He he, well doing a PhD in astronomy was definitely a help in getting to
some great dark skies, if not in guaranteeing good photos once I was
there! I have indeed defended and everything, been Dr Wesson for a good
few weeks now. Not bored of using the title yet, in fact I'm still
using it at almost every available opportunity. I may continue for some
time.
Interesting point of view on the trails. I can see the attraction of
capturing the instant, but one of the things I like doing a lot in
photography is using longer exposures to capture scenes that you'd never
see in real life. I like movement and blurry things, contrasting with
sharp things, so I really liked this photo with the lightning strike
contrasting with the trails. Each to their own. Would be a hell of a
job in photoshop to get rid of the trails though!
To cover what Winsor said as well, I don't see that the trails, or
moving water blurred out, could be an artefact. The limitations as you
see it of the camera, I say are a feature, not a bug :) If no-one ever
used longer shutter speeds creatively, wouldn't static seas, rivers and
stars be the cliche?
I'm about to start experimenting with very dense filters, aiming to take
photos of everyday scenes with exposures of hours or even days - push
the 'artefacts' to extremes! We shall see how the early efforts turn out...
Dr Roger
Walt Wayman wrote:
> Roger,
>
> I have no prejudice against star trails. I even, years ago, shot
> some myself, although mine pale in comparison to yours. Well done.
> But, then, a Ph.D. in astronomy should provide some advantages in
> this area over a B.A. in journalism from long ago. :-)
> Congratulations, by the way. When do we have to start addressing you
> as "Doctor" Wesson? Have you defended yet?
>
> As for the picture in question, if I had been standing right there at
> the time it was made, looking at this scene, I would see the sea, the
> moon, the clouds, the lightning flash all pretty much just as it
> appears in the photograph, but I would see the stars as points of
> light, not as trails. (That is, not unless I had had some more of
> that stuff we got into at a Dead concert back about '77.)
>
> The star trails are the one element that seems to me to be out of
> place, and my objection to their presence is in relation to the
> concomitance/continuum conundrum, the immediate present vis a vis the
> recorded past, the “now” juxtaposed with the “then.” In this
> instance, my strong preference is for a photograph that captures the
> instant. Therefore, like I said, if it were my photograph...
>
> In keeping with the snipping tradition, I'm cutting out the previous
> posts, but I'm including the link for those who may have missed it
> originally and want to see what we're talking about.
>
> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041007.html
>
> Walt
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