The Staunton River Star Party

Well, our star party was clouded out but still fun to see all the guys. I also was able to make a couple new friends and play with my new Canon T5i DSLR. The rain on Thursday night made for a muddy mess on Friday and by Saturday I was ready for home and my clean, dry couch. Even though talks were scheduled I was really tired and knew a big mud clean-up was in my future.

T5i fun

I was able to try out the T5i on some shots of clouds and general terrestrial targets. I wanted to make a time-lapse of setting up my camp site and equipment using Magic Lantern’s Intervalometer function. Well, I thought I had set it up properly but when I checked at the end of pitching camp I found that it only took the first image that would have started the set. There are several things I should have done the first of which was practice before hand using the feature and seeing the results. Always practice before relying on a feature to work. I also should have spent more time verifying operation before leaving to setup. The excitement of setting up camp along with the idea I was doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time conspired to rush what should have been a more careful approach. Ok, so lesson learned and I hope you learn from what I just said. There is nothing more depressing that knowing you missed shots. I did get some shots after I pitched camp so all was not lost. In hindsight I should have spent more time working and learning the camera. I think I could stand to pay more attention to time management as I do feel I waste a lot of time that could be spent learning. 

Camping

Probably the most important part of the trip was kicking off my adventures in camping. I had to see if I could still pitch a tent and light a Colman stove, yes on both counts! I was seriously impressed with the tent after the heavy rain from Thursday night. Thursday morning I cooked Eggs & Bacon and they were awesome. I remember my Mom cooking breakfasts just like that one on our long trip around the States. That trip lives in my memory as some of the most fun I ever had. Even at 8 years old I knew it was special and to never forget and I haven’t. So one thing that did have a major impact on my camping was excess body weight & age. Weight certain was more an issue than age. I’m not so old I can’t crawl around on the ground but when you add the body weight in it became a serious issue. I’ve wanted to get back into camping and even do some hiking-backpacking, being over weight was proving to be an obstacle…but an obstacle I can overcome. My first priority when I got home was to get a couple apps on the iPhone and start tracking my eating and exercise…but thats for another post.

Overall I was really impressed with Staunton River State Park. I look forward to camping trips there as well as the imaging opportunities it offers.

Watermarks: good or bad

We live in a world where you must protect what is yours. So what lengths do we go to protect what is ours? Photographers have long fought the good fight to protect their images. With the simple right-click of a mouse an image can be copied and used without the owners permission. The ease photography can be poached requires all photographers to decide "Do I alter the image to prevent copying at the cost of image quality?"

The most common form is known as a water mark. Its a simple thing with potentially big consequences both good and bad. Its nearly impossible to place a watermark on an image that will protect the image and it be unobtrusive. If the mark is placed in a corner it can often simply be cropped out. 

Below is an example of using your name with reduced opacity for a water mark. 

You can see that the water mark must be placed in a strategic location that can't be cropped out. This location usually has at least some impact on the beauty of the image. The mark can be faded almost to invisibility but must remain slightly visible to do it's job.

If you are steadfastly against marking the image another method presents itself. You can post a reduced size(resolution) of the image. When it is copied the result is grainy and small. You have the benefit of a clean image without text or logo's faded into the background but maintain security in that what the copier gets is not useful.

Below is an example of a reduced resolution image.

You can see by comparing the two images this one is slightly blurry and grainy compared to the full resolution image above. The example image was reduced from 1500 pixels wide to 400 pixels which represents a little over 1/3 the original size. When copied it will only produce a thumbnail size image that can't be used for anything much more that exactly that, a thumbnail. Even with the reduction the viewer can get a nice look at the image.

Each imager has to decide for himself if protecting the image is worth the cost of altering it. I personally have never been overly concerned with protection. It's always been a hobby I wanted to share freely with both friends and public. It's usually be more important to me how good the image looked to the viewer than if it could be copied.

I stand by the philosophy that if you don't want it copied, don't put it on the internet...just my 2 cents worth.

Tri Star 2015

 

I got a call from a club buddy asking if I were interested in tagging along to the yearly Tri Star even put on by GTCC. I looked on the internet and checked out the schedule of events (http://www.gtcc.edu/observatory/tristar/schedule.aspx). It looked pretty interesting so I agreed to go. Typical for me I got interested in messing with my new Rebel T5i and stayed up way too late. 6:15am came way too fast but excitement at having something to do overruled my sleep deprived brain. 

We arrived early enough to do some browsing through the Astrophotography exhibits and do some "meet & greet" with members of other Astronomy clubs and science groups. There was a very cool Meteorite setup that I enjoyed looking at. I drooled a bit when I spotted a Takahashi OTA for sale. The drool quickly dried up when I saw the $3495 price tag. 

Morning Presentations

We stayed for the 2 morning presentations, the first of which was given by Dr Tom Brown. I have to say it was an awesome talk on recent work done with the Hubble ST. Tired that I was I didn't come closed to falling asleep!

The second presentation...well, I admit my eyelids dropped a couple times. Biology is not my favorite subject so even though the speaker was engaging I had a hard time staying focused.

 Lunch

For the lunch break several RAC and CHAOS members piled in a mini-van and drove to a local Mexican restaurant. I rate the place 4 of 5 for atmosphere. 3/5 for service and food. It was decent but I'd probably look around if I go next year.

Afternoon Presentations

We only stayed for the first presentation which was on the Crab Nebula. It was a really well put together presentation but for me the information was a bit esoteric. I'm sure anyone with a PhD in Astrophysics would have appreciated it more than I did but the photo's were cool. To my credit I followed most of what he said I just don't know if I buy into the "Missing Mass" all the study are based on. I really find it hard to believe we are missing 4~5 solar masses of matter from the Supernova remnant. That's a lotta gas to misplace if you ask me.

Overall a really good time and worth the loss of sleep. It going on my radar for next year and I'll plan to get a little more rest this time.

My Canon EOS Rebel T5i DSLR

I've been looking at camera's for quite a while. Tuesday of this week I decided that I simply had to have a way to do more with my photography. I've been extremely impressed with the Canon Rebel series for quite some time. I currently own a Rebel XT and a Rebel XTi both of which are modified for Astrophotography. They have been solid performers from day one so I was set on staying with Canon. The Rebel T5 i was the camera of choice when polling most of my friends along will having strong reviews on You Tube. 

After a good bit of research I settled on the kit with the EF-S 18-135 IS STM lens. I've got a couple good lenses but the reviews were so good on that lens in terms of "bang for yer buck" I felt it was the way to go. It is a bit heavier than the other lenses I've been used to working with so I'll be getting used to that. 

I've just begun playing the camera so I only have a few general observations:

Learning Curve

Absolutely without a doubt there will be a learning curve here. I did decided to install Magic Lantern which will further complicate things but just the fact it offered a "no $$$" answer for the Intervalometer made it a slam dunk to install. To major areas of focus for me will be time-lapse and Nightscape photography both of which will be made much simpler with the use of Magic Lantern. Once I'm off and running I'll probably to a post on it exclusively.

Video

Something I've not messed with in quite some time is video. The T5i will certainly open the door for lots of new experiences there. Coupled with the Magic Lantern app making video even in challenging areas will be a snap.

Size and Weight

It is certainly the heaviest camera I've used to date, but that's not saying much. It really has been easy to use and I love the balance it has with the 18-135 lens. I fully expect this will be the "go to" lens I use for most of my work learning the camera. 

I plan to post regularly as I learn functions with the camera. I'll post examples as I go so you can see my progress. I'll be posting later tonight on visiting the Tristar gathering in GTCC on Saturday with some friends from the Raleigh Astronomy Club

A different kind of complicated

4:30pm

I asked several people to give me suggestions and also search on Goggle for what would be the best way for me to start. Squarespaces.com was the top pick for most people. After reading several reviews comparing Squarespaces.com to Wordpress.com I decided on Squarespaces. After several hours of work I'm beginning to realize that what people consider to be complex is, well...relative shall we say??

I'm gonna call Squarespaces "A different kind of complicated". Instead of coding headaches and plug-in failures I've run into a serious challenge to my personality: too many choices. It takes a certain amount of work to get enough content on a page to say "I really hate that" or "Hey, I love that!!!". So I've spent somewhere around 6 hours to get to the point I have found a template I think will work. Note that I'm saying "think" because the jury is still out...but I'm up to the challenge.

Starting Up...

2:15am

So I've decided to start my website/blog page. I'm very excited to finally have a place to put my photo's and share my passion for photography. It's a work in progress so stay tuned for more to come. I'm sure like most things I'll get cranked up and work hard on it for a while...fingers crossed I don't let it fizzle and die!!!