146. 1/2 Second or Longer - March 27-April 2, 2016
Kevin-
Well, this theme fascinated me and as a result I took three entirely different photographic approaches.
In one I set up the garage as a studio, turned off all of the lights, and waved a tiny LED light around for 6-8 seconds, tracing patterns with light, then faced a flash unit which fired during the last moment of exposure.
In another I visited Whitewater Preserve and photographed the Whitewater River with a 10x ND filter on my 24-120mm Nikkor. This resulted in a daylight exposure of 3 seconds @ F8, ISO 100, making the water ridiculously smooth.
But I am submitting my final attempt, made late at night at Joshua Tree National Park. My friend Tom Conrad and I departed up at 9:00 PM and set up the camera in the parking lot of the Cholla Garden at around 10:30 PM. My mission? Photograph star trails. I mounted the camera on a tripod, aimed it at Polaris, the North Star, focused my 14-24mm Nikkor to infinity (using the focus scale as it was far to dark to see anything) and opened the shutter in Bulb mode. 2879 seconds later (48 minutes) I closed the shutter. ISO 400 @ f/5.6 with the lens zoomed all the way to 14mm. So this is much longer than 1/2 second! One car passed by during the exposure, and I toyed with closing the shutter and starting all over again, but for all I knew another car might drive by moments later, so I simply continued. Now looking at it I like the impact of the headlights and taillights, they help define the foreground a little. We got back to Palm Springs at 1:15 AM and I wasn’t able to view the image until then, as the long exposure noise reduction feature on my Nikon takes as long as the exposure you make. I have never made that long of a drive for a single exposure!
I want to try this again some day, but will probably set up during daylight to get a Joshua Tree or two into the foreground, then wait for the sun to set, and maybe pop a tiny, tiny burst of flash to define the trees.
Well, this theme fascinated me and as a result I took three entirely different photographic approaches.
In one I set up the garage as a studio, turned off all of the lights, and waved a tiny LED light around for 6-8 seconds, tracing patterns with light, then faced a flash unit which fired during the last moment of exposure.
In another I visited Whitewater Preserve and photographed the Whitewater River with a 10x ND filter on my 24-120mm Nikkor. This resulted in a daylight exposure of 3 seconds @ F8, ISO 100, making the water ridiculously smooth.
But I am submitting my final attempt, made late at night at Joshua Tree National Park. My friend Tom Conrad and I departed up at 9:00 PM and set up the camera in the parking lot of the Cholla Garden at around 10:30 PM. My mission? Photograph star trails. I mounted the camera on a tripod, aimed it at Polaris, the North Star, focused my 14-24mm Nikkor to infinity (using the focus scale as it was far to dark to see anything) and opened the shutter in Bulb mode. 2879 seconds later (48 minutes) I closed the shutter. ISO 400 @ f/5.6 with the lens zoomed all the way to 14mm. So this is much longer than 1/2 second! One car passed by during the exposure, and I toyed with closing the shutter and starting all over again, but for all I knew another car might drive by moments later, so I simply continued. Now looking at it I like the impact of the headlights and taillights, they help define the foreground a little. We got back to Palm Springs at 1:15 AM and I wasn’t able to view the image until then, as the long exposure noise reduction feature on my Nikon takes as long as the exposure you make. I have never made that long of a drive for a single exposure!
I want to try this again some day, but will probably set up during daylight to get a Joshua Tree or two into the foreground, then wait for the sun to set, and maybe pop a tiny, tiny burst of flash to define the trees.
Paul-
Kevin selected a brilliant and, for me at least, a challenging theme for this week. (Remind me to tinker with his brakes when he’s sleeping. That, or spike his Ovaltine.)
It took me four different attempts over three days before I got something suitable to submit. The more astute among you will be quick to pick up that I did not say “four attempts before I got it right.” I’m still not content with anything I shot. But, I learned some things this past week—that, for once, had nothing to do with physical pain or being laid off. And that’s a very satisfying feeling. So, for that, Kevin, I thank you most sincerely.
The photograph I submitted for a previous WPOTM theme “Clockwork” (Year 2/no.71) came about through schmoozing with a very nice woman who worked at a local clock store nearby. She’s still there and was tickled when I brought her a print of that picture today (3/31). It was my way of saying “Thank you” and also saying “Would you mind terribly if I opened up my bulking tripod and walked around your shop filled with glass, delicate objets d'art, and very expensive grandfather clocks?”
Not surprisingly (because my Dad was a phenomenal schmoozer so I learned from the best), she was happy to oblige. She pointed out a number of clocks that might meet my needs, and even turned off some of the store lights to help me almost get the shot I wanted. That’s service. And I’ll probably bring back other printed photograph for her.
As I alluded to, I experimented with a combination of flash levels, use of rear-curtain flash, varied apertures, metering modes, ambient illumination, and exposure times ranging from. 2.5 seconds through 15 seconds. Again, I learned from things that clearly did not work, things that nominally did, and how I might improve on the latter. Huzzah.
I also learned two things: 1) Balancing your camera atop of your steering wheel while driving at dusk is both reckless and garners you expressions of disbelief from other drivers. I can’t recommend it. 2) Pretend to know what you are doing when other people are milling around watching.
Anyway…the austerity of the image pleased me, but just doesn’t convey what I was shooting (sorry) for. In part, it was due to the limited range of movement of the pendulum—and a transit time through an arc of about .75 seconds. For that reason, I am throwing in another picture (at the very least for kicks and grins) I tried for about 1:00AM this morning (3/31).
At the time: 18-55mm lens set at 10mm; shutter priority; flash set in rear-curtain mode; pattern-weighted metering; focus zone about the quarters up the image; ADL set to normal; ISO 100; 1.3 sec. at f/6.3; -3 EV; -.7 flash compensation; camera is tripod mounted.
Statement of Culpability: Due to Kevin’s generosity, I have a few ND filters which I forgot to play with during any of my experiments.
Kevin selected a brilliant and, for me at least, a challenging theme for this week. (Remind me to tinker with his brakes when he’s sleeping. That, or spike his Ovaltine.)
It took me four different attempts over three days before I got something suitable to submit. The more astute among you will be quick to pick up that I did not say “four attempts before I got it right.” I’m still not content with anything I shot. But, I learned some things this past week—that, for once, had nothing to do with physical pain or being laid off. And that’s a very satisfying feeling. So, for that, Kevin, I thank you most sincerely.
The photograph I submitted for a previous WPOTM theme “Clockwork” (Year 2/no.71) came about through schmoozing with a very nice woman who worked at a local clock store nearby. She’s still there and was tickled when I brought her a print of that picture today (3/31). It was my way of saying “Thank you” and also saying “Would you mind terribly if I opened up my bulking tripod and walked around your shop filled with glass, delicate objets d'art, and very expensive grandfather clocks?”
Not surprisingly (because my Dad was a phenomenal schmoozer so I learned from the best), she was happy to oblige. She pointed out a number of clocks that might meet my needs, and even turned off some of the store lights to help me almost get the shot I wanted. That’s service. And I’ll probably bring back other printed photograph for her.
As I alluded to, I experimented with a combination of flash levels, use of rear-curtain flash, varied apertures, metering modes, ambient illumination, and exposure times ranging from. 2.5 seconds through 15 seconds. Again, I learned from things that clearly did not work, things that nominally did, and how I might improve on the latter. Huzzah.
I also learned two things: 1) Balancing your camera atop of your steering wheel while driving at dusk is both reckless and garners you expressions of disbelief from other drivers. I can’t recommend it. 2) Pretend to know what you are doing when other people are milling around watching.
Anyway…the austerity of the image pleased me, but just doesn’t convey what I was shooting (sorry) for. In part, it was due to the limited range of movement of the pendulum—and a transit time through an arc of about .75 seconds. For that reason, I am throwing in another picture (at the very least for kicks and grins) I tried for about 1:00AM this morning (3/31).
At the time: 18-55mm lens set at 10mm; shutter priority; flash set in rear-curtain mode; pattern-weighted metering; focus zone about the quarters up the image; ADL set to normal; ISO 100; 1.3 sec. at f/6.3; -3 EV; -.7 flash compensation; camera is tripod mounted.
Statement of Culpability: Due to Kevin’s generosity, I have a few ND filters which I forgot to play with during any of my experiments.
Jerry-
Its getting close to my bedtime so I thought I better see whats going on with WPOTM and it looks like mine is the last submission - well now I can sleep in tomorrow! My first thought was to take some long exposures using my pinhole "lens" bodycap, but the results were incredibly boring. Fuzzy and dull results. Then I remembered taking photos with a zoom lens that was zoomed during a slow exposure - so that's what I did. The old Clarus MS-35 was sitting pretty on a little tripod and facing it was my D750 with 24-70 mm lens. Light came from the LED panel recently purchased from B & H. Starting out at 24 mm, I opened the shutter for an 8 second time, slowly zooming to about 70 mm. F22 at ISO 50. I let the lens stay at 24 mm for 2 seconds before zooming to 70.
Its getting close to my bedtime so I thought I better see whats going on with WPOTM and it looks like mine is the last submission - well now I can sleep in tomorrow! My first thought was to take some long exposures using my pinhole "lens" bodycap, but the results were incredibly boring. Fuzzy and dull results. Then I remembered taking photos with a zoom lens that was zoomed during a slow exposure - so that's what I did. The old Clarus MS-35 was sitting pretty on a little tripod and facing it was my D750 with 24-70 mm lens. Light came from the LED panel recently purchased from B & H. Starting out at 24 mm, I opened the shutter for an 8 second time, slowly zooming to about 70 mm. F22 at ISO 50. I let the lens stay at 24 mm for 2 seconds before zooming to 70.
Don-
The best laid plans....just seem to go to hell. The weather was uncooperative a bit.
Fortunately being the pliable photographer, I came up with up with alternative.
I had the fortune to be given a plant of tulipsby some really swell people.
The tulip became my first attempt
at a slow shutter using my Nikon Micro 105mm lens thingie. I backlit the tulip
with a flashlight during a 13 sec exposure.
The best laid plans....just seem to go to hell. The weather was uncooperative a bit.
Fortunately being the pliable photographer, I came up with up with alternative.
I had the fortune to be given a plant of tulipsby some really swell people.
The tulip became my first attempt
at a slow shutter using my Nikon Micro 105mm lens thingie. I backlit the tulip
with a flashlight during a 13 sec exposure.
Byron-
This was a fun theme for me. I'm not used to working with low light. The day I shot this was a very overcast day. Very little light was entering my basement through the small windows. I decided to shoot my turntable playing an album. After several test exposures using a ND filter, I decided to shoot without it. To add some color to this photo I turned on the red accent light in my basement. Usually you have to look at it to see it. In the dark conditions that day the red was quite noticeable I used my phone to control the shutter using the trigger trap app. Another reason this theme was fun is because I got to use gadgets. I have an iphone mount for my bikes handlebar. I used it to attach my phone to the tripod. Both the camera and phone were plugged into an outlet so the battery wouldn't die.
The shutter speed was 15 minutes, f16, ISO 100, white balance daylight.
This was a fun theme for me. I'm not used to working with low light. The day I shot this was a very overcast day. Very little light was entering my basement through the small windows. I decided to shoot my turntable playing an album. After several test exposures using a ND filter, I decided to shoot without it. To add some color to this photo I turned on the red accent light in my basement. Usually you have to look at it to see it. In the dark conditions that day the red was quite noticeable I used my phone to control the shutter using the trigger trap app. Another reason this theme was fun is because I got to use gadgets. I have an iphone mount for my bikes handlebar. I used it to attach my phone to the tripod. Both the camera and phone were plugged into an outlet so the battery wouldn't die.
The shutter speed was 15 minutes, f16, ISO 100, white balance daylight.
Deron-
This was going to be my backup if I couldn't capture anything else... and I just didn't have the time to capture anything else! SOOOO, this is what you get. A late evening thunder storm. I wish I had someone to stand in the puddle with naked feet, but that didn't happen... and my dog wanted no part of it! Shutter speed is about one second. I had hoped for the rain drops to look like they were reigning down like bombs from Missile Command... but that didn't happen either.
This was going to be my backup if I couldn't capture anything else... and I just didn't have the time to capture anything else! SOOOO, this is what you get. A late evening thunder storm. I wish I had someone to stand in the puddle with naked feet, but that didn't happen... and my dog wanted no part of it! Shutter speed is about one second. I had hoped for the rain drops to look like they were reigning down like bombs from Missile Command... but that didn't happen either.