NGC 7635 The Bubble Nebula.

The open star cluster to the upper left is M52 the Salt & Pepper cluster.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, the Bubble Nebula lies within the boundaries of the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of 7,100 light years away. The bubble itself spans some 7 light years across. For perspective the nearest star to our Sun is only 4 light years.

The bubble is expanding at a phenomenal rate. There is a super massive star that is creating the 'stellar winds' causing the bubble to expand. It can be seen in the image to the upper centre within the bubble. These 'stellar winds' are moving at upwards of 4 million miles per hour!

The star is estimated at 4 million years old, so it's just a baby really. Though because it's so massive, it will burn through it's fuel much more quickly. NASA estimate just 10 - 20 million years before it goes BANG as a supernova.

The open star cluster M52, contains over 100 stars and is a little closer to us than the Bubble Nebula. Discovered by Charles Messier in 1774 it's distance is estimated to be somewhere around 4000-5000 light years away.

Image captured on Saturday 24th of September 2022 at The Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK.

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

35 light frames 5 minutes each at ISO 800

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats & bias in DeepSkyStacker.

All processing done with StarTools.

Also known as The Crescent Nebula.

When you see some of the amazing widefield views of this nebula shot with triplet & quad refractors and narrowband filters it almost looks like a brain in space!

Found in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan, the Crescent Nebula is approx 25 light years across.

Around some of the edges you can just make out some faint bluish hue, these are oxygen atoms, these look really awesome in good narrowband images. One day I may have the money to go down that path.

Data gathered at The Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools

Secret Hideout for a Secret Spy Bunneh

shot @ Skrunda-2

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rockford/99/113/24

I got my dad the mocha version of the n-series n7370 phone - the gold one is mine and the brown one's his. He's not exactly a techie, and while he's pleased with his new toy, has no idea what to do with it. Am going to have to explain to him how to bluetooth once he settles into its interface.

Known as the Oyster Nebula or the Camel's Eye Nebula, NGC 1501 can be found some 5,000 light years away in the constellation Camelopardalis.

It's a planetary nebula, that being, a star that has shed off it's outer layers as it comes to the end of it's life. Leaving behind what's left of the star, usually to become a white dwarf. However, the star at the centre of the Oyster, astronomers have found seems to be pulsating. Pulsating variable stars are certainly not uncommon, but it is very unusual to find one at the centre of a planetary nebula. This particular pulsating variable can vary it's brightness noticeably over a half hour period.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" with f4 aplanatic coma corrector. Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount. Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope & ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini.

ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101.

Optolong UV/IR 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

65 exposures of 180s each.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked and processed in PixInsight.

Not personally being very techie with photography .. does anyone know what caused that blue edging on the petals, or how to avoid it ?

Captured at The Astronomy Centre near Bacup, UK.

www.astronomycentre.org.uk

Boring Techie bit:

Askar FRA400, ZWO AM5, ZWO 533mc pro, Asiair. Optolong L'eNhance filter.

Several videos strung together using PiPP and processed in AutoStakkert3 & Registax6.

This edge-on spiral galaxy is found 50 million light years away in Draco. Nicknamed the Knife Edge galaxy it was first discovered by William Herschel in 1788.

Data was gathered at my bortle 7 back garden in Rochdale, UK.

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Skywatcher Quattro 8"

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong UV/IR.

Guided and controlled by the ZWO asiair+ using Altair 60mm guide scope & ZWO 585mc.

150 light frames 180 seconds each.

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats & bias using WBPP in PixInsight.

Processed using Graxpert, StarNet2, PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

About 9,000 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus lies a stellar nursery known as The Northern Lagoon Nebula and designated 7538 in the New General Catalogue.

So far at least thirteen of the newly forming stars within this nebula, known as proto stars, are estimated to have the mass 40x that of our Sun!

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

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Also well known as the Sunflower galaxy, M63 has a few distinctive features.

It has fluffy looking spiral arms, referred to as 'flocculent'.

Plus it has this odd looking dark dust lane running along the front left edge as seen in this image.

Another feature of M63 which makes this galaxy so memorable is it's bright core, reported to be a thousand light years across and 6x brighter than the rest of the galaxy. This bright core is thought to contain a supermassive black hole with a mass upwards of 850 million Suns!

Found in the constellation Canes Venatici it lies about 27 million light years away from us.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" with f4 aplanatic coma corrector. Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount. Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope & ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini.

ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101.

Optolong UV/IR 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

57 exposures of 180s each.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked and processed in PixInsight.

This is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Lyra. Planetary nebula are so named because, they are small, round and look like planets.

A planetary nebula is a star entering the final phases of it's life cycle. The more massive stars go out in spectacular style as a supernova. The smaller stars, like that of our Sun. Enter their penultimate phase, that of a white dwarf star, with a little less pazzazz. Though they are no less beautiful.

Captured on 23rd of April from Rochdale, UK.

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

6 exposures of 6 minutes each at ISO 400.

Stacked in DeepSkyStacker with darks, flats, dark flats & bias frames. All processing done with StarTools.

The Lion Nebula.

Found in the constellation of Cepheus, the Lion Nebula when viewed from just the right perspective, actually does represent a lion. At approx 10,000 light years away

it is made up of an emission nebula and a reflection nebula.

Not bright enough for visual observation sadly, it does however make for a great imaging target.

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Askar FRA400

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong L'eNhance.

Guided and controlled by the ZWO asiair+

Eighty 3 minute exposures

Stacked & processed in PixInsight with BlurXterminator, NoiseXterminator, Starnet++, Graxpert and Affinity Photo.

It was first discovered by Charles Messier in 1764.

It's believed that there are over 500,000 stars within this cluster!

That's over half a million Sun's packed together! Can you imagine living on a planet orbiting one of them? You'd need some serious sunblock!

May is the best time of year for observing this jewel of the night which lies some 34,000 light years away from us.

Taken on 23/03/2022 Newhey, Rochdale.

Boring techie bit below for those interested:

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

HEQ5 pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Neewer Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

60 exposures of 102 seconds at ISO 800

Stacked together with 20 each of Flats, Darks, Dark Flats & Bias calibration frames.

Processed with Deep Sky Stacker & StarTools.

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Containing around 500,000 stars M3 (Messier 3) can be found in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Given it's distance of 34,000 light years away, surprisingly you should be able to pick out M3 with a pair of 10x50 binoculars from say a bortle 6 or 7 sky.

Data gathered at Kielder Forest, UK.

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Askar FRA400

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong UV/IR.

Guiding Altair Starwave 50mm, ZWO 120mm mini & asiair+.

60 light frames of 120 seconds each.

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats using WBPP in PixInsight.

Processed using Graxpert, StarNet2 & PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

Per Wikipedia, Grosvenor Arch is a unique sandstone double arch located within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. It is named to honor Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (1875–1966), a president of the National Geographic Society.

Techie stuff: 107 minutes of 30-sec exposures stacked with StarStaX, Canon 5D Mark III, ISO 2500, Canon 14mm F2.8L at F2.8. Light-painting on the arch compliments of a passing car. (Hard to believe: this is on a dirt road 10 miles from nowhere at 11 pm.)

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Taken in 1974, when I was a size 14, and I still kept the skirt till a few years ago!

And now it really IS my first pic on here, only appropriate, eh?

Just a bit of techie stuff, the pic was taken with a Werra V camera, a pretty rare device, and I still have it. I developed and printed pic myself as I had all the correct stuff to do, and back then it was a lot easier to do than risk getting the films processed elsewhere!

Double Arch, Arches National Park. My Flickr friend Don Cook and I went out to do the night sky through Double Arch but we spent so much time uh trying to get the light painting down that I used up my hour I had planned to do a startrail. So I went back a couple of nights later. The sky had some light clouds passing through, accounting for the distortion particularly on the planet at the far left. All in all, it was still a lovely evening.

Techie stuff: Canon 5D Mark III, 14mm F2.8L, ISO 6400, 30 sec at F2.8 x 130 exposures stacked.

....and Granma's iphone!

Kizuna and Sakura discuss how we tackle certain themes here at the Lab.

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Created for the Flickr Friday theme, PARALLEL, and the Crazy Tuesday theme, DIAGONAL.

I found a place to download some fonts, found the one that I thought would work, downloaded it and managed to install it. It only works with photoshop, but that's what I wanted it for today. Then I coloured the letters and set up the shot using a macro ring. If I wasn't busy the rest of the day, I'd re-set it up, and shoot it on my lightbox rather than the kitchen counter - I didn't 'see' that the pattern of the countertop made the white paper look off... I was needed in the kitchen, so yada yada yada... Have a great day everyone!

Known as a starburst galaxy due to it's intense star forming activity. Which is thought to be caused by interactions with it's close neighbour M81 Bode's galaxy, sometimes referred to as Bode's nebula. Bode was the German astronomer who didn't do the 7th planet in our solar system any favours, when he suggested the name Uranus. Johann Elert Bode discovered M81 & M82 in 1774.

M82 lies 12 million light years away from us. It is giving birth to new stars about ten times faster than our own Milky Way. It lies within the constellation Of Ursa Major (the great bear), and is visible along with it's companion galaxy M81 in a good pair of binoculars.

Boring techie stuff.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

HEQ5 pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & GPcam setup

Canon 1100D with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter.

Best 75% of 60 light frames of 3 minutes each at ISO 800. Stacked together using Deep Sky Stacker along with darks, flats, dark flats and bias. All other processing done using StarTools.

An emission nebula in the constellation of Cygnus, lying about 5,600 light years away.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

Best 90% of 50 light frames.

Darks, Flats, Dark Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

An intermediate barred spiral galaxy first discovered by William Herschel on the 6th of April 1785.

At 41 million light years from us this stunning galaxy and it's neighbours, NGC 4747 bottom right of centre and NGC 4712 to the left and just above 4725, can all be found in the constellation Coma Berenices. There are a few fainter galaxies dotted about as well.

NGC 4725 is 100,000 light years across, a similar size to our own Milky Way.

All data gathered at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 60mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101, Optolong UV/IR 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

34 light frames.

Darks, Flats, Dark Flats & Bias

Stacked and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

I managed to get three targets in this shot thanks to the little Asker FRA400 scope and the 533 sensor. Located in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

All data was gathered at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

They are: NGC 7635 the Bubble Nebula. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787 it lies about 7,100 light years away and spans about 7 light years across.

NGC 7538 Northern Lagoon Nebula is the bright patch to the lower left. This is a stelar nursery some 9,000 light years away. It is actively forming proto stars, many of which are 40 times the mass of our Sun.

M52 open star cluster.

Also given the NGC 7654 tag.

Discovered by Charles Messier in September 1774. Sometimes called The Scorpion cluster lies about 5,000 light years away and is the only one of these 3 targets that can be picked up in a pair of binoculars.

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Askar FRA400

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong L'eNhance.

Guided and controlled by the ZWO asiair+

Best 80% of 138 light frames 120 seconds each.

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats & bias with DSS.

Processed using Graxpert, PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

M106 can be found in the constellation Canes Venatici. Binoculars will show it as a smudge in a dark enough sky. However, an 8 inch telescope will start to reveal some detail. It's a wonder we see it at all, given that it's almost 24 million light years away from us. Maybe it's the light of the estimated 400 billion stars it holds within that helps us to see it.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

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Along the belt of Orion, the left most of the three stars in the belt, Alnitak. Can be found IC 434 the Horsehead Nebula. It also holds the designation number 33 in the Barnard catalogue.

Also easily visible is NGC 2024 the Flame Nebula, found just to the left of the Horsehead in this image.

Boring Techie bit:

Data captured with an Askar FRA400 telescope at The Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK.

Mount used was an EQ6r Pro

Camera, ZWO ASI 533mc pro with an Optolong L'Enhance filter.

Altair 50mm guidescope with a ZWO 120mm mini guide camera.

All controlled with an Asiair plus.

Processed with PixInsight and Affinity Photo.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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From the Sharpless catalogue, this is an emission nebula about 5,600 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

This is the second part of my video blog (vlog?) recorded on Tuesday 23 May 2017 when I finally had my first experience of venturing out in public dressed as a woman. I had christened myself ‘The Terrified Tranny’ as I will admit to several doubts about the whole idea, the prospect of stepping out in public was as mortifying as it was exciting.

In the first video flic.kr/p/V7xZgc my thoughts as I headed out in the car were recorded and it ended with my supportive and wonderful female friend gently persuading me to step out of the car. This video starts later that day in which I recorded my thoughts and feelings about how it unfolded.

I was a bit nervous about heading into a shop and being filmed so asked my friend to use a small GoPro camera which she held at waist level to hopefully make it less obvious. The resulting video is a bit wobbly and the camera angle far from flattering but it did the job and my first moment out as a woman was recorded.

There were further technical issues with this second video in that I was so elated about what I had done as I sat down to record my thoughts I forgot to turn on my microphone and ended up only having the distant audio recording from my phone. I was outdoors near a busy road and the traffic passing is somewhat intrusive on my dialogue.

So all in all a bit of techie disaster but in essence a special moment for me a a transvestite, I had got over my barrier and actually ventured out. Even today, I ca still hardly believe I did it, the video proves to me I did, it was quite an emotive experience but one I m thrilled to have had.

I feel sure my next time out in public as a woman will be more relaxed and I can settle in a bit more to being Helene the woman, but that’s all for the future. I confess I am excited and very much looking forward to the next trip out as a woman.

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Copyright Susan Ogden

I have no idea what these are, but i love that they felt the need to pose in the same position in height order for me as i was walking by! So cooperative these dried curly grassy things!!

have a lovely Thursday....i am trying to figure out how to get photos that were backed up, out of my Time Machine backup, because doofus that i am, i believe i accidentally just trashed the newest sets i took this past week....sigh.....i have no time for this nonsense!! i need to get a techie brain installed SOON!! i want to cry or say some very naughty words about now......

Futaba enjoys the dusty, dirty, dangerous game of urban exploration.

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Created for the Toy Sunday theme, EXPLORATION.

Thanks to Joyce van der Linden for the background.

+

Day 49 - February 18, 2010

Third Installment of my Boy Behind The Lens Series.

The love affair began when I purchased my first iPod. It was one of those iconic white ones, with a scroll wheel, a mono-chromatic screen and twenty gigabytes of disk space. Five iPods, 2 iPhones, and about half a decade later here I am an Apple evangelist, fanboy, or whatever else they call people like me.

But more than just being a lover of all things Apple, at heart, I am a true blue techie, a lover of all things that have to do with technology and gadgets. From pocket video cameras, gaming consoles, gizmos and what have you, I love it all, these are my toys and my passion.

I have dabbled in web and graphic design, blogging, micro blogging, podcasting, and non-linear video editing. Nowadays I bring that knowledge in multimedia into my own profession with work in Digital News Gathering (DNG), social media and hosting a tech segment on TV. Its really great because I get to do something related to what I love and am passionate about.

Some friends call me the "tech guy", you can do the same if you want. And as part of the package if you have a tech question, need buying advise, or my thoughts on a particular device, or Internet service don't hesitate to send me Flickr-mail, I love to teach and help people out.

PHOTO NOTES: I've always known that I wanted to do an Apple themed shoot and earlier today while trying to figure out how I would implement my concept, my red iPod nano caught my eye. I've always loved the color of my red nano and today it really has served as the inspiration for this diptych. I knew I needed color since my keyboard was black and the apple logo on my MacBook Pro is white on silver.

To add red to the keyboard I basically made a large white canvas on Photoshop, enough to fill the screen and then filled it with red, also placed a large red bag against my laptop so the color would reflect on the backlit keys.

To add red to the Apple logo I basically shot this in the dark, waited till the logo dimmed from full brightness (it does this for a few seconds before the screen eventually goes black to save power), and then added the red tint using my iPhone (again opening up a white canvas and filling it with red).

Awesome Large On Black | Twitter | Facebook

EXPLORE #17 - February 19, 2010

EXPLORE FRONT PAGE - February 19, 2010

Also known has the Whale galaxy.

Just above the Whale can be seen a small elliptical galaxy, designated NGC 4627.

The whale galaxy lies approx 25 million light years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici.

Data captured at The Astronomy Centre, Todmorden, UK. 30/03/2024.

www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair 60mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 100, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

Best 70% of 54 light frames.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools & Affinity Photo.

With an autumnal mist in the air class 73 no. 73111 stands at Waterloo with the 10.52pm service to Southampton on 14th October 1977.

More of a parcels working than passenger service there was plenty of opportunity en route to get off, set up the tripod, and take a couple of night shots. It was even easier if you were able to sneak a cab ride as I was lucky enough to on a couple of occasions.

For the techie minded I shot this on Agfa CT18 for 24 secs at f8 with an 80B filter

View On Black and Large. They type F11, and F11 again to exit.

What do you see when you look at the water? Boats on the water? Twlight reflections and lighting?

I often walk my dogs to this park, where I can see this lovely view of Coconut Grove harbor, as well as the lovely park grounds and other vistas. It's such a peaceful spot, and many people pause here to take in the lovely panorama across the water. This photo is my first somewhat successful twilight shot. I'm trying to learn more about twilight and night-time photography and welcome all tips. I let my camera rest on a railing, and then I followed a tip given me by Terry Grealy (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33113103@N03/) to use either a remote shutter device or self-timer feature. So, I tried my self-timer feature--and this came out much better than others I've tried. I don't have a tripod- and don't really want to carry one around. I still have much to learn-- but this is light years beyond where I was before, and did not even bother to post- so bad. I set my Cannon Powershot 630 for a night scene (think it provides a longer exposure-- I'm not a techie here), and used the timer-- to delay the picture-- and voila. Less movement in the photo. I love the twilight- and it's nice to be able to capture some of the beauty I see at twilight.

3/19/09 #2423

Referred to as Bode's Nebula, it is however, a spiral galaxy located close to the Big Dipper or Plough asterism in Ursa Major. It has a close companion galaxy M82 the Cigar galaxy, so close together, they are often imaged as a pair.

Lying about 12 million light years from Earth and about 90,000 light years across. Binoculars will pick up M81 as a faint fuzzy patch of light under reasonable sky conditions.

First discovered by a German astronomer by the name of Johann Elert Bode in 1774, hence Bode's Nebula. At the time no one had any clue it was a whole other galaxy.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

Also known as NGC 7822, The Teddy Bear Nebula. Found in the constellation of Cepheus and lies about 2,500 - 3,000 light years away.

Can you see the 3D?

Stare at the middle of the image and try to go cross eyed. You should see a third image start to appear in between the two, whilst going ALMOST cross eyed, try to focus on the middle image.

Any luck?

Still struggling to see it?

Try moving a little further away from your screen.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c gain 100, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

Engagement session of New York photographer Ryan Brenizer and fiance' Andrea.

Ryan is an awesome photographer known on flickr as Carpe icthus

Ryan and I try to do lunch when he comes to Arizona. This time he asked me to create some portraits for him. When you have the task of photographing a photographer, a lot is on the line....are they critiquing you every second? Will they like it? .....I think I did OK, what do you think? ;-)

*Strobist* (techie and lighting info)

-White Lightning x1600 w/ 22" Beauty Dish - fired via PW.

-Powered by a Tronix Explorer 1200 Battery Inverter

-sb800 (optically triggered) behind 2 ft wall & left of the couple. Fired into the ceiling.

-AcmeEdit (medium) using the actions AcmeMagic and AcmeGlam

© Adam Nollmeyer | acmephotography.net

Arizona Studio Portrait Photography on Location

PS: Thanks for the link love Ryan. Congrats on your wedding!

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The best part of these long nights is sharing a cozy meal out with a cherished friend. This is along the Mendocino Coast in Northern California, on a chilly winter evening.

TECHIE NOTES:

8 second exposure @ f/11 and 100 ISO.

Lighting this shot with its strong contrasts, took some ingenuity:

~ Natural light from outside.

~ Natural light from the candle.

~ A bounce flash through a diffusing white umbrella pointed at the ceiling to brighten the interior.

~ My trusty little LED flashlight to 'paint' the plates with light for just a second or so during the 8 second exposure.

~ A little ambient light from incandescent lamps about 20 feet away, behind where I was standing.

Photo taken in RAW. Sunset was at 4:52. I took this photo at 5:29. But I had set up the shot earlier. When the scene was set, I bracketed and tested every several minutes as the daylight decreased and dusk approached, to ensure a good final shot. Because of the different kinds of lighting, the white temp in camera was set at 'overcast'. White temp was adjusted in RAW converter very slightly. Dodged the table area in post processing a little to bring it forward to the eye. Adjusted color balance slightly. You can see where I 'light painted' the plates. They got a tiny splash of LED light from my flashlight during the exposure to bring up the details of the food.