Photography – Page 4 – MikeDiDonato.com

Leaning Tower of D.

3/25/20103/25/2010 mike d. 6 Comments Photography

It seems I have a problem. Sarah T. and I just returned from an epic trip to Bend, OR for two days of hiking through Smith Rock park and the Painted Hills. I was especially excited about this trip because it would provide me with an opportunity to try some landscape photography. As it turns out, I am terrible at landscape photography.

Exhibit A: A man-made lake in Detroit, OR

Exhibit B: Sarah T. posed on a short walkway amidst some red hills

Exhibit C: Some climbers ascending Monkey Face at Smith Rock State Park

Exhibit D: A measured demonstration of my ineptitude

What is my problem? As far as I’m aware, my legs are of equal length and my eyes are not severely crossed, yet these pictures show some dramatic tilt-action going on. Ten degrees! Geeze.

I’ll be posting some of the more successful pictures (read: those that Sarah took) tomorrow.

The Orion Nebula

3/16/20103/16/2010 mike d. 3 Comments Astronomy, Photography

Despite feeling a bit ill, last night I ventured outdoors to try and take a few starry night photographs with my camera. It took a little fiddling, but the quality improved dramatically over the course of the evening.

Here’s my best photo of the orion nebula (around the middle star in Orion’s dagger)

This was taken with a 15 second exposure through my 8″ telescope. My telescope has tracking, so there isn’t any crazy star shift going on, but I think I didn’t quite have it aligned North/South so the stars fall a little bit in the image. I also had to set a timer for the camera, because just touching the camera button was enough to introduce dramatic shake into the image.

What impresses me most is the color.

I’ve always been annoyed by deep space photography because of its false color. A scientist may decide, for example, to color a picture according to its temperature because it’s far more interesting than if you used the natural light image which, frankly, would probably be pretty boring.

Unfortunately, this had me thinking that the night sky wouldn’t be too exciting without photoshop. Thankfully, I was proven wrong. And while I hope I’ll be able to improve the focus and the shake next time around, I’m quite pleased with today’s results.

The Sun

3/16/20103/16/2010 mike d. 0 Comment Astronomy, Photography

On Thursday my camera adapter arrived for my telescope. And wouldn’t you know, the next five days were cloudy. But the gloom finally parted and I quickly pulled out all the equipment for some celestial photography. This first picture shows the sun in all its glory! Actually, not quite all its glory because I can’t adjust zoom, so I couldn’t get the whole sun in a single view. Not a bad problem to have really.

I did, of course, have a sun filter on my telescope. Otherwise anyone who saw this photo would immediately go blind.

Now that the sun has set, I will be returning to the great outdoors to try my hand at some planets and or stars. Stay tuned for more exciting photos!

Rebel T2ifinally

3/3/20103/3/2010 mike d. 12 Comments Photography

Fun fact: This is MikeDiDonato.com’s 4000th post.

During my recent visit to Tom and Mykal’s, I was reminded by Mykal’s beautiful new camera that even after months of deep consideration I still lacked a high quality digital camera. As Mykal noted in yesterday’s comments, I have finally procured said toy.

Digital SLR — The quality of this shot suffered in part because it was taken through a complex array of mirrors.

I started the purchasing process by combing through internet forums and talking to camera enthusiasts. Once I settled into my decision, it was simply deciding to whom I should give my dollars. Originally, my plan was to purchase used from FredMiranda.com – but after days of frustrated refreshing and a seller cancellation, I abandoned the lure of tax-free shopping and visited a camera store so I could leave with something in my hands.

My final choice was a Canon Rebel T2i. The Rebel does a great job of providing photography options for typical (read: clueless) users like myself. It has both gentle idiot-proof auto settings and thorny manual modes. The T2i is noteworthy too in that it adds 1080p video to its ensemble.

As we wrestle with the uncomfortable newness of the new MikeDiDonato.com layout, take solace in the fact that the quality of my multimedia is on the rise.