The last night of 2011 presented a beautiful clear sky and cool temperatures – perfect for a little astrophotography! Since I really had no plans other than to watch the ball drop in Times Square at midnight I decided to take advantage of the free time and setup the smaller of my two telescopes and give the Canon 60D its first light. I severely neglected my astro-gear during 2011 taking it out only one or two times very early in the year....

Read More

Since this will be my final post of 2011, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year as we welcome 2012! It’s been an amazing year for me as I’ve seen the quality and maturity of my photography grow by leaps and bounds. I derive inspiration and motivation from the incredible work of the many photographers whose images I see posted daily. Your support, comments and feedback are a tremendous source of encouragement and inspire me...

Read More

Ancient peoples marked the day after Winter Solstice as a celebration of light conquering darkness. It was observed as a time renewal and rebirth as the days would grow longer and the Earth would begin to come alive again. In keeping with of that idea, I thought I would post an image today that attempts to embody the feeling of emerging from an enveloping darkness. Gear: Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF-S 18-135mm Settings: 18mm, ISO100, f/8, 1/20...

Read More

A few weekends ago I took advantage of a cold, clear night and headed to one of the few dark sky spots in our area. I wanted to try my hand at some wide angle astrophotography and light painting. I’ve owned telescopes for years and have done a fair amount of deep sky photography but acceptable wide angle shots had always eluded me. With the higher ISO ranges available in the Canon 60D, I feel that I finally have the right tool for the...

Read More

Last week we finally had a storm system roll through our area with lots of lightning and very little rain. I decided to see if I could catch some lightning shots so I set my camera up on the back deck and went to work. I’ve never had much luck with this but I’ve been following some of our storm chasing friends blogs this year and hope I’ve picked up a few pointers. I did manage to catch a few bolts before the storm calmed down...

Read More

The last week has been such a blur that I forgot I had unprocessed images from the Fourth of July fireworks display over Abingdon! Unlike displays in larger cities, the fireworks shows in smaller towns tend to be a little more subdued with only one or two firing off at a time. This helped in capturing them and was easier this year since I came armed with a programmable timer so I could enjoy the show and photograph it too! Camera settings:...

Read More