Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Mass Transit

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Venus Transit Of The Sun 2012-06-05

There are a lot of email photography news letters and tip sheets around the Web and I get more than I can read. However, one that came through yesterday morning got my attention. The author urged us not to buy expensive solar filters for our lenses and definitely not add to the mountain of pix that will be on the web today, fuzzy images of a yellow bowl of soup with a pea floating across it. The recommended alternative was to get the atmosphere of the whole scene, local weather permitting.

It was a glorious day in Missouri. As recommended, I shot at f 22 (which creates the starburst effect), ISO 400 to darken the area around the sun and let the camera set the shutter speed. This was taken a few minutes before sunset, looking across the school yard near my house. There's a dot in there somewhere.

By the way, kids, don't try this at home, even if you're looking through I-don't-know-how-many lens elements and a viewfinder's pentaprism very late in the day. Leave the job to seasoned semi-professionals like me or you might end up like the character below, depicted on a shirt for sale at the Gypsy Caravan.

Gypsy Caravan 2012-05-28 5 (tee shirt)
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10 comments:

  1. brattcatJune 6, 2012 at 6:43 AM

    i need that t-shirt.

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  2. Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.comJune 6, 2012 at 8:12 AM

    We like using the solar filter for eclipses, etc. Yesterday we were both too busy with work even to go outside, se tup the camera and look.

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  3. John @ Beans and I on the LooseJune 6, 2012 at 9:41 AM

    When I was researching the best ways to capture the Annular Eclipse last month I learned that photographing the sun will fry the sensor in a digital camera just as it would your eyeballs. Did not know that thus I skipped the sun and tried for the change in scenery which was little to nothing. Now I wonder how many cameras were ruined last month.

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  4. PerthDailyPhotoJune 6, 2012 at 10:36 AM

    Interesting! I did not know that Sinbad and I'm very glad I've not tried to do this! Your image is gorgeous Bob, I like the little bursts of colour at the side, they add not take away from the image. That tee shirt would have been appropriate for me on so many occasions haha!
    Bob if you click on the Swan River link and scroll down a little it shows the flow of the river, this spot here where I've taken this shot is probably at it's widest.

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  5. PerthDailyPhotoJune 6, 2012 at 11:10 AM

    Sorry Bob, the link I was rambling on about before is actually in today's post.

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  6. William KendallJune 6, 2012 at 12:15 PM

    Beautiful shot, Bob!

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  7. VirginiaJune 6, 2012 at 9:41 PM

    The top shot is FANTASTIC!
    V

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  8. HalcyonJune 7, 2012 at 7:11 AM

    I don't see the dot, but it's a gorgeous photo nonetheless! They had a big to-do on the Univ of Toronto campus where they put out telescopes and such for the public. More than 5,000 people showed up. I was not among them. :)

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  9. PJJune 9, 2012 at 10:19 PM

    Too late...I'm glad you had the chance, we had overcast skies so no luck.

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  10. PJJune 9, 2012 at 10:19 PM

    Too late...I'm glad you had the chance, we had overcast skies so no luck.

    ReplyDelete