[thegeriatric]

Beautiful GSpotter.

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by Maciej Love the entry shot GSpotter! (I thought it was your entry.)

I was undecided which shot I should choose as entry... So now I changed my entry.

[GSpotter]

Some windmills about 1-2 miles from my home. Shot taken with a ND3.0 (1000x) filter, to get a slow shutterspeed on a sunny day.

[PB PM]

Nice one, I like the way you captured the motion. Reminds me that I really need to get an ND filter.

[NosferaDrew]

Shot the moon last evening.
Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II with a 2X extender and 100% crop.

I want to get a telescope and a equatorial mount so I can try some astrophotography.

[Chinney]

Originally Posted by GSpotter A different take on the PCT 'neighbourhood' theme: Taken from my driveway

Neighbourhood writ large - very large.

[ezkcdude]

Some first pics with my new C3+16 mm:

[!Marc!]

Gspotter: Nice astro pic,

can you tell me the equipment used for that?

[PB PM]

A shot of my car after some driving on a gravel road (during my last vacation).

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by !Marc! Gspotter: Nice astro pic, can you tell me the equipment used for that?

I used a Nikon D700, coupled with a Nikon 16-35/f4 VR (VR deactivated, manual focus). The camera was mounted on a stable tripod.

BTW: Almost all of my pictures - including this one - are linked to their flickr page. If you go there and klick on the "... using a D700 ...", you get to the EXIF information of that shot.

[!Marc!]

Originally Posted by GSpotter I used a Nikon D700, coupled with a Nikon 16-35/f4 VR (VR deactivated, manual focus). The camera was mounted on a stable tripod. BTW: Almost all of my pictures - including this one - are linked to their flickr page. If you go there and klick on the "... using a D700 ...", you get to the EXIF information of that shot.

Interesting!

I guess its because your camera costs 10 times mine. I cannot take a decent pic of the milky-way even on a 30 sec exposure at f4 / ISO3200 even in the blackest of skys. I have done so, but it needed a whole lot of photoshopping to bring it out the 'milk' and noise was not so good.

I guess I just have to live with it.

I have booked by flights to New Zealand for Novembe and December, which is less than 8 weeks. I am determined to find room for the dSLR this time, as it did not go to Iceland.

Hopefully when I return, I will still have enough spare cash to buy one of these

[PB PM]

I don't think it is the price of the camera. I've seen people with little old Nikon D40s get shots like that. It is just a matter of setting setup properly.

[Dorian Gray]

Originally Posted by !Marc! I guess its because your camera costs 10 times mine. I cannot take a decent pic of the milky-way even on a 30 sec exposure at f4 / ISO3200 even in the blackest of skys. I have done so, but it needed a whole lot of photoshopping to bring it out the 'milk' and noise was not so good.[/IMG]

You may find this Kodak PDF useful, in particular the section on "Lens speed" on page 7.

Briefly, stars act as point sources of light, so their brightness isn't determined by the f-number of your lens as you might expect, but rather, the size of its entrance pupil (i.e. the focal length divided by the f-number). The Milky Way, on the other hand, acts as an extended source, so the f-number determines its brightness.

If you want a bright Milky Way relative to the other stars in the sky, you therefore need a lens with a relatively low f-number (e.g. f/2.8, f/4) and a relatively small entrance pupil diameter, i.e. you need a wide-angle lens. (You'll also need a wide-angle lens because the Milky Way is wide!) GSpotter used a 16 mm lens on full-frame, which is about 10.5 mm on a crop-sensor DSLR. Was your lens that wide? If not, you can't expect results as good.

You'll also need clear and dark skies, of course, because light pollution also acts as an extended source.

[!Marc!]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray You may find this Kodak PDF useful, in particular the section on "Lens speed" on page 7. Briefly, stars act as point sources of light, so their brightness isn't determined by the f-number of your lens as you might expect, but rather, the size of its entrance pupil (i.e. the focal length divided by the f-number). The Milky Way, on the other hand, acts as an extended source, so the f-number determines its brightness. If you want a bright Milky Way relative to the other stars in the sky, you therefore need a lens with a relatively low f-number (e.g. f/2.8, f/4) and a relatively small entrance pupil diameter, i.e. you need a wide-angle lens. (You'll also need a wide-angle lens because the Milky Way is wide!) GSpotter used a 16 mm lens on full-frame, which is about 10.5 mm on a crop-sensor DSLR. Was your lens that wide? If not, you can't expect results as good. You'll also need clear and dark skies, of course, because light pollution also acts as an extended source.

Yes, I was shooting with a 10mm lens at f4 for 30 seconds in the darkest sky possible to mankind. Really it was so dark I had trouble seeing my own hands! Ok, perhaps I have overstated the terribleness of the pictures I took, and I dont know if there is any postprocessing in gspotters pic, but money does buy performance and quality. I will put up my pic later for comparison

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by !Marc! and I dont know if there is any postprocessing in gspotters pic, but money does buy performance and quality. I will put up my pic later for comparison

I did some postprocessing in PS: I used Topaz Denoise and did play with the levels and curves (mainly to get a darker sky). The shooting conditions weren't optimal: I stood in front of the garage, the street lights were (mostly) obstructed by some trees, another light was behind the garage. So when I increased the time, I didn't get more detail, instead the ambient light started to overpower the stars.

Comparing the shot with the visual live experience: The garage roof and the tree were almost black, the stars were about the same as in the picture.

The picture was basically an unplanned shot (while walking my dog, I saw the milky way and grabbed my camera when I got home. I didn't check (e.g. with Star Walk) if the milky way would have been in a better position later.

The most important aspect IMO is to have clean air and no light pollution around you. E.g. look at the pictures from James Neeley, they'll blow your mind if you found my shot interesting...

[!Marc!]

Originally Posted by GSpotter The most important aspect IMO is to have clean air and no light pollution around you. E.g. look at the pictures from James Neeley, they'll blow your mind if you found my shot interesting...

Awesome night photos, I checked out his camera, way outta my league
This was my best effort at the milky way, it was taken on a moonless night on the pyrenees border between France and Spain, I have had to adjust levels etc, becuase in the original the milky of the milky way is barely visible. I remember that I also turn off the cameras noise reduction as it doubles the length of the exposure.

[PB PM]

Not to shabby for the 24-70mm on the D700, and some people think you need a 600mm lens to shoot wildlife.

[PB PM]

[AWR]

A couple more from The Neighborhood

From across a fallow field and vineyard:




For the CERN fans:

[AWR]

On my way home from work, out the car window with the BlackBerry....

A young man and woman (a couple?) on their way to or from military service both strapping SIG 550s (folded stocks) as they make their way through town. With compulsory military service in Switzerland, most men keep their service rifles at home with two boxes of ammo until they are 40 years old. Along with compulsory (they love that concept here) target practice at regular intervals, they can get a pretty mean defense force up and running in 12 hours. And the design: the 550 is considered by many to be the finest infantry rifle in production. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIG_550

What I like about the whole thing is the calm responsibility exuded by these two.

[PB PM]

It's starting to look a lot like fall around here.

[Chinney]

Nice pics all around. (AWR, would you consider substituting that CERN pic on the PCT thread, although I like your other one too?)

Anyway, I am slowly going through my vacation pics, and thought I would share a couple in tribute to GSpot, since my visit to the Wihelma Zoo when we were in Stuttgart was in part inspired by his many pics (and also by the insistence of my kids - even our 17 year old):

Polar Bear Reflection


Resting in the Sun


Anyway, Wilhelma is a wonderful place and not just for the zoo itself, which is excellent, but for the overall presentation, beauty and feeling of the site. We spent most of a day there, and I would go back any time, if I could.

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by Chinney Anyway, Wilhelma is a wonderful place and not just for the zoo itself, which is excellent, but for the overall presentation, beauty and feeling of the site. We spent most of a day there, and I would go back any time, if I could.

Yes, it's not only a zoo, but also a botanical garden and the buildings in the moorish style are nicknamed "the suabian alhambra":




BTW: At the Wilhelma, you can also find sequioas. King Wilhelm I of Baden-Württemberg ordered 1864 one pound of sequoia seeds from the US which was cultivated in the Wilhelma. Most of the trees were later sold to interested individuals and planted all over the country.:


My (many) shots from the Wilhelma.

[PB PM]

[Chinney]

Night falls on the Neckar in Tübingen:

[AWR]

Nice friendly wave.

(Perhaps a silly question: what are those boards sticking up on either side toward the back of the boat?)

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by AWR (Perhaps a silly question: what are those boards sticking up on either side toward the back of the boat?)

Backrests

[Chinney]

I wondered myself. I thought they were stored unused benches from the boats since those could clearly be taken on and off of the boats too, but the pic in GSpotter's link shows otherwise.

Tübingen, incidentally, is a very pleasant university town. There are parts of it you can imagine having looked just the same way as they did in 1900, if not 100 years before. At the same time, with all the students there, it behaves like a town that is very young. Lots of energy. Lots of people on bicycle or otherwise being active (and sometimes even a bit rowdy). It is an interesting combination.

My grandmother's family was from there, and my mother was born there, although she grew up in Stuttgart. 

[AWR]

I thought as much, but somehow couldn't picture it in action. Thanks for the info, gs.

Germany is tops imo for blending the best of the past with the best of the present.

[GOLDFRAPP]

My Instagram photo stream (NB: all photos were taken with iPhone 4 using Instagram app only):




^Sorry for violating this thread's rules.




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If you'd like, follow me @goldfrapp. I'll surely follow you back.