Perseid Meteor 2014

Perseid meteor 4:19 am August 11, 2014

Yes, it is possible to get Perseid meteors in spite of the full moon.  This one was at 4:19 am, right next to the North Star, Polaris.  For a little over 1.5 hour I had my camera shooting 15 second exposures at f/5.6, ISO 2000.  At roughly four shots per minute, I ended up with nearly 400 images.  This was by far the brightest Perseid fireball I caught.  I don't know if our clouds will break enough for me to shoot again tonight, but if they do, I may focus on a ground-based subject and see whether I can happen to pick up some meteors as well. 

To see some of my Perseid meteor shower time-lapse videos from past years, visit my YouTube account to see them in my Night Time-lapse playlist:

   #2014

Shooting the Big Sur Coast

Pre-Dawn Light on McWay Falls, originally uploaded by Jeff Sullivan.

If you're ever shooting on the Big Sur Coast, it helps to chat with the officers of the California Highway Patrol there. Aside fromresponding to accidents caused by the ocasional tourist who causes a truck to jackknife due to leaving her bicycle laying down on the road (true story), a lot of their time is spent interfacing with the public. They know every turnout and access point (and have participated in rescues people making their way to inaccessible spots), so they can help you spend your time there efficiently and safely

This waterfall, McWay Falls, is apparently one of two waterfalls dropping into the ocean in the continental United States, the other being Alamere Falls on Point Reyes.

This waterfall is accessed via the parking lot for Julia Pfeiffer State Park, but the park doesn't open until 8am, so I took this from a turnout up on Hwy 1, a few dozen yards higher than the standard path. The park also asks for a $10 fee for entry and parking!

There are some seriously quirkly rules and restrictions for accessing much of the coast, so I'll try to add notes as I add photos. For example, I blew off Pfeiffer Beach, a Forest Service access (due to all of those trees on the beach?), but unfortunately they've allowed a concessionaire to profit from Federal Recreation Passholders who bought the annual pass under the understanding that it would gain them entry to USDA Forest Service sites. They also close at sunset, not 30-40 minutes later when the sunset color is over, so it's virtually worthless to photographers who prefer to shoot in the best light(at least the ones who choose not to risk getting a ticket). I'll be sending the confused USDA bureaucrats some correspondence on that one... and I'll share the names with concerned photographers as well so your voices can be heard and your interests represented. Bureaucrats don't like risk, so I suspect they may show some flexibility if their users start raising a stink about counterproductive policies. Point Lobos State Park just up the road allows photographers to stay until 30 minutes after sunset, stilla bit tight but a far more reasonable compromise.

"Photo of the Day" on MyParkPhotos.com!

On my recent Fall 2007 Western States trip I didn't have a lot of time to edit or upload photos, but one shot that I did upload to MyParkPhotos.com did win "Photo of the Day"!

Since MyParkPhotos features high quality photos from national and state parks, it is one of my favorite resources that enables me to preview places that I'm going to visit. I can see what kinds of views I'll have, and it can help me decide which ones to visit during the critical hours of best morning and evening light. In addition to photos that can be viewed by property, there are often site tips posted by other photographers, and their sharing of their experiences can make me more productive when I arrive.

Here are some other shots of mine that have been honored on MyParkPhotos in recent months:

"Photo of the Year"!

A few moments ago I was building my "Places Visited" links in the right margin of this blog, and as I entered the very last link to my Zion National Park, I saw my "Delicate Veil" shot with an extra award under it: "POTY" - Photo Of The Year!

It's one of only two shots that I have on my own wall at the moment printed at 20" x 30" size, and as good as the online thumbnail or file may look, with the way the light is distributed and with its blend of geometric elegance with natural lines and texture, it seems to look better the bigger I print it. More than the photo, though, the site is unreachable by most people, so although it's in a busy area of Zion National Park, when you get into the small 8 foot round alcove that this 12' waterfall has carved out, you're in an entirely isolated environment, a coccoon of rock and thunderous sound, a private cathedral dedicated to you and your thoughts.

The award doesn't involve a large cash or equipment prize, a book and free site membership (for life!), but the site is populated by many creative, talented, and dedicated photographers, and it's an honor to have my work recognized alongside theirs.

Coincidentally though I was wondering if I would be able to renew my paid membership next month. It may be the best site on the Internet to find quality examples of the shots that I can aspire to find as I visit new places, but without any income, I was thinking of getting on the road again and vacating my apartment to save money. For the second time in a couple of months photography site membership dues have been taken care of, right when I needed to renew. Fate, destiny, divine providence, or just dumb luck, it's one whopper of a coincidence. Perhaps the forces calling me to get on the road are all part of that big picture. I can afford to indulge in hope for at least another month and see where that path leads.

"Active Sole" Blog Nominated for Award!

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Lessons Learned: Photographing the Lunar Eclipse

For the August 28 lunar eclipse I decided to go shoot by Mono Lake, where there would be no light pollution and at an elevation of about 7000 feet there would be minimal atmospheric interference. I spent the previous night in Yosemite Valley and travelled to the South Tufa access point at Mono Lake to spend the night of the eclipse. To plan for the eclipse, here are some links that I used.

Lunar Eclipse Photo Examples and Shooting Advice:
http://www.mreclipse.com/LEphoto/LEphoto.html

Aug 28 Lunar Eclipse Phases & Times:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2007Aug28/TLE2007Aug28.html

I really liked the example of a wide angle lunar eclipse sequence in a particular setting, so I set up one camera to leave with one wide perspective, and I used another to capture zoomed shots of the moon at various phases of the eclipse.

I did a fair amount of exposure bracketing, but I had some focusing problems during the darker phases of the eclipse. In my case I had added a 2X teleconverter to my lense which forced manual focus, so I assumed that I simply wasn't focusing accurately enough. Examining the shots on my computer the next day, the stars revealed that the real culprit turned out to be the rotation of the earth. My 70-200mm lens doubled via a 2X teleconverter to 400mm is equivalent to 640mm on a 35mm camera, so in the process of magnifiying the detail of the moon I was magnifying the motion of the moon as well. With the moon 10,000 times less bright during the eclipse, about a 15 stop shift darker, and the 2X teleconverter also cutting my lens's widest aperture down 2 stops from f/4 to f/8.0, I could focus on the moon sharply at any given instant, but the exposure times were simply too long as both the moon moved and my position moved (the surface of the earth rotates at over 1000 miles/hour). As I examine the shots in more detail it'll be interesting to see at what exposure time the motion becomes too great at that level of zoom.

Update: Using the "500 Rule" to determine an approximate maximum exposure before the stars and moon start to "drag", divide 500 by the effective focal length of 640 mm and you get 500/640 = 0.78.  So any exposure time under 0.8 seconds or so will produce a photo without that apparent motion blur.

A different issue I've found related to moon shots and image stabilization is that when I bracketed I wanted to use Photomatix HDR software to combine multiple exposures to really bring out the moon's detail. Unfortunately the IS system seemed to re-acquire a new lock on the moon in between shots, which moves each shot slightly and destroys the alignment of the shots relative to each other. Normally HDR software can attempt to restore alignment across multiple shots, but the information in each shot is so different that there doesn't seem to be enough information for the software to use to perform alignment automatically. I guess I'll have to use Photoshop skills to superimpose, align, and blend multiple shots.

My biggest challenge however turned out to be one that I had anticipated: battery power. What I hadn't anticipated was shooting in yosmite all day then catching a nice sunset in the Mammoth Lakes area before heading over to Mono Lake. I started the night with neither of my cameras fully charged, and having to do a little battery shuffling and charging during the night cost me a couple of key shots from the sequence I wanted to complete. Lesson learned.

The still partially eclipsed moon set over the crest of the Sierras near 13,000 foot Mt. Dana, I enjoyed a nice sunrise at Mono Lake, then I spent another day shooting Yosemite under some nice, dramatic clouds. I started getting a little tired after 36 straight hours of photography, but what a great trip!

With clouds over Yosemite and water levels low and calm on the Merced River, I had a particularly productive time there. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

The turnout opposite Bridalveil Falls is a great place to stop right before sunset as the softening golden light of the setting sun brings out the color in the valley's granite. Bridalveil Falls and the Merced River in Yosemite Valley are at extremely low levels following a winter season of low snowfall.

I wasn't sure if the reflection was going to be strong enough, but as it turned out I really like how the rocky bottom of the river shows through in the darker areas of the reflection. Some people think that all you have to do in landscape photography si show and trigger the shutter, but in this case a circular polarizer at partial strength, a graduated neutral density filter hand-held in front, auto exposure bracketing 3 shots plus HDR processing and Photoshop color adjustment were all needed to create this result

I go to Yosemite a lot, but this was my first visit with a really wide lense. Being that deep in a valley, the extra coverage sure helps, especially if you're trying to double it the Valley's landmarks with a reflection!

I call this photo "PapaBearazzi." Fortunately this bear had plenty of ripe apples to keep him full, but at night the bears roam the campgrounds, like giant dogs, looking for dropped table scraps. I've rarely seen bears wandering around during the day in Yosemite, but on this day I saw 2, and the night before my father stepped out of his tent and almost tripped over one!

Second Place: Travel & Place Category of the BetterPhoto Photo contest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8/29/2007 Photographer Jeff Sullivan of Granite Bay, CA, has won Second Place for July in the prestigious photography contest sponsored by BetterPhoto.com, the site's founder, Jim Miotke, announced Wednesday.

More than 31100 entries were submitted to the online photography contest, which attracted contestants from around the world and featured 10 separate categories.

Sullivan's stunning image, "Morning Lights", garnered top honors after being submitted in the Travel & Place category.

All of the winning images can be viewed at BetterPhoto.com's contest page: http://www.betterphoto.com/contest/winners/0707.asp

The contest is conducted each month. Categories include Nature and Landscapes, Animals, People, Elements of Design, Digital Darkroom, Travel and Place, Flowers, Details and Macro, Catch-All, and Monthly Theme. Judging is performed by a panel of professional photographers.

Besides its free, popular photo contest, BetterPhoto.com also offers a variety of services: digital camera reviews, online photo courses, free newsletters, a discussion forum, Web sites for photographers, question-and-answer section, how-to articles, photo galleries, and more.

Photographers can enter this month's contest and learn more about photography at: www.BetterPhoto.com

Daughtry and All American Rejects at the California State Fair

I decided to attend the California State Fair in Sacramento this year to see Daughtry and the All American Rejects perform.

This shot was taken handheld from a distance of about 100 yards at 105mm zoom (163mm equivalent for a 35mm camera). To get anything useable I cranked the ISO up to 800, which let me expose at 1/13th second at f/4.0. That was just fast enough for the image stabilization to steady the shot, but I had to try quite a few times before Daughtry stood still for that long!

I didn't have a seat, so I had to shoot from the side through trees and stage supports. I was behind a tall, unstable fence that a lot of people were leaning against (not a good resting spot for the lens), so I had to shoot standing on my toes! It turned out to be great physical therapy for the ankle I sprained a couple of days earlier.

The following week I returned and the All American Rejects showed amazing energy and stamina in the 100+ degree heat! Like the Daughtry shot this was handheld, but this one was from about 200 yards away.

After the concerts I roamed the Fair and took a few photos of the rides.