[ravnostic]

This turned out far more fun than I expected
(I had a reason to visit a couple parking garages in the city… discovered the swirly things that made ravnostic‘s entry so cool aren’t limited to whatever city he’s in… I’ve never considered them as vantage points for photography at altitude, but…)

I haves been intri-goo’yed. And I haz no ting. Haven’t even tried. Might skip it. Hate to, though.

[ravnostic]

Chupa; I’ve thus far worked with 5 darks, but I can shoot more. I think I can see the ‘streaking’ crossing from upper left to lower right in the Whirlpool above–is this to what you refer? It’s more evident if I lighten it up further.

I’m tinkering with ideas of how to get a better tracking going. The first night I lucked out, the 2nd not so much and I was limited to 30 second exposures. If I can align the tube just right the first time when I’m setting up, I should be able to pick up 5 minute exposures (no really, I should–but I’d settle for 2 or 3 if I must). Leveling and alignment–that’s all it really comes down to…

Had hoped to go out tonight as the low temps were reasonable–unfortunately the clouds are not! On flats, I tanked–they took too much vignetting out–the corners blew up. Any idea what might have gone wrong there? I wound up processing without. I haven’t touched biasing yet.

kashari; I’ve a feeeling Chupa and I will be posting a lot of this stuff this year, and perhaps Orionid will meet with success on his project and join us, so thank you and you shall have mo-ar! (when the clouds go away, for my part.)

Meanwhile, I did a little comparison collage–me vs. Hubble on the Antennae Galaxy. Hubble wins, of course. This is a little thing–the view is maybe 5 degrees at best. Hubble’s shot is actually a mosaic of not only frames, but exposure placement–it’s FOV is quite small. Mine is a single view, stacking 28 light frames and the master dark made from the 5. But at that size (we’re talking small), it’s only just evident exactly what’s being looked at to begin with.

But–it’s a forum about learning this stuff, no? So here it is:

[ravnostic]

here is my entry

That’s awesome, Daniel! I hope you submit it on Wednesday for the contest!

[ravnostic]

Ah-yee! Congrats, Ranger Joe; it was a battle to the last day!

INBD I would hang your shot on a wall. It’s awesome. 🙂

[ravnostic]

I can host, Kes if you don’t find anyone else. I’ll have to either dig up or remember my login to let you in (I’ve had it buffered in Filezilla so long I fergot–but it should be one of 5 or 6 ‘usual’ ones I keep), but there’s plenty of room and bandwidth. IIRC, I never can seem to just open a pdf in a browser and have it format correctly; I always have to save as, and open it from within (but then, I didn’t have Elements back in the day, and it comes with the fuller Adobe reader).

[ravnostic]

Yeah, I’d say it’s alright to throw out a particular quote if it’s unshootable.

Good thing. I plan on using Dune novels; the original and GE of D were easy–got good ones on the first try. Chapterhouse, though, it’s all dialogue! Nothing along the lines of usable dialog, either. Still looking.

[ravnostic]

Fluffy– 16″ ?!?

I have size envy…

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Thanks, Pope. I have other frames–we may see that garage again!

[ravnostic]

My guess (without looking it up) is it’s a f/6.3–but that’s just a hunch. Be careful with that mirror–it’s surface coated!! I’d recommend mild, non-corrosive detergent and a nice soak, followed by a gentle rinse of water, and a ‘dusting’ off using some completely non-abrasive, virgin cloth material, and very little pressure on the mirror. You do not have to be perfect here–at those f/stops, you aren’t going to see the little specks of dust in the final product.

I look forward to your project. I’d recommend finding a way to stablize that focus mechanism–fine tuning focus requires a delicate touch in adjustments and plenty of stability for holding that focus.

[ravnostic]

Phew. The 30 minute essay has been sent, Kes, to the farktographybook gmail address. Let me know if you need a revision; I’ll get to it on the flip side of my shift (9am your time or there abouts) if necc.

[ravnostic]

Wow for whatever reason this thread never showed up orange for me:

Essayists: linguine, ravnostic PLEASE write something, get it to me by tomorrow. I need to turn a draft in to Drew tomorrow and I need more text.

By tomorrow[/i]!! 😯 But…it’s a worknight! I will bust my arse to get something put together. Good thing I had 4 years of essay skewling and 3 years of writing humorous or sometimes poignant blogs to fall back upon!

But I may need an editor… 😛 I usually like to sleep on it and re-review in the morning, but that’s not going to be possible here.

[ravnostic]

Yes, I believe we are all in that boat. I am hoping this when mixed in with the talent in our group and the ultra wide variety of themes will all conspire to make me a better photographer. If nothing else it is fun and photography has always helped me to see the world and life in general in a better light.

/pun absolutely intended

This is how it’s worked out for me. The occasional highly voted picture is a bonus.

[ravnostic]

Egad – I just checked my photo on the monitor at work and I’m so disppointed. At home there was plenty of detail visible…even the leaves on the trees along the fence, etc. Here it just looks like a blob of black with a couple of dots of light and a splash of green. Is that the general effect for everyone else?

On both my laptop monitor (4.5 years old, closer to 5 now) and my ancillary monitor (much newer) I’m able to make out the trees, the truck, and clearly can see it’s a parking lot; though there are areas shrouded in black, that’s kind of the point of the lurking monster, no?

//tell the boss to pony up for a new monitor.

[ravnostic]

At this moment: ranking is 1. Ravnostic, 2. Ranger Joe, 3. INBD, 4. Barracuda, and 5. soosh.

And in TOTAL votes…the order is exactly the same.

I don’t think I’ve seen that happen before.

Just found it interesting, carry on then.

[ravnostic]

Rav, what made the swirl patterns in the garage floor? I had a feeling that one was going to be leading the pack when I first saw it. Great photograph.

Orionid may be right; I wasn’t there for the construction so I’m not sure myself, but every level (there’s 6 or 7) has the same pattern.

I knew when I took the shot I had something golden…so to speak. 😛 Nice to see me doing well–it’s been a bit of time since that happened. But NBD and Ranger Joe are going to give me a run for the money with their shots–I love both of them.

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