Friday, June 11, 2021

Night sky, stars, storms, and bugs

This was one of those amazing sunsets that just goes on and on and on.
There is something beautiful about just watching amazing colors to start or end a day.


I know I once said that I didn't use tons of extra planning and preparing for taking photos. I was an off the cuff type of person.
However, just lately with the partial lunar eclipse a bit ago and then with the upcoming June 10th partial solar eclipse, I started to do some serious homework!


One bit of that homework was to learn how to use the camera I have to the best of its abilities. I have a decent lens for night work and I figured out how to get the stars in focus with both 'Focus Assist' and the Starry Sky feature on my M5.


I intended to go out to the pasture to do some practicing and I if nothing else 'shoot' some lightening bugs.
The photos above are a bit dark [duh, it is night!], but if you click on them I think you can see them larger and with a bit more detail.

I realized there was a storm cell off to the east and the lightening bugs were everywhere. So I decided to try something a bit wild. 
My first try was a mistake. I must have bumped the camera or tripod while it was shooting its LiveComp.


I wanted to show the mistake. Did I touch the camera? I don't recall, but the effect was certainly dizzing!


 So I decided to 'do' it over and I hoped that the storm would still do its magic.

The first one is a 15 minute star trail. It's okay, but dang soo much is going on!


So I tried another and then just shut it down after about 7 or 8 minutes and I liked it much better. Odd how two shots of nearly the same area just minutes from each other are differently colored. I think there was more lightening going on with this second shot.


So what was the whole point? 
I guess practice.


So that was the practice part. Scouting and planning for trying to photograph the partial solar eclipse was the next step.

So I leave you with a pretty photo I shot of a Swallow Tail I tried to chase in my flowers. It looks like the verbena is a huge attractor!





Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

5 comments:

  1. The Great Ethan Allen3:07 PM

    OMG the Night Pics are Awesome! So many times I have rushed out trying to capture the lunar eclipse only to have a bright white ball in the middle of a black sky. Even with my Nicon, it never worked. I did manage to capture some fireworks on the 4th, but that is it. It looks like it is raining sparks or fireflies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Val Ewing6:59 PM

      The moon's bright light tosses off the camera sensors which is an issue I've had for years until I actually looked up an explanation by an Olympus photo guy who showed how to do it.

      Thank you so much I was really tickled pink at how these turned out. I guess I had to sit down and learn some new techniques!

      Delete
  2. Far Side of Fifty8:18 AM

    Love you night pictures!! A beautiful butterfly!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8:50 AM

    Learning those new techniques is great for the mind and sure produced some incredible photo's.

    ReplyDelete
  4. aurora5:30 PM

    You sure have been out and about shooting cool stuff under dark skies!! That is some sunset, and I know ~ it if looks good in a photo it was even more impressive in person. Flutterby's are so pretty and fun to (try) to capture, you got some good shots.

    ReplyDelete

Please include at least your first name if you are commenting Anonymously. Thank you.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)