place himself at precisely the right place at the right time.

To aid in setting up for one of these events - a wonderful program is available on the web called CalSky. The software predicts transits of the ISS against the Sun and Moon for any given location on Earth.

To see how well this worked I used CalSky to find a transit that happened near my house on July 10th 2010 at 14:30:54.5 MST. The weather was marginal with thunderstorms building all around and the local seeing was very turbulant. As a test of the predictive accuracy of CalSky I setup my Questar 3.5" and my Canon 5D MKII in video mode to see if I could capture (at least to the first order) one of these events.

I postioned my setup in the parking lot of a local business which was supposed to be on the centerline of the transit path. The clouds impaired my view somewhat - the Sun being washed out by a rapidly moving layers of cumulonimbus avil haze during the 0.4 seconds it took for the space station to move across the face of the Sun. Below is a map of the path where I setup and the final image which is a sum of 14 video frames from the 5D HD movie. It is obvious that the Space Station did not cross the center of the disk as predicted but I consider the test successful enough to move on the the next step - getting an individual full resolution image of the ISS in transit.

C/2009 R1 McNaught

2010-06-13T15:14:00.005-07:00

This morning I attempted to image comet C/2009 R1 Mcnaught. The comet was extremely low in the northeast sky just prior to morning twilight - only 10 degrees above my light polluted horizon. The image below is a sum of 22, 60 second exposures through a Takahashi Epsilon 160 astrograph using my Canon 5D mark II.

The image below was made from 56, 45 second exposures using the same equipment as above - just prior to astronomical twilight with the comet between 15 and 19 degrees above the horizon.

The Big Gun

2010-05-28T21:27:00.008-07:00

Every once in a while I get to "play" with a telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Typically this happens when something is wrong with one of my charges or there is maintenance to be performed on the beast. Now - this isn't your daddy's typical backyard telescope. I spend most of my time in my "day job" around telescopes that are housed in buildings many times the size of my house and worth more than a thousand times my annual salary. These "Big Guns" of astronomy are used by professional astronomers from around the world to explore the vast depths of the Universe. For me - they are just really, really, really long focal lenght telephoto lenses.

Last night I had to do some software work on the 2.3 meter Bok Telescope atop Kitt Peak here in Arizona. When the work was done I took the opportunity to put my puny little Canon 5D on the back of this monster and do some cursory astrophotography. The planet Saturn, The Ring Nebula, and the center of the the Whirlpool galaxy were a few of my test subjects. The moon was full (and the sky was bright - blocking the faint light of some of the more interesting features and more difficult subjects). The seeing was not great either - but I managed to collect a few fuzzy photons as seen below.

The telescope farm atop Kitt Peak.

The Bok 2.3 Meter Telescope.

Saturn.

The Ring Nebula.

The Whirlpool Galaxy.

Red light, Rodents, Raptors and Red Wings

2010-04-25T13:15:00.006-07:00

Another outing at Sweetwater Water Treatment Plant today with my student. He got a new "Better Beamer" and had to try it out. I took along my infrared modified camera for some IR shots. Here are some images from the session . . .

Red Desert

2010-04-20T19:07:00.004-07:00

Saguaro National Monument West in the infrared.

Birding

2010-04-04T22:00:00.004-07:00

Out with my student again today - he does love birds - so I humor him. Back at Sweetwater Wetldands today. I didn't get much. Here is a sample. Hope the Student got better.

Airshow

2010-03-22T21:05:00.006-07:00

Davis Monthan AFB - Thunderbirds & More.

Willie Williams Classic

2010-03-20T20:12:00.008-07:00

At the track today - shooting the Willie Williams Classic Track meet. Every year the U of A sponsors this meet. Three days of High School and College Track and Field competition. Today were the finals. Quick snapshots of some of the participants.

Gymcats Redux

2010-03-13T17:14:00.011-07:00

Well - back at the Gym again - checkin' out the girls. The Cats won - again! Congrats to the girls!

Mt. Frackin' Graham

2010-03-10T18:51:00.005-07:00

Geez! the things I do for science.

As most of you know - my "day job" is as a software engineer in support of the astronomical observatories around southern Arizona. As such I have the distinct pleasure of driving long hours to the tops of various mountains to telescopes in remote locations in the area. Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) is one of the places I visit more often than I like. At 10,500 feet - this place gets a lot of snow in winter - this winter being no exception. With 20+ feet accumulated so far this mountain has been a real hasle to deal with lately.

Yesterday we returned to change out science instruments on the VATT Telescope. A "small" winter storm was due to blow through on our way up - with only 2 to three inches of new accumulation expected - not a problem right?

In near "white-out conditions" we procceeded up the hill to the observatory - prepared - with 4 wheel drive and snow chains - barely making it intact. Needless to say - several members of the other co-resident observatories were not so lucky (or maybe smart is the better word) - getting stuck and blocking the road to the mountain for lack of chains and 4 wheel drive . . .

Below are scenes from the morning after - taken with my shitty iphone camera.

Gymcats

2010-03-06T13:47:00.010-07:00

Last night I had the opportunity to photograph (or a least attempt to photograph) the Universityof Arizona Women's Gymcats in action against Washington. Sports photography is always challenging. As a photographer you need the equipment, patience and timing to do it right. I have the first two - need to work on the last one.

Gymnastics is particularly demanding - these girls move fast. You are not allowed to use flash for obvious reasons - and the venues where this sport is practiced have cluttered backgrounds of bleachers and fans, and are usually poorly lit with ugly harsh overhead lights - just bright enough so that you have to use fast lenses (< F/2.8), high ISO's (> 1250), and fast shutter speeds (Faster then 1/320 sec) if you want to have any chance of stopping the action.

Timing is critical - even with a Canon 1D Mark IIN running @ 8 frames a second - it was tough to get a decent action shot. My 5D Mark II was more or less useless unless you knew exactly when to push the trigger - timing - its all timing. . .

Here is my first attempt (I get another chance on March 12th). All shots were obtained with either a 70-200 F/2.8 or a 300mm F/2.8 lens - wide open and ISO 1600. Shutter speeds ranges from 1/250 to 1/400 of a second.

When worlds meet

2010-02-16T20:58:00.002-07:00

This evenings sunset conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.

Tough Shoot

2010-02-14T21:37:00.004-07:00

As an amateur astrophotographer, I'm always on the lookout for challenging astronomical events to photograph. Well - tonight, a gathering of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon (called a conjunction) was visible at sunset.

Below is the view through a 300mm lens. A tough shot to get - the moon was only 23 hours past new and only 3 degrees above the horizon. This image was obtain just 2 minutes before Venus set behind the distant Tucson Mountains.

Not so fast!

2010-02-14T10:32:00.008-07:00

Spent the day photographing hummers in my backyard. The setup was simple - a feeder in the shade hanging from the roof of my back porch, a couple of off-camera radio controlled speedlights set up about three feet from the feeder @ 1/128th power, my Canon EOS 1D MKIIN on a tripod with a 70-200mm @ 200mm, manual exposure set to the max sync speed of the radio strobes (1/320th of a second) with the background 2 stops under exposed - and bang!

Not so fast. According to others on the web, my 580EX flash at this power setting is suppose to produce a 1/30,000th of a second duration flash - enough to completely freeze any motion of these little criters - or so you would think. Someone is lying. Either these birds are DAMN fast or the flash isn't. Me thinks its the later.

Late Light at the Desert Museum

2010-02-14T10:06:00.006-07:00

Birds - again

2010-02-01T00:12:00.004-07:00

Sweetwater/ Tucson Redux

2010-01-30T12:58:00.008-07:00

Returned to Sweetwater today to see if I could get a few more species (not that I know what they are). Using lessons learned in my previous visit I made sure to try and pick more open branches and wait for the avians to come to me (rather then chase them through the brush. Still a difficult task shooting the flycatchers.

Later I went to Sentinal Peak to try and photograph a particularly well placed Full moon rising over Tucson. As luck would have it the clouds hide the event for the most part.

Sweetwater

2010-01-24T22:56:00.022-07:00

Spent the day at Sweetwater Wetlands - near the water treatment plant off I-10 and Prince. Never knew it was there until my friend Steve West told me about it. Nice place! (A little aromatic - but - a nice place.) Lots of ducks and flycatchers here. The photo gang (Steve, Melinda, Dean and Frank) spent the morning chasing fowl. I'm not a birder but asked the many that were there what some of our avian prey were. Here are a few of my pics and Here are a few of Steve's.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet . . .

Yellow Rumped Warbler . . .

Leucistic Vermillion Flycather . . .

Least Sandpiper . . .

Please correct me if I'm wrong on the idents here - and inform me of the names of the ones I haven't identified (or mis-identified). Thanks!

Whitewater wildlife

2010-01-18T22:07:00.057-07:00

Its one thing to photograph animals at the zoo - but something completely different in the wild. I've never had much luck with wildlife. Animals usually like me but don't seem to cooperate when the cameras come out.

I'm not much of an outdoorsman either - my idea of roughing it is checking into the nearest Motel 6. I don't like being too hot, or too cold - and sleeping on the ground, in a sleeping bag? Forget it! If I can't take a warm morning shower and relieve myself in a sanitary porcelain convenience - I ain't doin' it! :-)

But, when the opportunity to photograph real wildlife in a nature preserve, close by - with hotels, running water and restaurants - I'll reconsider.

Well - this weekend my student and I traveled to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Reserve near Willcox, Arizona to try our luck with birds. Hearing there were thousands of Sandhill Cranes wintering over at this location, we figured the odds were better than average we might be able to get one or two of these animals "on film" - all the while roughing it in the nearby (57 miles) Holiday Inn Express.

Our plan -Saturday - drive to Willcox, AZ; spend the night in the posh Holiday Inn Express; rise very early Sunday morning (4:30 am) and make the drive to Whitewater Draw to photograph the Cranes at sunrise - if they were there.

Saturday Morning . . .

Leaving Tucson late Saturday morning, we arrived in Willcox just in time for a liesurely lunch at the Big Tex BBQ around 12:30 pm. Replenished, and armed with a map of nearby sites where Sandhills had been sighted, we decided to take a drive around the Willcox Playa in search of the supposedly plentiful photographic prey. First stop - Coshise Lake - a small watering hole just a mile south of town. We drove around the entire lake - spotting a few ducks and small song birds but no sign of Sandhills anywhere.

Not yet discouraged we proceeded south down Kansas Settlement Road on the east side of the Playa - the map indicating numerous areas where Cranes were known to feed during the day. Miles and minutes passed. At each indicated site - no Cranes! To the bottom of the Playa we drove, turned west then north and up the west side of the Playa - looking, looking - no Cranes! No Cranes anywhere! We proceeded up US 191 back toward Willcox and the Apache Station Wildlife Viewing Station next to the Apache Power Plant. Surely, there must be Cranes there.

Arriving at the viewing station we were greeted by several power plant employees manning a booth with free infromation and refreshments. A free soda, a potty break, and a breif conversation with the well informed volunteers - we were able to spot four (yes "4") Sandhill Cranes at what seemed to be about a half mile away in high grass, visible only with the extraordinary aid of 30X binoculars! Geez! This wasn't encouraging at all! We were getting worried now. Was this a portent of the views we could expect at Whitewater Draw?!?

From our current location, Whitewater was another hour drive south on US 191. It was getting late - (3:00 pm). We had only another two hours of daylight left. The thought of driving to Whitewater Draw in the dark the next morning and having nothing to photograph was daunting.

A decision was made. We bite the bullet, drive NOW to Whitewater and check out the venue before it got too late to see in the fading light. Find out if there were any Cranes - if not - slink back to Tucson and lick our wounds.

4 pm - we arrive at Whitwater Draw Wildlife Reserve. Pulling into the dusty parking lot only a few cars are present. This is a bad sign. The WOW (Wings Over Willcox) festival was in full swing this particular weekend (something we had hoped to avoid by arriving on Sunday instead of Saturday) and there were supposed to be numerous tours and public outreach programs in progress all over the Sulphur Valley - including Whitewater Draw. We expected to be fighting our way through throngs of birders and photographers - if there were really any birds here!

Looking through the windshield of the van we could see only trees, grass and a couple of elevated dirt berms that served as walking paths into the Draw. No signs of birds - certainly not the tens of thousands of Sandhills purported to be in the area. I shut off the engine of the car. We paused and proceeded to open the doors - planning a short walk to confirm our fears then head home with dashed photographic plans.

The air was still. No wind. But there was noise. A din of noise. A sound like nothing I've ever heard before. Like geese, but not like geese - lots of them - somewhere in the distance but not too far. They're here!

We grabbed our cameras, tripods, lenses and accessories and proceeded to march along the pathway to the north. And there they were - Sandhills, hundreds of them, huddled together in the low shallow waters of the Draw's ponds. Still quite distant from the viewing stations, but within range of our longest lenses. We felt relieved and just a little excited.

We setup our equipment next to one of the elevated viewing stations and began filling memory cards with Sandhill images. Smiles all around.

Wanting a better, closer venue I decided to pick up my equipment and head further along the path in search of a cleaner vantage point. A half mile up the berm the path ended and I found myself in among several other birders and photographers imaging what appeared to be the largest of the gatherings of Sandhills visible from the limited venues of the Draw. It was getting late - sunset was approaching rapidly now. As I setup at the new venue I struck up a conversation with another Canon shooter sporting a nice 300mm F/2.8L IS lens, tripod and Canon 5D Mark II camera. His voice sounded very familiar, and as I introduced myself he turned and reached out his hand and said - "I'm Guy - Guy Atchley". Yep - the Channel 9 News Anchor from KGUN TV in Tucson! Nice guy (no pun intended) and a good photographer too!

As we spoke and shot, the last of the Sandhills began returning from the fields. Great flocks of them, at times completely filling the frame of my 5D Mark II, 400mm F/2.8L IS lens and 2X teleconveter. (I know - the 2X converter really sucks! But at the distances we had to work with - its was a necessary evil.)

As the sun set, I was getting worried about my student - Frank, and, after saying my goodbyes to Guy, trodded off the see how Frank was progressing. On the way back I happened upon a rather loud flock of Yellow Headed Blackbirds returning to the Draw in search of a communal roost for the night. They would, en masse, fly from one set of Cat Tail reeds to the next making a sound not unlike a troop of agitated monkeys.

It was so dark by now that even at an ISO setting of 1600 and the necessary F/13 to achieve even a modicum of Depth of Field, shutter speeds were so impossibly slow that motion blur was all but certain to destroy any chance of freeezing the hyperactivity of these little beasts. Out came my trusty 580EX flash equipped with a fresnel lens to concentrate the beam at the 20 meter distances I was working.

By the time I found Frank, it was nearly dark and we decided to return to Willcox, eat dinner, and get some rest before our early morning return to the Draw for the sunrise ascension of the Sandhills.

Sunday Morning . . .

We woke early, 4 am, performed the morning "SSS" rituals, packed the van, checked out of the hotel, grabbed a cup of Joe at the local Circle K and were on the road to the Draw by 5 am.

Sunrise was due at 7:21 am and we arrived at the Draw at a little after 6 am. It was dark, very dark. It was cold, very cold. Anticipating this we had equipped ourselves with flashlights and dressed in layers - four layers for me - as I said - I don't like being cold.

Flashlights in hand, we proceeded to gather the photo equipment for the march to the most remote part of the Draw accessible by humans. Just as we were about to leave, Guy arrived and after a brief greeting, we trodded out together.

The wait seemed interminable. As the sky slowly brightened, we could see great masses of airborne Sandhills in the distance - flying north - away from our location! The cranes closer to us seemed to stay put - waiting for sunrise proper I guess - leaving the early risers to fly to the more distant fields to the north. (I know the feeling - just a few more minutes after the alarm goes off in the morning . . .)

Clouds made for a spectacular sunrise. Pinks and reds, Blues, Yellows and Gold painted the southeastern sky.

Finally, with fingers nearly numb from the cold and our faces red with the sting of the morning air - the locals flew.

The day had begun, and all was right - at the Draw.

Shortly after sunrise, we returned to the van to warm our chilled hands and feet, review the events of the last hour and plan the rest of the day. We ventured away from the draw in search of the Crane's feeding grounds - in the fallow corn fields to the north. We had limited success. A few Cranes were found in fields to the north and east of the Draw - but were pretty camera shy and still required 800mm or better to only partially fill the frames of our cameras.

Lunch at the Elfrieda Steakhouse was tasty. Some more photography of the local "architecture" (old dilapidated farm houses) and local fauna rounded out our pursuits for the early afternoon before the return to the Draw . . .

Vermillion Flycatchers . . .

Road runners . . .

And yes . . . a snipe! Really - it really is a snipe! A "Wilson's Snipe" or so I was told.

After our return to the Draw, we spent the remaider of the day improving upon or previous efforts. Digital photography is such a wonderful thing - being able to review the images as you take them and learn from the mistakes of the shot before has greatly improved the photographic skills of even the most hardened pro. I know I learned alot - like I should sell all my cameras and take up something easier and less demanding - like - I don't know - computer programming?

All in all - the expedition was a success. I had fun and had a good student who - I hope learned something from me. I learned that Sandhills are shy, noisy, and not all that attractive. Wildlife photography is challenging and frustrating at times. I thnk I'll leave it to the real pros . . .

Violations

2010-01-09T21:06:00.010-07:00

Forgive me for I have sinned. Today I violated my first rule of photography - "I will NEVER photograph flowers, bugs, or bugs on flowers." Sometimes, for the sake of education and exercise, I guess you have to do those things which disgust you the most.

I hate flower photography. It is tedious, boring and pedestrian in my book. It does however present certain educational challenges that all photography students need to learn. Therefore, for today's outing I took my "student" to Tohono Chul Park in an attempt to impart some lessons on light, depth of field, exposure and composition.

Below are my yawning efforts from the class. I hope my student does better.

Kuiper Observatory

2009-12-30T16:27:00.007-07:00

Well - up on the mountain again. Can't seem to get enough of these things! Its approaching the New Year. 10 years ago I was up here for the change of the millenium - still the same after a decade.

So here is a couple of portraits of the beast - a 1.5 meter F/13 telescope built initially to survey the moon for Apollo landing sites. Still being used by astronomers today researching the remote environs of the universe . . .

All images were taken with a Canon 5D mark II | Sigma 12-24mm rectilinear zoom | ISO 200 | ~1.6 seconds @ F/8