Tag: Night Photography

Monochrome Madness 2 31/52 Clouds

Posted in Black and White Photography, Clouds, Lassen National Park, Monochrome Madness2, Night PhotographyTagged , , , , , , 8 Comments

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It’s Theme Week at Monochrome Madness2 and our theme is Clouds. I went back to my archives for an image I made this summer while in Lassen National Park. I went up for the week-end with friends hoping to photograph the night sky’s stars, but clouds rolled in, and with them Lightning. It was Sheet Lightning I think. No bolts were visible at any rate, but the clouds lit up and were amazing.

Instead of photographing stars we chased the storm, and lightning for a couple of hours. Then the sky opened up and poured down rain. We packed up and dashed back to the car, and down the mountain to our hotel wet, but exhilarated.

MM2 31 of 52 Clouds

To see the other submissions to this week’s Monochrome Madness2  go here.

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film

More to come…

MM2 25/52: Chasing Ligthning

Posted in Black and White Photography, Lassen National Park, Lightning, Monochrome Madness2, US National ParksTagged , , , , , , 15 Comments

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Several weeks back several photographer friends and I spent the week-end in Lassen National Park hoping to making images of the Night Sky. Unfortunately, as the shadows of the day grew longer the clouds got thicker. They made the sunset lovely, but foiled are hopes of night imaging.

We photographed the Sunset at Lake Helen image here  then we walked back to the car and on the way we saw Lightning! That’s a BIG DEAL for me and my friends because, we rarely see lightning where we live in the San Francisco Bay Area. It wasn’t bolt to the ground, or is it ground to sky lightning bolts? It was the type Eric our mid-westerner in the group called “cloud to cloud” lightning.

It was behind the mountains and lighting up the clouds so, instead of packing up we set up to photograph the lightning.

After 10 minutes or so shooting it we decided to get higher to see if we could see Bolts and try to capture that.

It was quite dark by now, and we still hadn’t seen any Bolts, just the sky lighting up. This image is one image I made of the sky being lit up by a strike of Lightning.

Chasing Lightning in Lassen National Park

While we were shooting the rain started, so we packed up and moved to the other side of the lake hoping to get in a few more images since it was only sprinkling.

Lightning Summit Lake Lassen National Park

I had just got set up to start shooting when the sky opened up and the rain started pouring down. I managed to get this one image of the sky lighting up from lightning then we packed up and raced to the car all of us and our gear wet, but thrilled to have seen lightning.

Heads-up!

Next week my MM2 image will be posted on Leanne’s page, but not on my own until the following week. I’ll be offline next week.

I’ll be back online Sept. 6th, and catching up with all I missed while offline.

If you have time please click over to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness2 post here to see all the images that were shared this week.

More to come…

Monochrome Madness 2: 16/52 Road to the Stars

Posted in After Dark, Astro Imaging, Astrophotograhpy, Night Photography, Nikon DF, Polaris, Star TrailsTagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I made this image last week-end. Unfortunately, I’ve was pretty busy last week and didn’t get to out much, or have to much time to work on images.

I added +1 EV in post development to open up the road a bit more.   I thought I’d play and try converting this image to Black &  White for this week’s Monochrome Madness 2. I like it, but I do like the color version more. I’ll share it in a future post.

Monochrome Madness 2 16 of 52 Road to the Stars

I hope you drop by Leanne Cole’s site to view the other work that was shared this week. Click here!

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 17-35mm @ 22mm| 18 frames ea. 30s| ISO 400| Tripod| Manual Priority| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro 2

More to come…

Pondering the Stars

Posted in Astro Imaging, Astrophotograhpy, Milky Way, Night Photography, Shooting Stars, Silhouettes, StarsTagged , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It was so good to get out under the stars last (Saturday) night. Especially after being sick and cooped up for weeks.

My health, weather, and schedule all were in perfect alignment to meet a friend up in the mountains to view, and spend a few hours making images of the night sky.  Even though I went up into the nearby mountains I was unable to escape all Light Pollution. The orange, and bright white on the right of the image edge are city lights to the south.  I’d have to go much further inland to escape it entirely.

To my delight when I uploaded and looked through the images I discovered I captured a shooting star in this frame! Do you see it? It’s small up above the Milky Way in the centerish toward the left.

Pondering the Stars

This outing was just what I needed!

Single Frame| Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm @ 17mm| f3.5| 20s| ISO 3200| Tripod| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Developed in Photoshop CS6

More to come…

Update: My friend (Andy) finished an image of the Whirlpool Galaxy which he imaged last night while I was shooting stars, and the Milky Way. He posted it on his photo-sharing site. I hope you’re able to see it here.  He’s set up with a nice telescope, and GOTO system which gets him closer looks deeper into the Universe.

Golden Gate Bridge after Dark from Battery Spenser

Posted in After Dark, Black and White Photography, Golden Gate Bridge, Landmarks, Marin Headlands, Monochrome, Night Photography, San FranciscoTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 10 Comments

Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Golden Gate Bridge after Dark from Battery SpenserThis is the view from Battery Spenser in the Marin Headlands looking south at the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco’s skyline sparkling like jewels in the night.

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 28-1-5mm Micro lens| Tripod| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film

5-Day Black and White Photography Challenge

Posted in 5-Day Black & White Challenge, Historic Buildings, Night Photography, San FranciscoTagged , , Leave a comment

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

A friend of mine Alex Baranda  challenged me to a 5-Day Black and White Photography challenge. I’ll be posting a black and white image each day for 5 days, and I’m supposed to challenge another photographer to do the same. Right now I’m thinking I’ll skip that part and just work on the challenge. For me it’s outside my box. I rarely process images in Black & White. I love color, and I haven’t found a recipe that says, ” That’s Deborah Zajac’s work.” yet.

I’m excited about this challenge. Hopefully I’ll grow as a photographer and learn something new too.

Thanks Alex for the push!

Here’s my image for Day 1- This is from my archives. The Legion of Honor in San Francisco, CA. Taken in July 2011.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8| Tripod | Developed in CS 6

History of the Palace of the Legion of Honor is here.

More to come…

The Legion of Honor San Francisco CA

P52 29/52 Moon over San Jose, CA City Hall

Posted in Astrophotograhpy, California, Photography, TravelTagged , , , , , , 4 Comments

Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Moon over City Hall San Jose CaliforniaI met my friend Alex downtown last night to shoot the Moon over City Hall’s Rotunda. City Hall is comprised of the Tower where the Mayor has an office on the top floor, the plaza, and the Rotunda which has council rooms, meeting rooms and a large space for events. The space and rooms in the Rotunda can be rented out for events such as weddings.

The Rotunda reminds me of an Observatory very much like those at Lick Observatory that sit high atop Mt. Hamilton which overlooks San Jose from the East side in the Diablo Range. Lick Observatory was the first permanently occupied mountain top astronomical observatory. Constructed between 1886-1887. I don’t know if that reference is what the architect (Richard Meier) had in mind when he designed the Rotunda though. I can’t find that information.

This new City Hall complex opened to the public in Oct. 2005, replacing the former City Hall complex civic center located on North First Street, which was used from 1958 until 2005. From 1889 to 1958 the city hall was located in what is now Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San José.~Wiki-pedia

I shot the foreground then switched lenses then waited for the moon to rise above the mountains and buildings then I exposed for the Moon to make the second frame, finally in post development I blended the two frames together.

Nikon D700| Tripod
Frame 1- AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm @ 24mm
Frame 2- AF-D Nikkor 80-200mm @ 200mm