The Never Ending Photo Thread

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Did you end up buying a new camera?

I did. Well two actually. I bought a D500 last fall, then got a good Black Friday deal on a D750

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

There are some seriously talented photographers around here.

There really is. In my case though, Lightroom is my best friend! It can turn some just ok pictures in to some really good ones.

[CaptainYooh]

Did some driving around Drumheller yesterday. Lots of good light if you get up early enough.

[CaptainYooh]

[bc-chris]

some pics of comet neowise from last night over kelowna....
i took these from my balcony at a little after 11pm. i'm hoping to go out tonight for a little drive and get up high - i'd love to get a shot with the entire city/valley and the comet in the sky - i think that would be pretty sweet!



IMG_1420 by bc-chris, on Flickr


IMG_1418 by bc-chris, on Flickr


IMG_1413 by bc-chris, on Flickr

[missdpuck]

Hanging out in a cypress swamp called Hole in the Wall


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fuzz]

Aren't you worried about having your legs removed by gators, or a snake biting you or spiders leaping off a tree into your hair? I'm not sure I'd make a good swamper.

[JohnnyB]

Is it not super buggy? It looks like it would be a mosquito haven.

[missdpuck]

Some days it’s buggy and some not. We had a few mosquitoes in the truck on the way back but they were squashed quickly. We all spray up anyway.

We rarely see any gators here. Not that they’re not there, of course. The WMA adjacent to this (Dupuis) seems to have more. There are ATV/mudding trails here so perhaps they have decided to hang out in the bigger ponds, etc. after being disturbed too many times.

Cottonmouths swim on top of the water with their heads up and they’re the only water snake to really worry about. It’s a bad idea to stand next to trees as they can hide around them.
I know a woman who was bitten just above her snake boot on the back of her knee.

We really do push our luck at these places. The first time I walked through a swamp was during my first Hobe Sound beach to Lake Okeechobee hike. The people I was with thought it was completely normal but I was freaking out. Got used to it.

What I get worried about sometimes is all the possible dread diseases lurking in the water- flesh eating bacteria, whatever.

I have never seen anyone out here in snake gaiters and rarely even snake boots. The boots don’t make sense for above knee water, of course. When I go out by myself in above-knee water I wear Turtleskin snake chaps. So far no one has seen me in them. They’d probably think I was being overly cautious.

There are ultramarathons held in these places where the runners run through the night. That’s insane to me.

[Fuzz]

I think I'll stick with dealing with bears, thanks. At least they don't sneak up on you. I like a fair fight.

[Geraldsh]

When you are trying to hopscotch through an Alberta muskeg and see a bear following you- it ain’t fair.

Love those swamp pictures but I don’t want to go there.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by missdpuck

Some days it’s buggy and some not. We had a few mosquitoes in the truck on the way back but they were squashed quickly. We all spray up anyway.

We rarely see any gators here. Not that they’re not there, of course. The WMA adjacent to this (Dupuis) seems to have more. There are ATV/mudding trails here so perhaps they have decided to hang out in the bigger ponds, etc. after being disturbed too many times.

Cottonmouths swim on top of the water with their heads up and they’re the only water snake to really worry about. It’s a bad idea to stand next to trees as they can hide around them.
I know a woman who was bitten just above her snake boot on the back of her knee.

We really do push our luck at these places. The first time I walked through a swamp was during my first Hobe Sound beach to Lake Okeechobee hike. The people I was with thought it was completely normal but I was freaking out. Got used to it.

What I get worried about sometimes is all the possible dread diseases lurking in the water- flesh eating bacteria, whatever.

I have never seen anyone out here in snake gaiters and rarely even snake boots. The boots don’t make sense for above knee water, of course. When I go out by myself in above-knee water I wear Turtleskin snake chaps. So far no one has seen me in them. They’d probably think I was being overly cautious.

There are ultramarathons held in these places where the runners run through the night. That’s insane to me.

Never occurred to me there was such a thing as snake chaps, gaitors, or boots. Learn something new every day.

And yeah, I think I'll take my chances with bears too.

[OMG!WTF!]

Do you have a spot gps or something like that for these swamp walks? And if so, how would you know when to push the rescue button? It seems like anytime before during or after those pictures were taken would be a great time to bail out.

[missdpuck]

Those pictures were taken about 2 miles from the main road. Practically speaking there is no cell service.

The guy who leads our big hikes has some kind of GPS thing. There are rangers out there, but they don’t know you’re out there, they’d only see your car on the road. I think hunters sign in but otherwise you’re flying blind.

We don’t have bears in southeast Florida. There are some on the western side of Lake Okeechobee and Southwest Florida. There are some beautiful areas (swampy and not) near Orlando that have quite a few bears. Some residential areas have issues.

I often go to the Ocala National Forest on my own. I saw a mom and 2 cubs an hour in during my very first hike there. I had my 150-500mm lens and was all set for such an opportunity. All I could do was stand there and freeze. I heard what sounded like 3 grown men crashing through the palmettos and there they were. Yikes.

Our Florida black bears are smaller and supposedly more docile than other bears.

Many of the hiking trails there have a sign in sheet at the entrance. If you don’t sign back out past a certain time and a ranger or volunteer comes by they do look for you.

The chances of seeing a panther are practically zero. They’re are t many left. But that’s what I really don’t want to encounter. They’re huge and too tricky. At least a black bear kinda lets you know what’s going on.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

some pics of comet neowise from last night over kelowna....
i took these from my balcony at a little after 11pm. i'm hoping to go out tonight for a little drive and get up high - i'd love to get a shot with the entire city/valley and the comet in the sky - i think that would be pretty sweet!

IMG_1420 by bc-chris, on Flickr


IMG_1418 by bc-chris, on Flickr


IMG_1413 by bc-chris, on Flickr

I took a look at your camera settings. Similar to mine, but I still get really grainy looking shots. 2 second timer, 10 second exposure, F2.7 ISO 1600 (varied between 80 and up, looked slightly better at 200 and 400). I am guessing this camera maybe isn't meant for night photos. It's a fairly old Canon S5 IS. Maybe that's the issue.

[CaptainYooh]

High ISO on older sensors is going to produce noisy shots, unfortunately. I wouldn't use anything over 400. You can remove some noise later in post-processing (as long as it's not done at the expense of sharpness and level of good detail). Or you secure your camera on a solid sturdy tripod, protect it from wind, increase exposure time to 20-25 sec and shoot wide-open with a super-fast lens at 1.2 or 1.4. But as you get over 10 sec, Earth movement comes into play and stars start producing trails. Night shooting has a lot of variables. But a good shot is quite achievable even using older DSLRs.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I took a look at your camera settings. Similar to mine, but I still get really grainy looking shots. 2 second timer, 10 second exposure, F2.7 ISO 1600 (varied between 80 and up, looked slightly better at 200 and 400). I am guessing this camera maybe isn't meant for night photos. It's a fairly old Canon S5 IS. Maybe that's the issue.

to add to what CaptYooh said...
can you do a longer timer? i found at 2 seconds there is still significant 'shake' in the camera/tripod - that's why i went with a 10 second timer/remote trigger. i also found that anything over a 4-5 seconds exposure and i was noticing blur just from earth/star movement


also - my 'back up' (old) camera body is a canon 50d. it came out in 2008. the S5IS came out in 2007 (thank you google!! ha!). i've had really good success getting night shots with that camera so like CaptYooh said - you should be able to get some really good night shots with your camera, even with it being older.


hope you have success!!

[Tiger]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

to add to what CaptYooh said...
can you do a longer timer? i found at 2 seconds there is still significant 'shake' in the camera/tripod - that's why i went with a 10 second timer/remote trigger. i also found that anything over a 4-5 seconds exposure and i was noticing blur just from earth/star movement


also - my 'back up' (old) camera body is a canon 50d. it came out in 2008. the S5IS came out in 2007 (thank you google!! ha!). i've had really good success getting night shots with that camera so like CaptYooh said - you should be able to get some really good night shots with your camera, even with it being older.


hope you have success!!

If there is a auto focus on the lens, take it off. It will cause some shake when still on a tripod

[GGG]

Also try with image stabilization off. The movement of the stabilizer can decrease sharpness.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

But as you get over 10 sec, Earth movement comes into play and stars start producing trails.

Originally Posted by bc-chris

i also found that anything over a 4-5 seconds exposure and i was noticing blur just from earth/star movement

there's no set number of seconds that gets you star trails. the "500" rule, i.e. 500 / (Focal Length x Crop Factor) is what I learned when first doing astro. using a super wide 7mm on an Olympus m4/3, I've been able to keep it open for up to 20 seconds and stay sharp.

https://expertphotography.com/500-ru...y-photography/

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

...I've been able to keep it open for up to 20 seconds and stay sharp. ...

Just to clarify, you can have star tails caused by moving Earth and still have a perfectly sharp photo. See below - this is likely several hours or even longer (not my photo). I have shot a starry sky at 30-second exposure and the resulting star tails were not nearly as long as in this photo. When you shoot the sky, you focus on infinity, so lack of sharpness does not come from poor focusing. The blur and lack of sharpness come primarily from lens/camera movement due to wind. And yes, very good reminders above to turn off your AF and VR/IS.