The *Official Photography Thread*

You can start with the 500 rule for exposure. It goes like this: 500 / focal length = exposure time. So 500/24 = 20.8 or 20s at the most. You have alot of noise in the image so I would probably not go too much more than 640 for the ISO. Again, this is a rough guideline.

If you're trying to capture specific stars, you will need to track them. You can do that with something like a Move-Shoot-Move tracker or anyone of a number of others--most are designed for dSLRs and not phones so you may need an adapter to use the phone. Astro works well if you can make multiple exposures and stack them to produce better images.

This and KC's last photo are a tiny bit too long an exposure. You can tell by the trails.

 

Thank you!

 

The Big Dipper

 

From a recent hike into the Grand Canyon.

 

Getting good shots of the Milky Way requires a bit of practice and good equipment. I don't think cell phones can do this.
Dark-skies are a MUST.

This shot was with a

$849 Nikon D3500 W/ AF-P DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Black

Nikon D3500 and a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 shot at ISO 3200 for about 16 seconds with a 10 second shutter delay.
The camera isn't the best and I want to re-try some of these shots with my D7200 which is better all around.

A focus trick is to switch to live-mode and (+) the image focused on a single star to get the best manual focus at infinity.
Then jump out of live mode for the shot as the infinity setting is usually off a hair, so you need to manually fine-tune it.
Tripod is a must and a decent wide angle lens at f2.8 or better is needed.

Kit 3.5 lenses will do in a pinch but really 2.8 is the starting point.

The foreground 'hill' was painted with a flashlight for an ever brief moment.

For really cool shots of an interesting foreground a blue-hour shot followed up later on with a milky way shot and
then stacked can produce nice results. I want to try that some time.

Always shoot raw and then edit the image ...

My 3 cents.

 

More milky way

 

Bonita Campground - just outside Flagstaff:

Nikon D7200
Tokina 11-16 f2.8

ISO 2500 and 15-20 second shots.
Last shot may have been at ISO 3200

Images taken around 8:15pm - 9:00pm








Just viewed these on this site - images on my 24" monitor are much better.
No idea why - these look all blurry - apologies...

 

Monument Valley: ( images haven't been edited yet )

 

Picked up a drone. Here is one if the fist shots of the Tacoma using it.

 

More shots from the valley. If anyone heads out that way hit me up for tips that I learned on this outing.

 

Saw several of these flycatchers landing on rooftops around the house.
Then suddenly they all took off like a bat outta hell.

Then I saw why - a hawk landed on the next rooftop.



He was curious about the shutter snap and turned to see what it was -

 

More bird pix -

 

wow, I been away for 3 years. great work everybody. just been over here doin my thing.

Outtake from a small print magazine shoot

 

FX session with a local makeup artist and one of my models

 

One last before I disappear for a while again. Figure model portfolio session.

 

Those images are intense Mike - if that figure model needs anything have her call me.

 

After a cold front with a good rain moved through to clear the air I took a ride to the edge of the Res to recycle some cardboard
and on the way spied something on a lamp post. This wasn't the usual pigeon I see so I pulled over, jumped out with camera in hand
and managed a few shots of this Cooper's Hawk. Notice the tag on the leg. Only managed a few snaps and it took off. Hope to see this
one again soon. Too bad I couldn't get the tag-number.

Nikon D7200 - Sigma 100-400 ISO400 , F7.1 , 1/1600

 

Fast moving little something - not sure of the exact specie of this little guy.

 

Looks like a gnat-catcher.

 

Black Throated Sparrow - native to the SouthWest...
Unedited - I think I need to lighten it up a bit.