Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thursday Arch Series

Weird stuff with a wide angle lens. All the office buildings bow down in obeisance to the Arch. Shot at 17 mm, the shortest lens I got, on a Canon 5D. The 5D's light sensor is the same size as a frame of 35 mm film so there is no "magnification factor," as with most DSLRs. So, WYSIWYG (what you see i what you get) in the viewfinder. The short focal length creates optical distortion at the sides.

I bet there are going to be a lot of CDPB posts today about the lunar eclipse. I went out in front of my house to shoot it with a 400 mm lens, the longest I got. I know zip about astronomical photography and it was difficult. Not enough light for the autofocus to work. Manual focus was hard because the subject was dim and I wear trifocals. I tried to shoot at 100 and 200 ISO for maximum clarity but, damn!, those celestial bodies move in a 20 or 30 second exposure. I wish I'd tried a higher ISO but after a while I couldn't feel my fingers and I weenied out from the cold. I know, Mitch, this is nothing. If it's 20 F. here it's probably zero or below up there. Minnesotans are made of harder stuff.

TOMORROW: Crown Candy

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5 comments:

  1. MitchFebruary 21, 2008 at 7:25 AM

    All hail the man in snow pants and big mittens.

    Thanks for the mention today, you were right, I was up on the roof with my 2000mm lens shooting the moon and it was below zero up here in mpls.

    Love the arch today, it deserves a good bow...
    I have been experimenting with my wide angle and have discovered that if I keep the center target on the horizon, the bowing effect doesn't happen. You might have to crop the picture, but it works.

    Thanks,
    - Mitch in Minneapolis

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  2. U "R" Us AKA Captain CroweFebruary 21, 2008 at 9:50 AM

    Lots of interesting technical discussion here! I got a decent moon shot last night. The autofocus in my 300mm lens was sporadically working at full zoom.

    I don't play with the wide angle enough though. Will have to see what I can get my buildings to do with it...

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  3. OlivierFebruary 21, 2008 at 12:03 PM

    encore une bonne idée pour mettre en valeur cette arche. bravo pour toute cette imagination.
    another good idea to emphasize this ark. bravo for all this imagination

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  4. PatricioFebruary 21, 2008 at 9:00 PM

    Just found your blog doing a Saint Louis search... GREAT pictures, love them all! Hope you don't mind but I think I am going to add you to my "Blogs I Enjoy" list.
    PC

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  5. RobFebruary 21, 2008 at 10:49 PM

    Cool arch pic! Which lens was this taken with?

    so many lenses... for now, I am stuck with 17-85mm on my DSLR crop cam.

    I tried it on the moon with dismal success. I took out my Canon S5 IS point and shoot cam and teleconverter and faired much better than the DSLR. Go figure. I must add, yes, it was darn cold standing on my deck behind the tripod.

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