The Big Photography Thread

[KenElevenShadows]

Fish Rocks! This photo shows the movement of the stars over a long period of time, and is created by the movement of the earth. All of the illumination was done with a hand-held flashlight during the exposure, and is not a post-processing creation. No pixels were harmed in the creation of this photo.

 

Originally they were called Whale Heads, explains Margaret Brush, a member of the Searles Valley Historical Society (SVHS).They date back to 1928. They did not always have teeth, like they do today. At one point, people painted over the graffiti art to cover it. Two people re-painted the fish faces. They have been there since that time.

 

 

 

[Lindaru]

Fascinating, Ken!

 

This also looks "other worldly". I like that they maintain the faces on them. Almost looks pre-Columbian in its style.

 

I am also grateful that you do not harm pixels in the making of your art.

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

I try my best not to harm any pixels.

 

I did "harm" some pixels in his photo of a church on the Mojave, in which I cloned out two buildings, just to crank the weirdness factor up a little bit and make the church look even more unusual and isolated than it already is. I don"t usually do this, but you know, every once in a while....

 

[Brettymike]

I just bought this Fascinating and Amazing book on the study and photography of snowflakes/water crystals by Kenneth Libbrecht and Rachel Wing (actually I bought 3 of his books ) >> http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/9780760348475_1.jpg?itok=jFggR4UH

 

The subject is incredible , and no 2 snow flakes or crystals are ever the same. They go into a ton of scientific explanation of why they are different, but finally "eat humble pie" on pg 106 , saying they really don't know why . Water is the life force of nature (I found out years ago).

Brett

[xKnuckles]

The subject is incredible , and no 2 snow flakes or crystals are ever the same. Brett

Cool! (Joking aside, though,.............cool! )

Water is the life force of nature (I found out years ago).

Brett

I'll drink to that!

[xKnuckles]

My photo is featured on "The 101 Best Night Sky Photos of 2015" on the prestigious space.com! Just thought I'd share.

 

http://www.space.com/30919-milky-way-over-arches-national-park-photo.html?cmpid=514630_20160104_56841406&adbid=10153237678896466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465

 

YES!!!!!

How wonderful (& well deserved) Congratulations Ken!!

[xKnuckles]

When you take a photo, you squeeze the button gently rather than poking or jabbing it, and that helps a lot. If you have a DSLR, you hold your left hand underneath the lens, propping it and the camera up, and then you gently squeeze the button.

 

Holding and shooting a camera correctly makes such a huge difference....

 

And actually, someone else wrote about this, saving me from having to do so...

 

http://improvephotography.com/1365/how-to-properly-hold-a-dslr-camera/

Thanks Ken - that is a really helpful article....and it explains why I have been having trouble. 2016: the year of the elbows.....

 

[xKnuckles]

I try my best not to harm any pixels.

 

I did "harm" some pixels in his photo of a church on the Mojave, in which I cloned out two buildings, just to crank the weirdness factor up a little bit and make the church look even more unusual and isolated than it already is. I don"t usually do this, but you know, every once in a while....

 

Absolutely Wonderful picture Ken! Were you down low to take it?

[KenElevenShadows]

Yes. Uh, sort of. I set up the tripod in some stairs, a few steps down, and that was enough to make the wide angle distortion distort even more weirdly, so yeah, the camera was kinda low compared to the ground level of the church.

 

This is a really unusual church. There are no visible windows from the exterior at all.

 

Unless you are parachuting, as all the windows are on the roof.

[KenElevenShadows]

When you take a photo, you squeeze the button gently rather than poking or jabbing it, and that helps a lot. If you have a DSLR, you hold your left hand underneath the lens, propping it and the camera up, and then you gently squeeze the button.

 

Holding and shooting a camera correctly makes such a huge difference....

 

And actually, someone else wrote about this, saving me from having to do so...

 

http://improvephotography.com/1365/how-to-properly-hold-a-dslr-camera/

Thanks Ken - that is a really helpful article....and it explains why I have been having trouble. 2016: the year of the elbows.....

 

Cool. They write some helpful articles.

[xKnuckles]

This is a really unusual church. There are no visible windows from the exterior at all.

 

Unless you are parachuting, as all the windows are on the roof.

Clearly they want their congregation to be focussing on heaven.....

Unless, of course, it is a sect devoted to star trails photography........

[KenElevenShadows]

Hey, that's a good idea!!! That would be a church I could really get into!

[KenElevenShadows]

Speaking of photography, here's what I'm doing this summer!

 

[Brettymike]

Wow!! , it's going to be awesome Ken , from what I've seen it's a photographers paradise over there!.

Good on you for winning awards&recognition with your excellent photo's (not surprising)

Brett

[KenElevenShadows]

I think Iceland must have some of the most unusual landscapes on the planet. I'm really looking forward to it. Going with a group of photographers for the first part, and then going solo for a few days, driving around the southern part.

 

Thanks for your kind words.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

This is a long exposure star trails night photo taken in Borrego Springs, California. I illuminated the horse sculptures with a hand-held flashlight during the exposure.

[Mike Martin]

My photo is featured on "The 101 Best Night Sky Photos of 2015" on the prestigious space.com! Just thought I'd share.

 

http://www.space.com/30919-milky-way-over-arches-national-park-photo.html?cmpid=514630_20160104_56841406&adbid=10153237678896466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465

 

YES!!!!!

How wonderful (& well deserved) Congratulations Ken!!

 

+1 OUTSTANDING

[KenElevenShadows]

Whoa. It's back.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

Trona Pinnacles in this night photo, taken out in the California desert underneath an almost full moon.

[KenElevenShadows]

This photo shows the movement of the stars over a long period of time, created by the movement of the earth. The sculpture was created by Ricardo Breceda. All of the illumination was done with a hand-held flashlight during the exposure, and is not a post-processing creation. No pixels were harmed in the creation of this photo.

 

[KenElevenShadows]

 

Star trails photo, showing the movement of the stars over. The movement of the stars are created by the rotation of the earth. It's difficult to perceive, but is shown here in a single image with a total overall exposure of 84 minutes. The stars here are circling around the North Star, or Polaris, as this photo is facing north.

 

This was taken in the Mojave Desert in California.

[KenElevenShadows]

 

A rather unusual church in the Mojave Desert as photographed at night, and illuminated with my handy-dandy flashlight.

 

I did clone out a couple of buildings in the back, something I rarely do. But I really wanted to accentuate the church to its fullest.

[Lindaru]

Fabulous, Ken!

 

Thinking this board and thread were gone forever weeks ago, I removed Google Photos, so those links are gone, but I like Flickr and still have those up.

 

Just thought I would let you know!

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

I see. You know, I think you still have those photos stored unless you deleted them too. All of the Google+ photos are automatically stored in Google Drive, and if they are under a certain size, you can store an infinite amount of them.

 

Anyway, glad you saw this. I figured I'd post a photo here once in a while to try and keep it going here as well.

[Lindaru]

Thanks, Ken. The day after this place closed, I began working on editing a movie and needed the Google Drive space to mail completed scenes to the director/writer. No, they are gone for good, but one day I will probably put the best ones over on Flickr.

 

Thanks for keeping it going here! Glad to be back.

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

If you click on Google Drive, that opens up a different window. On the sidebar to the left should be something that says "Google Folders". I think it might be https://drive.google.com/drive/photos

 

You can store a bunch of photos here without it taking a hit on the rest of Google Drive, to the best of my knowledge, as long as the photos are within a certain dimension.

 

This article tells about it.

 

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/206990-google-photos-unlimited-storage-for-free-with-a-few-gotchas

[Lindaru]

Thanks, Ken . . . did not know about the separate place. I went in and found out I had used at least 10% of my storage thinking when I deleted old Blogspot blogs that the pictures went away, too, but they did not, so I deleted those.

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

 

A giant brontosaurus star trails night photo! This shows the movement of the stars over a long period of time in this long exposure photo.

 

I recently found several star trails photos from my June 2015 Arizona trip which I had completely forgotten about! More info in captions.

[Lindaru]

Awesome, Ken!

 

I was there in 2005. Arizona has a lot of fun places to visit.

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

It really does. Such a beautiful state. Thanks!!!