Posts Tagged ‘Canon’

I was planning on photographing the moon over Boston Light Wednesday night. Below is the finished product with 3 other photos I shot last night. The moon hid behind haze and clouds for the first several minutes, disrupting my plans to get the moon directly behind the lighthouse. This (below) is the moon at during the first moments that the moon was visible, unfortunately. It just go to show that the best plans are still at the mercy of nature. Very frustrating. When it finally popped up, it was a bit too high for my liking. I will try again to get the pleasing photo that I have been trying for. Prior to the moon shot, I photographed the sun, which was a hot, hazy ball as it was setting over the Tobin Bridge. I also photographed two high altitude planes. I shot all these at Deer Island using a Canon 800mm lens, carried on my back as I rode my bike. HEAVY, for sure. Below the sun and moon photos, are photos of some of the preparations that I needed.
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Waxing Crescent moon over Boston

I get asked sometimes if a photo is “real”, that is, has it been photoshopped, or is the photo a multiple exposure. I do not use those techniques. Sometimes I get asked about the size of the moon, or sun in a certain photo. Why is it so large? Well, usually when I take a photo of the sun or moon, they are usually positioned low to the horizon anyway. When the moon or sun is low to the horizon, they appear bigger to the human eye. Here is a good explanation from the good people at Old Dominion University. The lens one uses also makes the object appear bigger. This photo was snapped using a Canon 100-400mm lens. 1/30th of a second at F5.6 at 5000 ASA (ISO), on December 26, 2014 at 9:49pm. The moon moves fast and is considerably brighter than the city. This city angle is  not as bright as other angles, so my unique problem was to get somewhere in the middle regarding exposure. Give enough to the city in exposure without blowing out the moon. A bonus, especially for Boston, was the nice green tail of the Aer Lingus shamrock, below left. Copies for purchase, of this, and of all my photos, can be found here.

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24 hours and 5 minutes later…

Yesterday afternoon, at 4:22pm, I photographed British Airways FL BA197, a 747-400, traveling at 500 kts and 38,000 ft above my driveway in Winthrop, Massachusetts, with a Tail # G-CIVW, flying from London to Houston. I used a 1600mm lens on a tripod at 1/640th of a second at F11 at 10,000 ISO (asa). Tonight, 24hrs and 5 minutes later, I photographed the same flight number, this time at 38,000′, and traveling a little slower, at 443 kts. This time I used the photography method called “panning.” I used a tripod, 1600mm lens, and an ISO(ASA) of 1250. My camera settings were  1/15th of a second at F11. The plane was also a 747-400 but the tail # was G-BYGD. It is amazing that tonight’s flight was only 5 minutes later than last night’s, given that this bird is 3300 miles from London. Below top is last night’s flight. Below bottom is tonight’s flight.
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Boston sunrise over Graves Lighthouse

Canon 1dx with an 800mm lens
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I used an 800mm lens for last night’s setting sun, seen from Bayswater street in East Boston. I then turned the camera around and photographed this jet lineup, with Cape Air leading the big boys.

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A Brief, Unscientific Review of the Canon Powershot G11

Just got my Canon Powershot G11. Very cool! It will go nicely with my Canon arsenal that includes both an 800mm and a 14mm lens, Canon EOS 1D Mark11N and Mark111 cameras and many other lens. While all the above serve a specific purpose, this new addition is just plain fun. While I am not going to write an in depth, technical review of this gem, I will give you my first impressions. To begin with it is far more comfortable in one’s hand than Canon’s prior powershots in the G-series, thanks to a newly designed grip. It has better image quality by way of  improved noise performance, a 10 megapixel CCD sensor, an image stabilized 28-140mm F2.8-4.5 equivalent zoom lens and a 2.8″ tilt/swivel LCD back. The tilt back is a cool feature that is great when one needs, for instance, to shoot from an unorthodox position like the “hail mary”, where one might have the camera held high above head level. The camera is small, think pregnant cigarette pack, great for those aspiring paparazzi among us. Here are some of my first photos with my new toy. The following were shot at 400ISO speed.

Me with auto white balance and settings of 400iso 1/80th of a second at F3.2 as seen in a mirror self portrait.

Cosmo the cat...400ISO 1/60th of a second at F2.8 with auto white balance

Good shot of the tilt/swivel back as seen in a mirror self portrait.

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