[fluffybunny]

One benefit of only posting 2 entries is that when you’re getting your ass handed to you by people with far better stuff, it’s a third less disappointing/crushing.

Night time photography is hard. Astro-photography doubly so. I’m just glad we have some good participation, yours included.

[fluffybunny]

I sense a post outage decompression trip.

[fluffybunny]

Those are great. Really great.
I just can’t shake the feeling they’re missing something.

I haven’t really gone out of my way to study Russian photographers, but Meschikov is the second one that’s caught my eye while surfing GIS. The first was Alexey Titarenko (http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/port_cityshadows.html).

While two is a poor sample size, they both seem to have some commonalities, perhaps related to the “feeling”.

Our (Western) approach to the photographic aesthetic is a lot warmer and more emotional (IMHO) than these two guys. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, maybe it’s just them. I still appreciate their work.

[fluffybunny]

Given that I live in a desert, will cacti and sagebrush do? Riparian oasii?

MOVE TO WHERE THE TREES ARE! YOU LIVE IN A F***ING DESERT! YOU CAN’T GROW ANYTHING THERE! OOH OOOOAAAAWWW!!

Awesome. Rest easy good comedian.

[fluffybunny]

Somebody (Yugoboy maybe) in a different thread here told of a Fark party where he was talking to Drew (and someone else) and that they mentioned that they were going to start hosting images. This is completely from memory so I could be way off base. If accurate, perhaps related to your observations.

[fluffybunny]

+1 (wishing it had a boogaloo though)

[fluffybunny]

I’m curious (not curious) about the whole telescope attachment thing.

We’ve got a couple really really amateur telescopes just wasting away in the basement. Is there some way that doesn’t require machine-shop precision to get those hooked up? aI don’t know what they’d work out to in millimeters, and I certainly wouldn’t want to use them regularly, but seeing’s how I’m going to have complete inadequacy for Farkstronomy, it might be nice to at least try. It would also have some other applications when I have opportunities to be at altitude (buildings or mountains).

Assuming you mean “camera hooked up to a telescope”, just about anything goes:

Just a quick GIS.

[fluffybunny]

+1

[fluffybunny]

Well, they built a dozen of them, so you know there’s gotta be a handful of them sitting crated up in a warehouse next to the Ark of the Covenant somewhere…

Exactly my first thought. “Where are they now?” and how do I get there?

[fluffybunny]

That GEM and handgun

Really slow moving targets? 😉

[fluffybunny]

FWIW,..

My current long setup is Sigma 100-300 f4 (AF but no OS) and Tamron 300 f2.8 with matching 1.4/2.0 TCs.
The Tamron is 40 years old, manual focus (the 60B variant) and can be had for $500 +/-.
The Sigma is out of production by a couple of years but you should be able to find one in the $800 +/- range.

I use the Sigma when mid reach is important, light is moderate and tracking is essential via servo mode (birds in flight).
I use the Tamron when reach is paramount and light is low (small birds, perched in the dawn or evening).

That would leave you with $1500 for a nice portable GEM and scope of your choosing (SCT, achro, ED, or Newt,.. APO probably too spendy)

[fluffybunny]

We can post the threads a year in advance and I’ll still procrastinate to the last minute. 😆

This.

[fluffybunny]

If it were me, I would use this as a penance (pennants?) for myself. I would go back and take good photographs at my pace, under my terms. To balance out the universe and karma and yang and so on.

[fluffybunny]

I had a thought (always thinking),..

If quality is not a part of this guy’s business model that what is he actually selling?

Someone to hold the camera and the print.

In this day of phone-cam, insta-gram, wham-bam-thank-ya-mam I’m surprised that he has a viable business model at all. Perhaps he is seeing fall off and compensating for it by volume and statistics. Probably not a long term solution. The long term (IMHO) would be to stand out, quality and personal service would be key parameters in this equation.

There is a guy somewhere on the internets, selling “pencil sharpening”. You send him a #2 and he sends it back, having personally hand sharpened it to fine point, in a nice case with a certificate. Twenty or so bucks IIRC. Was making a good living. Quality and service.

PS. Went and found him:
http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com/

Some of my facts may be off about him but the idea is accurate.

/edited to add an exclamation point.

!

[fluffybunny]

I don’t even have a horse in the race and I appreciate reading everyone’s take on this.

We have probably all experienced this type of photo sell at one point or another, and my reaction has always been negative. The only time I’ve ever gone along is in the low pressure environment and generally only because some one else in the group wants the photo. The high pressure guys are right out. I’m sure his model is the simplest based on what I’ve read thus far, but there might be other low cost (from his perspective) options.

Obviously you can sell photographs in that environment. Maybe if the owner considered all the photogs as contractors who paid a flat rate for crowd access it would give you latitude personally about the quality / quantity choices. Perhaps he could employ two “styles” of photographer, fast and furious or artful.

0.02$

/Cujos to you for being willing NOT to sell your soul.

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