I haven’t had much luck in the past with night time photography. I tried working on this a bit while I was away and I learned a few things and accomplished a few pictures I’m quite happy with.
I found that choosing a faster shutter speed and going for a more low-key photo of the moon resulted in a much more pleasing look like this one.
I tried taking pictures of Saturn as it was rising but ran into some kind of vibration issue. I had my exposure delayed by three seconds so that was a bit puzzling. My auto focus was off as well. I eventually decided to sleep on it and would look at my settings in the morning. When I woke the next morning I remembered that I need to check if some kind of anti-vibration was still enabled. Sure enough it was.
With the Nikon Vibration Reduction turned off on the lens I looked forward to the next time. It took a couple of weeks because of weather, smoke from wild fires and travel. Eventually I got some images of Saturn and moons. The focus is not the best because I had a lot of trouble focusing the lens and the smoke in the atmosphere. Still, I’m happy that I got what I did.
On another night I got it again, perhaps a better picture and this time it was five moons and they’re mostly to the upper right of Saturn with one on the lower left.
I enjoyed taking these pictures, it felt good to get back to some photography again. I’m looking forward to doing more again with my camera.
I took over four hundred photos trying to get things I’ve photographed before in a more interesting and pleasing way. You can view some of the results at my flickr share here https://www.flickr.com/photos/kwgagel
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. What a wonderful site to behold! I’m not a flower guy and have no idea what I am taking pictures of but I sure did like the scenery there. The crowd wasn’t that bad people have sure forgotten how to be polite and considerate to others. Despite being crouched on the ground with a camera in hand people just routinely stepped right in the way!
In the Sunken Garden
The above image is a compilation of two images. I had to do that in order to remove the people that kept getting in the way.
There were a few hidden treasures along the way too like the moss animals that have been created there.
Moss Animals
The dancing water fountain was a nice surprise as well and featured in more than a few images I took.
Dancing Water Fountain
You can view the entirety of the images I took while there here https://www.flickr.com/gp/kwgagel/ngkE6r I hope you can enjoy them as much as I did walking around experiencing them.
The photo club went and purchased twenty two six inch glass prisms. Members purchased them from the club and now our challenge is to make great images using prisms. In our last meeting in February we practiced a bit with our prisms in the church meeting room. Some folks brought lights, backgrounds and things to take pictures of. Here are a couple of my practice pictures, higher resolution ones will be in my flickr share here https://www.flickr.com/photos/kwgagel and I take more I’ll upload them there as well.
Time is running out to register for an exciting PHOTOCRAM weekend June 13th to 15th!! There are 7 spots left for “Creating Story and Mood in Photography” with Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou. We will be sharing our passion for photography, learning and networking together. It will be a great educational time, don’t miss out!!
I went to Chetwynd to visit Jesse, Amber and Alli-Jayne this weekend. It was a nice visit – even if I did spend around 8 hours fixing Jesse’s computer! They dragged me out “kicking and screaming” to go skeet shooting again. Later we grabbed something to eat and headed up to Dustin and Amanda’s place (where I lost my glasses in the dark – got them again the next morning). We also spent some time by the river which was quite low – people could drive right out on to the river bank! Here’s a few images and as usual the rest are at my flickr share here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwgagel. I finally had a chance with the night sky to try some star photography and even a little light painting.
Tracy and I took Danny and Spot for a 5K walk on the Blue Spruce trail today. We started by dropping off the truck at the north end by UNBC and drove over to the south end by Bluce Ceders camp ground. The walk was lovely with sun shinning on us or through the forest canopy. Danny and Spot loved the walk as much as we did. I did some macro photography along the way looking for the different coloured berries and mushrooms that may have popped up since it started raining here. Here are a few photos for you, the rest are at my flickr share http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwgagel.
Victor Bopp invited the Prince George Photographic Society out to his wonderful 10 acres in Salmon Valley, British Columbia for a Photo Club picnic. It was wonderfully quite, green and alive with birds. No wonder Vic’s bird photography is so ample with excellent images. We enjoyed each others company, a fire, shared some food and took a walk through the property.
Thank you Vic for the opportunity to visit, the hospitality and the beautiful place you let us share.
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and now is about time I post something! So… What better than my latest images? Last night we went up to Connought hill and did some night time photography of the Northern Festival of Lights. Here are a couple of shots and the rest as usual can be found at my flicker share here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwgagel
I went with the Prince George Photographic Society to Ferguson Lake near Prince George today. My photography seems to have gotten a little better as nearly all of the pictures I took were good to some degree. I only had to delete a few that the focus was out on. Throughout the trail I kept looking for lake opportunities and I kept getting beset upon by pesky mosquitoes! Here are a few images from today, the rest are on my flickr share at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwgagel.
Your in for a surprise then! This blog is about my steep learning curve in photography. Since I’m still beginning its not to late for me to blog about it. So I just figured I’d expose my learning curve as I take exposures while I’m learning.
I bought a DSLR camera just before Christmas 2009 and got it in the mail right around New Years. I can’t recall if I got it before or after Jan 1, 2010. Its been a steep learning curve ever since. Since getting the kit camera, a Nikon D90 by the way. I’ve added a new lens, a Tamron 90 mm Macro F/2.8, a LED ring light, a dual battery compartment, a monopod and a tripod to my gear.
I haven’t used the monopod much at all. I need to buy a ball head to make it really useful. The tripod was given to me from a member of the Prince George Photographic Society, I just had to buy the little part that attaches to the camera and holds it to the tripod. A quick release plate, but I don’t recall the exact name.
Learning To Expose 