Lunar Illumination
Driving out to this location, I was hoping that there would still be a deep layer of snow covering the Kansas dirt. I didn’t realize it would still be this much. The drift on the north side of this barn was easily three feet deep. Fortunately it was cold enough that the snow’s surface had frozen over and we were able to walk on top of the snow with out much worry of sinking in. The one thing I distinctly remember from this night was the bone-chilling wind. The wind chill that morning had to have been below zero. Needless to say, I was glad I was able to work most of my camera settings with my gloves on!
Snow Barn
Ventured out into the frozen tundra of southwest Kansas last night in hopes of a grand show of streaking fireballs, blazing across the night sky….yeah, not so much. The moon must have bleached out most of the faint meteors and the two or three bright ones we saw were just out of frame. None the less, I had one of the better nights of shooting I’ve had in a while. It’s always tough to talk yourself into getting out in sub-freezing temperatures but last night was totally worth it. Shot a few star trails and had some great light with the setting moon. Did anybody else have check out the meteor shower, and if so, how was the show from your location?
‘Tis the Season’
Another year has flown by and once again it is time to untangle the huge knot of christmas lights and throw them up on the roof. Decorating for the holidays is always something I’ve enjoyed doing. I try to set out a big display for halloween as well as for ol’ Saint Nick. This year I added the candy cane appearance to the poles on the porch and my wife added a strand of multicolored lights to the front bush….what’s that, you don’t see the multi-color strand. Well, they were “accidentally” unplugged for the picture… 🙂 Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!
Foggy Convergence
Today’s shot takes us back to the iron railway bridge that crosses the Big Blue in Manhattan, KS. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this location was a complete accident and the fog was just complete luck. This was my “backup” location due to the fact that there wasn’t any water flowing over Pillsbury Crossing. I really wanted to get back to the bridge with the fall colors setting in, but I just didn’t have the time while up visiting in the little apple.
Once again, I am torn between the color version of this shot and the B&W. I still think I like the purple hues of the foggy morning enough that it puts the color version up top for me, but I still like the classic look of the B&W as well. Opinions?
Hidden in the Mist
Another shot from the first location the morning of the Tuttle Creek Lake shoot. More of a telephoto landscape shot. This one shot at 85mm. Love the mood the fog and reflection create in this shot.
Hidden Dock
Another shot from Tuttle Creek. I wish I could have had a whole day to shoot this location, but alas, college football got the best of me. I shot near the lake shore the whole time I was there, but the truly great colors were located about a quarter of a mile off the lake in the park area. But I definitely wanted to chance to get as many lake shots as I could so I stayed close to the water.
Fall at Tuttle Creek
Took a “few” panoramic shots while up at Tuttle this past weekend. This is one that I ended up cropping down a little because I felt the original was too long. I ended up cropping off about 1/4 of the original picture from the right of the scene. I went ahead and put up a little larger file today so you can see the details a little easier. To me, it always seems difficult view a panoramic shot online because the shot is so small on the screen, even though it is more detailed than a normal shop typically. The pixels for this shot ended up being 3942 x 14355, so I think I’ve got enough detail to print out an 8″ x 30″ or so…. 🙂
(click to see a larger view of this shot)
Autumn’s Reflection
This shot was taken pre-dawn by about 5 minutes here, so there is no direct sunlight on these trees. This and the fog slightly mutes the colors, but it was still light enough to pick up all the different hues in the trees. From my education as an optometrist, I’m always curious to see how colors turn out in pictures compared to what my brain saw them as at the time the picture was taken. Have you ever noticed that a blue flower looks more vibrant and colorful when the sun is low in the sky or in total shade? And how that same blue flower may look completely different in the middle of the day. This is because your color vision is associated with two different types of vision: Scotopic and Photopic. In short, the rods and cones in the back of your eye are responsible for capturing what you see. There are 120 million rods and around 6-7 millions cones. During well-lit vision (photopic), the cones are primarily used and they perceive three main wavelengths of blue, blue-green and yellow-green, which essentially provides normal color perception. However, during low-light vision (scotopic), the cones are essentially non-functional and the eye uses mainly rods for color perception. These rods are most sensitive to the blue-green wavelength and therefore, objects that reflect this specific wavelength appear brighter and more vibrant than during a well-lit time. And I guess my thought is, if I look at a picture that was taken during low-light conditions, do I still perceive the scene the same as I would while I was standing there. Just a cool thought about your eyes and color perception that I thought all you photogs would enjoy.
Fog at First Light
Had one of the best outings I’ve had in a while this past Saturday morning. I was fortunate enough to find that the fall foliage was hanging around, waiting for me to get back up to Manhattan before making it’s total transition. Last time I was up, I spent the morning at the River Pond on the south side of Tuttle Creek Dam and basically spent the morning scouting locations. There wasn’t that great of color change and the conditions were just so-so. Well, this past weekend was another story entirely. I woke up early, before twilight lifted, and made my way to the park to buy my vehicle permit. After that I made my way down to the water’s edge to find a spot overlooking the lake. There is a small centralized island of trees in the middle of the pond that I was hoping to shoot this time with some fall colors. What I didn’t expect was the amount of fog that was laying on the surface. Huge pockets of dense fog rolled across a lower lying sheet of fog that lied directly above the smooth water surface. I couldn’t shoot fast enough. Reflected Autumn colors all around and the sun was quickly rising. I debated about breaking out my ND filters but I didn’t want to get complacent in one location and miss out on some other opportunities. So I grabbed a few (25 or so) shots per location and then moved on. This shot was taken at the first spot I stopped at and it was about 10 minutes or so before sunrise.
M31
Also known as the Andromeda Galaxy. I took this shot on Monday night while out waiting for the northern lights to appear. When I initially arrived at my dark sky location, I didn’t see anything that resembled the northern lights, so I figured I’d take a shot at capturing Andromeda. I had a fairly good idea where it was located in the sky thanks to the 14mm shot from the monument rocks I posted a few days ago as well as my buddies good skymaps on his phone. After a few 30 sec exploration shots I was able to get it in the shot with my 85mm 1.8. I chose this lens because it was the fastest lens I had with the longest focal length. I was originally going to post this image on Tuesday but it was quickly given a back seat to my northern lights shots so I’ll go ahead and post it today.
Spectral Reflection
Spent a little time looking back through some old RAWs last night and came across quite a few that I never really got around to processing. This shot being one of them. This was from an early morning outing last college football season up near Manhattan, KS. This little cove is attached to Tuttle Creek Lake and I honestly think you could spend an entire weekend shooting all the ins and outs of this lake. It is definitely one of my favorite places to shoot around when up watching my wildcats.
Northern Lights….from KS
Okay, so I heard a good photog buddy of mine from NE KS was capturing some crazy good Aurora activity last night around 9:20. I also caught wind of a guy down in Arkansas that was even capturing them. I guess you could say the northern lights are on my bucket list of things to see and capture so of course I had to drive out and see if anything was happening around my neck of the woods. I didn’t make it in time to capture the maximum of the storm. The lights I was able to capture were so faint that it barely looked like a red hue to the sky, but even then, you had to use a little imagination. However, a long exposure with a fast lens was more than enough to capture the wave as it was weakening.
Smooth as Glass
Gotta love the effect the 10 stop ND has on water. Not only when shooting a body of water, but a waterfall as well. Before I purchased this filter, the only way I could achieve this effect was to get up in the wee hours of the morning. Now I have a little more freedom on when and where I shoot. I still need to figure out a good way to correct the color cast generated by the B+W 110 but I look forward to using this filter much more in the future.
K9 and the Sky
Back up at Monument Rocks again. This time we are looking north away from the core of the Milky Way. Because the Milky Way runs SW to NE at this time of year, it still passes through this shot, but it is the outer region of the galaxy and it is much more difficult to see. The cool thing about this shot (and I didn’t see it until I processed it) is not only is Jupiter in this scene (the brightest “star” in the sky), but if you look directly above the head of the dog you will see another galaxy, Andromeda. Andromeda is a spiral galaxy much like the Milky Way. If you search for a picture of Andromeda, you will be able to appreciate the core in this shot with a hint of “haze” extending out from the core which is the spiral aspect of the galaxy. Didn’t think I would be able to pick that up at 14mm.
Early Fall Reflection
As I eluded to yesterday, this was the only small accessory puddle that I found without any rolling whitecaps. The sun was still climbing into the sky so the pond was still in the shadows while the trees were getting painted by the sun. Really made the reflection pop. I also didn’t realize the very small hint of a lunar reflection. Almost cropped it out initially actually.
Majestic Rotation
This is my first attempt at a star trail with the milky way. On this one, I didn’t simply lighten all the frames to create a blurred streak of stars and colors. I ended up processing the final frame like I would any other milky way picture and then I just dropped the opacity on the star trails layers on top of the processed shot. Something a little different. Hope everyone has a great weekend filled with amazing light.
Crossing in Clouds
Another shot from the other side of the tracks….er, on the tracks I guess. I’ve known about this bridge for a while but it was back when I was in undergrad and I wasn’t into photography at that time. There is a bike trail that passes right by it that I used to ride all the time. I’m definitely going to have to continue to come back to this place during different times of the year. Really like the three stumps in the water that are barely visible on the right side of the scene as they are reflected in the water. They are the same ones seen in ‘Fade to Nothingness‘.
A Camel’s View
Today’s post takes us back up to the Monument Rocks. There are so many different formations and peaks, the composition choices are endless. These rocks are on the eastern range of the two sets of rocks. The “camel” rock as I call it, is the furthest south. I’m definitely going to have to you use that rock formation for a time-lapse next summer when the Milky Way will rise higher in the sky.
Arches Trail
Here is my first of two star trails I captured the night of the monument rocks shoot. I didn’t have a great deal of time that night with having to go to work the next morning so I wasn’t able to get the length I would have like with the trails. However, I am still pretty happy with how it turned out. The other trail I’ve got is one that involved the core of the Milky Way but I haven’t got around to processing that shot yet. Two conversions today, color and B/W.
Tracks to the Fog
‘Plan B’ was in full effect on Saturday morning. We were up in Manhattan for the awesome KSU/BU game and I always try and take advantage of the local scenery when I’m up in MHK. There is quite a few more options up there than around where I live. I initially made the trip out to a local waterfall spot called ‘Pillsbury Crossing’ to take some early fall pics of the waterfalls, but unfortunately with the dry conditions, they were barely flowing.
So, on the way out of town towards ‘Pillsbury’ I noticed an extremely dense fog over the Blue River and only over the Blue. No where else was there any fog to be found. I knew there was a steel railroad bridge that spanned the river and I have always wanted to try and see if I could grab some shots of it. This seemed to be my obvious back up plan for the morning. And it turned out to be an awesome spot. Only took about three or so comps on the tracks and spent the rest of the time shooting the bridge from down stream.
Hope everyone’s week is off to a good start!
Oh, and like always, I wasn’t sure if I liked the B&W conversion better or the original color (amazing blue hour that morning) so I will give you both.
Gateway
This is my favorite shot that I took up at the Monument Rocks that I have processed so far. I also took a stair trail sequence from this very spot that I haven’t processed yet but I’m excited to see. Hope everyone has a great weekend with some crazy good light.
Timeless
Thousands of year old chalk pyramids gazing upon an ageless sky. I seriously considered heading right back up to these formations the next night and try out some start trails. But soon enough, I will make my way back up there.
Lone Pillar
There are two main rows of Monument Rocks in this location, but on the southwest corner of the “park” is a lone standing structure reaching towards the heavens. This pillar,if I remember correctly, is one of the taller chalk structures at this location. As you’ll see, there are so many different ways that you can shoot these chalk pyramids. We were up there for nearly four hours and I still want to get back up there and shoot some different looks and longer star trials.
In this shot, you can tell that the galactic core is already beginning to fade into the horizon. Also, this shot is a little noisier than the last due to my settings. Bumped the ISO up slightly higher for this one.
Milky Way @ Monument Rocks
You guys better get used to some Milky Way shots. Took a lot of pics up at the Monument Rocks Park in NW KS on Sunday night. Had a clear sky with very little light pollution. By far the best Milky Way opportunity that I’ve had. I’m only a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t get up there sooner in the summer when the galactic core was higher in the sky. This shot was a 49 second exposure at f/2.8 and at 14mm. Used a light off to my left to illuminate the rocks.
Scott Ackerman Photography 