March 24, 2015: “Star Trails”
One of my favorite things to do in photography is sit
outside watching the time pass by connecting with nature. To me one of the best times to do that is
when it is dark, most people think oh its dark there is nothing to see. WRONG!
That is when the beauty truly comes out look at the stars, the moon,
listen to the sounds it is something to be seen. This time of year I find hard to sit outside
since the temperatures are cold on this night in the teens with a mild wind.
I did sit outside take in the sights and the stars. I wanted to do a light trails photo which is
something I had never done before. I
set up tested my exposure and shutter time.
Things looked good so I set up and took 68 total 30 second photos. Most of the star trail photography is
completed in post processing to bring out the trails. I used a program to stack all of the photos
and create the circular motion. I was
very happy with my first attempt. What I
need to work on is simply figuring out how to make my camera automatically keep
shooting rather than having to repress the shutter button every 10 shots. The
shutter button has a 10 second lag which creates the small gaps in the trails
which appear almost like clockwork.
Expect plenty more of this style in the future.
March 30, 2015: “Memory Lane”
Walking around town familiar breeds memories. These are streets I roamed as kid, aimlessly
wandering to nowhere, to somewhere and growing up. My springs were spent at the track running in
circles and flying through the air. The
track I ran on was gravel, there have been upgrades to the rubberized track
since then. I walked up and down the
track, checked out the records board. I
saw a few familiar names from my heyday and few older still standing. Seeing those names bought back a flood of
memories and what could have beens.
That senior year being undefeated, hitting the school record
in practice. A quarter of the way
through the season prom happened and I hurdles something and boom, there goes
my ankle. It was horrible, a memory that
I wish I didn’t have. I was a captain, I
was depended on to win every meet and get the maximum points in the pole vault
and had a really great chance to be league champ and qualify for states. None of the hard work ever paid off. I blew out my ankle and couldn’t recover in
time for sectionals to attempt to qualify for states.
I just remember how I would show up and the coaches didn’t
care, saw I was done and thought whatever and gave up on me. I was killing it early in the freezing season
qualifying for sectionals on 40 degree day with 20 mph winds. The one coach who never gave up was there my
first few years was Mr. Villlela, he cared and had a way of teaching where he
understood each individual and took the time to talk to you an understand
you. He led the team the way leaders are
supposed to lead. Winning wasn’t his top
priority, developing us kids into productive humans was his number one goal and
his vehicle happened to be track and field.
Walking down memory lane I walked through a field onto a track into memories
of failed dreams.
March 31, 2015:
“Coldwave…still”
It I still freezing and it is the end of March. Will we ever see warm weather? As much as I complain about it, I do enjoy
the crispness while I am out shooting.
Today I venture to Olcott about 2 hours after sunset to see what I could
get. My favorite things to shoot long
evening exposures. Today it was on the
Lake, I had specific shots in my mind but there was too much light pollution to
get what I had hoped for. I took a
literal walk in the park found some interesting scenes. After walking and scoping sights in darkness
I decided I would head down the hill to the pier. There was one fairly accessible, not the
easiest thing to do going down a hill with a camera and a flashlight. I setup for about 15 minutes until I got the
composition right. Amazing and beautiful
in the darkness of night.
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