Photography – Page 11 – A Darker View

Diving Gallery

Redbarred Hawkfish — Redbarred hawkfish (Cirrhitops fasciatus) perched in a reef crevice

Facing the Deep — Pete attempting to photograph garden eels at the base of the reef at Eel Cove

Lantern Toby — A lantern toby (Canthigaster epilampra) hiding in a reef crevice

Diver Down — Diver Mark Devenot cruising the reef at Hoover’s Towers north of Honokohau

Andrew Shooting — The author, Andrew Cooper, doing the usual… Photographing the reef life. Photo by Pete Tucker

Pete on the Reef — Pete looking for subjects to photograph on a Kona reef

Longnose Butterflyfish — A longnose butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus) in nighttime coloration during a night dive at Puakō

Snow Goddess Nudibranch — Snow goddess nudibranch (Ardeadoris poliahu) in a cave at 25ft depth

Racoon Butterflyfish — Racoon butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula) at 25ft depth, Hoover’s Tower

Commerson's Frogfish — Commerson’s Frogfish (Antennarius commerson) at 25′ depth

Red Swimming Crab — Red swimming crab (Gonioinfradens paucidentata) in a reef ledge at Pentagon

Red Reef Lobster — A red reef lobster (Enoplometopus occidentalis) in a cave at The Hive

Exploring the Reef — Kirk and Deb explore the reef at Mahukona

Bluestripe Squirrelfish — Bluestripe squirrelfish (Sargocentron tiere) in a small cave at Pentagon

A Whitemouth Moray (Gymnothorax meleagris) in the reef at Mahukona

A pair of White-margin Nudibranch (Glossodoris rufomarginata), 25ft depth at O’oma

Gold Lace Nudibranch — Gold lace nudibranch (Halgerda terramtuentis) in a cave at 25ft depth at The Pentagon

A Fellows Nudibranch (Hiatodoris fellowsi) in a cave at 35ft depth

Cleaning Station — A green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) takes advantage of a cleaning station on the Puakō reef

Fourspot Butterflyfish (Chaetodon quadrimaculatus) under a coral head at O’oma

Flowery Flounder (Bothus mancus) on the reef at O’oma

A Snowflake Moray (Echidna nebulosa) in the reef at Three Tables, Oahu

Dascylus Reef — A Hawaiian Dascyllus (Dascyllus albisella) hovers over the reef

Neewer NWA01 Powered Panoramic Tripod Head

Giving motion to timelapse photography adds a dynamic element that is visually interesting. There are a few ways of doing this. Adding some motion in production with keyframes and panning, or using some sort of device to physically move the camera slowly during the time lapse sequence.

Pano Head and GoPro — The Neewer panoramic head and the GoPro Hero 4

Up to now I have generally added this sort of motion in post-processing or production, moving and zooming through a frame that was shot with static camera. If the frame is oversized, often the case with time-lapse shot on a multi megapixel camera, there is plenty of resolution for motion inside the otherwise static frame.

Note: This article was edited after I figured out where the manual was wrong, see below.

Still, the effect of actually moving the camera during the sequence is often more versatile and can produce a more dramatic effect. Not wanting to lug a large rail slider system around I have opted for a slightly easier solution, a powered panoramic head. This allows a panning a time-lapse sequence to give that extra degree of motion in the resulting video while keeping the gear portable.

Continue reading “Neewer NWA01 Powered Panoramic Tripod Head”

The Canon EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM lens

There are not a lot of native lenses found in the Canon EF-M series, but this is changing with a number of new offerings. There is a new 18-150mm general purpose zoom that looks pretty good. The new lenses include a rather specialized lens, the EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM, a purpose built macro lens.

This lens is different. The lens is designed from the start to be a macro lens, not a general purpose lens that also does a little macro as a secondary feature. There are a number of features that are quite unusual found on this macro lens.

The first, and most obvious feature is the built-in ring light, a rather useful feature in very close macro photography where light is everything. A set of bright white LEDs is arranged on the front of the lens behind a diffuser. The LED’s are powered by the camera, no separate battery is necessary.

Continue reading “The Canon EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM lens”

Observatory Still Life Gallery

Often you just need to take note of the small scenes that make up daily life. Over the years I have made an effort to photograph these scenes, there is so much richness in our everyday existence that too many do not notice…

Tools — A set of tools ready for use on the Keck 1 nasmyth deck

Loose Screws — Bins full of stainless steel machine screws in the supply room

Jacked — A Keck primary mirror segment jacked up out of the array

SAA Cabinet — A sample of the control wiring and circuitry in the Servo Amplifier Assembly

Segment — Looking at the back of a segment with the radial support removed

Motor Current — Analog ammeters indicate the motor current

Azimuth Wrap — The many cables needed to operate the Keck 2 telescope thread through the azimuth wrap.

Wire — Racks of wire available for use in the Keck summit electronics lab

Hose — A pile of 3/8″ air hose in the supply room

Cooling Lines — The facility cooling lines that supply cold water to the K2AO electronics vault.

Part of the Keck 2 logic board, this PCB assembly controls the various control and safety logic for the Keck 2 telescope.

Fabrication — Tools and drawing lay on the table in the welding shop

Hydraulic Controls — The control panel for the telescope hydraulic bearing system pumps

Please Remember to Return Tools — The Nasmyth Deck tool set in the Keck 2 dome

Whiffle Tree — A section of the whiffle tree that supports each Keck primary segment

Drills — A pile of power drills await use on a shelf in the supply room

Scattered Tools — A scatter of tools at CSO

Relays — A bank of relays form the safety interlock system for the telescope.

AO Cabling — Multiple cables enter the Keck 2 Adaptive Optics bench.

Elevation Wrap — An assortment of cable pass through the Keck 2 telescope elevation cable wrap

New Control — Patching in an experimental control system to move the Keck 1 telescope, one step closer to a major upgrade.

Hard Headed — Hard hats ready for use just outside the Keck 1 dome

Transform — The transformers for the Keck 2 telescope servo drives

Radio — A handheld radio used at Keck for daily communication.

Breaker — A row of circuit breakers in the Keck 2 computer room

TCSU Servers — The new telescope control system servers take up much of a rack

The Usual Mess — The usual mess littering a workbench in the Keck summit electronics lab in the midst of a project

Wiring — A dense bit of temporary wiring in the Keck 2 SAA cabinet

Spooled — Spools of wire await use in the electronics shop

Loose Bolts — Bins of bolts in the Keck supply room

Video Amplifier — A distribution video amplifier built around a THS7324

Interferometer Cabling — A tiny portion of the extensive cabling that connects the various elements of the Keck Interferometer

Local Control — I/O cards and field wiring in the Keck 2 local controls PLC

Telescope Controls — Fuses, relays, and contactors in the Keck 2 telescope control system

Do Not Operate — An electrician’s tool bag, complete with lockout tag

Test Leads — Electronics test leads and patch cables hanging from the rack in the Keck summit electronics lab

Milky Way Gallery

The Inkblot — The cluster NGC6520 and the dark nebula B86 lost in the immensity of Baade’s Window

Lasers Across the Milky Way — The Keck 2 and Subaru lasers cross the Milky Way above Mauna Kea

Milky Way Dawn over Mauna Loa — The rising summer Milky Way, Mars and dawn over Mauna Loa

Dual Lasers on the Galactic Center — Both Keck lasers aimed at the center of the Milky Way galaxy

Milky Way over Pu'u Huluhulu — Venus and the summer Milky Way rising over Pu’u Huluhulu

Horizon panorama from Ka'ohe, on the side of Mauna Kea — Horizon panorama from Ka’ohe, on the side of Mauna Kea

Three Strikes — Three AO lasers aimed at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, the lasers are from both Keck 1 and Keck 2 as well as the Subaru telescope

The central Milky Way from Mauna Kea, 37 x 30sec, Canon 6D w/24-105mm- f/4.5 @ ISO6400

Milky Way over Mauna Loa — A bright summer Milky Way shines over Mauna Loa

VLBA & Milky Way — The summer Milky Way soars over the VLBA antenna atop Mauna Kea

Baade's Window — Baade’s Window, single 8 minute exposure at ISO 800, Canon 20Da DSLR camera mounted on a Televue-76 APO telescope with a 0.8x focal reducer/field flattener

M9 and B64 — The globular cluster M9 next to the dark nebulae B64

The Snake Nebula — B72, the Snake Nebula, single 8 minute exposure at ISO 800, Canon 20Da DSLR camera mounted on a Televue-76 APO telescope with a 0.8x focal reducer/field flattener

Summit and Winter Milky Way — The winter Milky Way over the summit of Mauna Kea, Canon 6D and Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens, 30s at ISO 6400

MIlky Way over A'a — The rising Milky Way silhouetting and old a’a lava flow on Mauna Kea, Canon 60D @ ISO12800, 17mm f/4, eight 10 second frames aligned and averaged

Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae — The Lagoon, M8 and the Trifid, M20 nebulae in Sagittarius

Skylight

Lion Dance

Shooting the Canon EOS M5

The Canon EOS M5 is the latest offering by Canon in the mirrorless form factor. Offering the same sensor and much of the performance of the mid-range DSLR’s, the mirrorless bodies are far smaller. This allows the photographer the chance to use these cameras in places a full sized DSLR would be too cumbersome.

The Canon EOS M5 and the 22mm f/2 EF-M lens — The Canon EOS-M5

I am a veteran of the original M and the M3, carrying both cameras extensively. From Nicaragua to Alaska, and around the islands, I have used these little cameras to capture some excellent images.

I had issues with the original, returning my first copy. I eventually gave the camera another chance and have learned to like the capability the cameras provide a mobile photographer. I carry the camera on the job atop the incomparable Mauna Kea, a place where you always want a camera handy!

A trio of EOS-M's, including the original M, the M3 and the M5 (left to right) — A trio of EOS-M’s

The critics have not been kind to the previous M series cameras. While they are decent cameras, offering excellent photo quality, they have lagged behind the competition, particularly the Sony mirrorless, on the features.

The M5 marks a change in this, several reviews from the key sites note that M5 performance and features places it among the best on the market in terms of features and cost. The comment echoed by several critics… This is the camera Canon should have built to start with.

Yeah… I wanted one.

Continue reading “Shooting the Canon EOS M5”

From the Archive – San Xavier del Bac

Another set of images from the slide archive as the digitization project continues.

This time we visit the old Spanish mission of San Xavier del Bac south of Tucson seen here during a visit in 1996.

I visited the mission several times over the years, it can be very photogenic. A little patience will allow the photographer to catch the beams of sunlight from the upper story windows illuminating some of the saints and other icons found in this richly decorated church.

The photos are obviously from scanned slides. In the original frames the film grain is readily obvious, I use a little luminance noise reduction in processing to remove some of that. The super color saturation was not added in digital processing, it is very much part of the original slide.