Random Night Shots

Felt like going out and playing with the magic box the other evening. I'm not aware of any particular astronomical event, just wanted to fiddle a little with the settings on my night shots.

As you may know, I don't have a point-and-shoot camera. I committed a couple years ago to learn the art of photography and bought a DSLR, which is an acronym for one of those cameras that you can change lens.

If you have one of those you can put it on "Auto" and simply let the camera choose all the correct settings, or at least what it thinks are the right settings. But for guys like me who think they want to tinker to get the best shots you dive in and then realize you are in over your head.

The following shots are the result of an early morning shoot and the differences in coloring are due to different settings, such as aperture (amount of light through shutter) and shutter speed (how long the light stays).

The yellow in this shot (lower right) and most of the ones below is ambient light from the city.

I was astonished at the number of stars in our sky that we can't see with our eyes. This shot was taken looking straight up and about a 20 second exposure.

I put some of Shawshank in this picture for perspective.

I inadvertently got a shot of a shooting star racing across the Milky Way. On some of these shots I simply pointed the camera and pushed the remote and then just waited till I thought I'd get some a good shot. This is an extremely lucky shot - I had no idea.

My first half-ass good Milky Way shot. I don't have Photoshop so I suppose I could have juiced this up some in post processing, but this seems like a pretty nice shot all by itself.

Just by shear luck I noticed the International Space Station floating overhead and was quick enough to train the camera on its tripod over and took this shot.

The sun was coming up soon. My shooting was done but I liked this picture of the Ceridian building lit by spotlights and Venus a beacon in the sky.

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Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless. Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001. It was one of those things that can generate crime: two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job. Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things. Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold. But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find. His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead. He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds. He will be paralyzed for life. None of this is pleasant. Reading the facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week. Except for me. I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers. These pics need no words. Why muddy the waters? They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley. The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter. If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one. But, please, no more.

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida. There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife. In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride. He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much. He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A. But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here. If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying. He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed. Note the propeller

Existing In BFE

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