Tag: Low Light Photography

Whatever Weds. Lunar Eclipse and Flowers

Posted in Astro Photography, Cultivated Flowers, Lunar Eclipse, Nature Photography, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , 75 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Last week-end we went down to SoCal to visit Big Baby Boy and the Dark Haired Beauty for several days. It was lovely walking on the beach and in the canyon with them and just hanging out. We talked about their upcoming wedding a bunch, and how that’s going. It’s coming up so fast! Less than 8 weeks to go now! I’ve got my dress and hat and He-Man’s good to go suit wise too, So far everything is falling into place so, it should be beautiful.

I also passed a milestone last Thursday…I turned 65 years young. There are many days my body feels 65 but, not my spirit! I’m still a kid inside. 😀

There were lots of cultivated flowers in late stages of their bloom around Big Baby Boy’s, some I’ve missed because they just don’t grow where we live. Here are a few;

Hibiscus

Bird of Paradise

? I don’t know what this is called

Sunday we had heavy clouds predicted and strong winds and sure enough they rolled in all day just in time for the Lunar Eclipse. I hoped there would a pocket or two of clear sky in the Moon’s path so I could see and photograph just one frame. There was a nice pocket along the mountain tops so I quickly made a few images of the Moon as it crested the mountains. It was already in Totality by then as well. It was very different from last year’s May Lunar Eclipse when there was a clear sky.

Totality Lunar Eclipse May 15, 2022

It quickly rose into the clouds and I didn’t see it again that night.

We’re going to see Baby Girl and the boys later this week to celebrate her birthday, my birthday, and Mother’s Day. I’m looking forward to that.

The weather has definitely warmed up here. It was 81 degrees yesterday and just as warm today, so I put out the patio cushions and spent a lovely hour out back chatting with the neighbor. How’s the weather where you are? Ready for summer?

I hope you’re having a good week!

Nikon D810| Fuji X-T-3| PS CC 23.2.2

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Waning Moon Conjunction

Posted in Astro Conjunctions, Astro Photography, Moonrise, PlanetsTagged , , , , , , , , , 42 Comments

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I’ve been hoping for a clear sky before sunrise in order to see the Waning Moon and four early-dawn planets, but we’ve been having cloudy overcast mornings of late. On the 26th I got somewhat lucky even though it was cloudy. Here are 3 of the 4 early-dawn planets along with the Waning Crescent Moon over the Pine Nut Mountains. Following that line of planets up above Mars was Saturn, but it was already so light out I couldn’t see it.

Waning Crescent Moon under Mars, Venus with Jupiter close to Venus.

If you’re up an hour before sunrise your time this Saturday morning looking low in the southeast Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest objects in the sky after the Sun and Moon, are going to be spectacularly close at just a 1/2 degree apart!

Can you believe we’re just days away from May!? This month just flew by! I hope your week is going well and you have a lovely day.

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.2.2

more to come…

Whatever Weds. The Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

Posted in Conjunctions, Fuji X-T3, Night Sky Imaging, Nikon, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , 47 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I was pretty excited to see the Great Conjunction as I’m sure most of you were too, so I hoped for clear skies to be able to photograph it. On the 16th of December the crescent moon, Jupiter, and Saturn were fairly close to each other and it was a clear sky so I photographed it from my patio. It was cloudy all day but cleared pretty well but the wispy contrails and remaining clouds made the sky a bit more interesting. Can you spy the ski runs at Heavenly Ski Resort? X marks the spot.

Crescent Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn over the Carson Spur.

It was clear on Monday the 21st so I went out with my long lens to get a closer look at the conjunction. I had to crop it in for it to be a good look even at 400mm, but I was able to see 3 of Jupiter’s Moons too. The 3 tiny dots are the Moons.

Jupiter, 3 Moons, and Saturn. The Great Conjunction of 2020

Saturn’s rings are not defined which is disappointing, but I saw the Great Conjunction! Did you look for it?

I wish all those celebrating Christmas a very Merry Christmas, and those who aren’t I wish you a very Joyous Week!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 and Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.1

more to come…

Whatever Weds.- O’Dark Thirty

Posted in Astro Photography, Low Light Photography, Nikon, Photography, Whatever Wednesday, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged , , , , , , , 37 Comments

Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Did you hear about the new Comet that was discovered in March of this year? It’s called C/2020 F3 “Neowise”.  Some…okay a lot of astronomers thought it would be burned up when it made its close encounter to the Sun, but a few thought it would make it past that, and we who were paying attention held our breath and waited and watched…

It made it past the sun! Two Comets I was watching this year didn’t make it past their close encounter with the Sun so this is huge!

On July 10th I rose at an UnGodly hour 4:00 A.M. brushed my teeth put on some pants and shoes and grabbed my gear then headed out not too far from home on foot to see if I could see this new Comet C/2020 F3 “Neowise”.  I did not see it.  I knew where to look so made 13 images around the area hoping my camera could see what I could not.  IT DID NOT.  I was too late. The Sun’s light was already hiding the Comet. I needed to get up earlier.

July 11th. I rose at 3:15am put some pants on, brushed my teeth, put on my shoes, and grabbed my gear bag and headed out the door on foot to my spot.  My compass for the morning was Venus with Alderan under it and Capella off to the north of Venus. They would guide me to Comet C/2020 F3 ” Neowise”.  I also took my binoculars just in case I couldn’t spot with my eyes.  I located Capella with my binocs and began scanning the area below it where I knew the comet would be.  THERE IT WAS! I did a little happy dance I won’t lie!  There’s just something about the stars, planets, and comets that excites me.

I set up my camera and dialed in my exposer and hoped I was in focus. Focusing in the dark isn’t always easy.

Here’s my best frame from the morning.

Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 7.11.2020

As I was shooting there was a pack of Coyotes singing their song just up the trail and behind me just far enough away to keep me looking to my right. Greeting the morning or healding their catch of the night I don’t know, but they stirred up all the coyotes in the valley and kept me watching my right.

When I walked up the path toward the fence I needed to hop to get home I kept looking over my shoulder making sure the Coyotes weren’t following me!  They’re sneaky those coyotes. In my head, I had this song. It’s my favorite Coyote song evah. And they go…

Who yip , who yip, who…

 

Nikon D810| Nikkor 180mm F/2.8| CS PP 21.2

 

more to come…

 

 

 

 

Whatever Weds. The Milky Way over Spooner Lake

Posted in Milky Way, Night Photography, Nikon, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , 62 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac

A good friend  Gordon from (undiscoveredimagesmoung us)was visiting nearby and reached out to me to meet up and have a redo shoot at Spooner Lake where we tried to shoot sunset and hoped to shoot the Milky Way last year, but we were rained out. We did have a beautiful double rainbow there though.

We met last night and thankfully the wind died down and there were no clouds so we had a clear sky to view the Milky Way and the stars.

Milky Way over Spooner Lake

 

The light across the lake is a maintenance yard where the state keeps heavy equipment like snowplows and stuff.
My friend brought a neat little flashlight that emitted a wonderful soft warm light that he used to light paint the rocks on the lakeshore; it compliments the lights across the lake en mon avis. Doesn’t it look like a lovely and inviting village over there? It’s just a maintenance yard. Lighting can be magical amiright?

Even without wind, it got cold up here in the mountains. it’s above 7000 feet here-I couldn’t feel my toes! When I drove out to go home my car told me it was 37 degrees outside and to be mindful of ice on the road! I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It was wonderful seeing old friends and stargazing. Ah, Summer Nights with friends. Does it get better than this?

Nikon D810| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| PS CC 21.1.2| Topas DeNoise Ai and Sharpen Ai

…more to come
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Whatever Weds. Looking up

Posted in Fuji X-T3, Night Sky Imaging, Nikon, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , , 39 Comments

Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The end of March and through yesterday has been for me, a time of looking up to the night sky.  Starting at the end of March I was looking up to see the Moon, Venus and the elusive star cluster called the Pleiades in conjunction.  This was a practice shot because the night I was hoping to see Venus and the Pleiades closer together on April 3rd we had rain and snow so the sky was too cloudy to see them.  That was a once-in-an-eight year event! I’m just glad I  practiced so I saw this conjunction.

Moon Venus Pleiades ConjunctionNikon D810| Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G|f/2.8|2.8s|ISO 400| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

Last night was the Supermoon. It appears just a bit larger than normal because the Moon comes the closest to Earth in its elliptic orbit called perigee.

We’ve been having light rain and snow and it was overcast all day but, we got lucky last night and the sky to the east was clear! I went down to the golf course with my next-door neighbor to photograph the Supermoon rise over the Pinenut Mountains.

Supermoon April 7 2020

Nikon D810| 24-120mm at 70mm|f/10|1/6s|ISO 250| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

Then I switched cameras and made an image of just the Moon.  Our moon looked more golden than pink, but the Belt of Venus wasn’t very deep in color around us either so…golden.

Supermoon April 7 2020

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS at 386mm| f/11| 1/100s| ISO 250| SunDisk Digital Film|PS CC 21.0.3

More things that are looking up is that we’ve had 8 people who had the Covid-19 virus move to the recovered side of life! There are still 17 active cases in our Quad county region. There have been no deaths yet. Knocking on wood that continues and that all move to the recovered column soon!

I hope you’re doing well and keeping busy.

I’ll leave you this thought today.

““Bad stuff does happen sometimes, always remember that but remember that you have to move on somehow. You just pick your head up and stare at something beautiful like the sky or the ocean and you move the hell on.”
― James Patterson, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas

more to come…

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever Weds. An Evening in Soho…

Posted in iphonegraphy, Photography, Travel, Whatever WednesdayTagged , , , , , , , , 69 Comments

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Hello, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It feels like an age since I last posted.  If you follow me on Instagram you know that I was in London for most of the Christmas Holiday. That’s why I wasn’t posting or commenting on your posts.

On New Year’s Day, we have a family tradition of eating Hot Dogs,  sausage, and sauerkraut for luck. I skip the Hot Dogs, as I don’t care for them, but sausage is good! I made it a mission to find a place to eat our traditional meal on New Years Day.  I employed Yelp to aid me in finding a good place.

I thought a German place would do the job and found Herman Ze German in the Soho district. I created a Hot- link for you so you can see their menu.  See what I did there? 😜It was wonderful!  We all had their Chili Brats which is a beef brat,  we had fries and a really good German beer the man taking our order recommended. It was Augustiner Munchen Helles bier. It was so good. Unfortunately, we can’t get this particular beer here in the States.  Did I take any photos of my food?  NO! I forget to do that all the time, but I did take a picture of the beer label so I could look for it here at home but, I haven’t uploaded it, so on the image score for that meal- Total Fail!

After having our “good luck” meal we headed toward our hotel on foot. We did a lot of walking while in London.

While walking through the Soho we stumbled across Chinatown where I did snap this image.  Oh, look there’s a crane for Dan, and Lanterns for Joey!  😀

Chinatown, Soho London UK

We’re home, and I’ve still got to get the Christmas decorations down and put away and catch up on all the laundry.  I hope your New Year is off to a great start!

iPhone 7 Plus| PS CC 21.0.1

more to come…