Photographing the Night Sky

Last Friday evening we had a chap called Nik Szymanek come to our camera club to talk to us about photographing the night sky and I have to say it was absolutely enthralling. The images that Nik captures are so far beyond anything I would have imagined possible with some fairly basic equipment - although I have to say, I don't think his version of basic and mine are anywhere near each other! Have a look at some of his gallery images on his website at http://www.ccdland.com/ I don't have permission to show them here but I'm sure he won't mind a link :)

I've only ever tried photographing the moon once or twice before. Like many newbie 'togs, I assumed long exposure was necessary because of the darkness - WRONG! The moon is actually quite bright so a shutter speed of say 1/125th or 1/250 at f8 is perfectly adequate as long as you spot meter from it.

The other thing that people forget is just how fast the moon is actually moving - if you use a long exposure, not only is it likely to be a burned out blob in the middle of your picture, it will also be out of focus 'cos the moon and earth are moving. This was one of 3 shots I took just after reading a thread somewhere about it!

Once the nights warm up a bit (quite a bit actually) I'm going to have another go with some of the things that Nik mentioned. One possibility is a star trails image where you have the long exposure but because the stars are moving and your tripod is fixed, you get small streaks of light. I need to try and find somewhere fairly local but with as little light pollution as possible. Or I suppose I could try it when I'm on holiday in the middle of nowhere!

Just a Quickie - part 2!

Following on from my post a few days ago regarding Dianes' watercolours - I've finally found some time to process a few. Here's a couple to give you a taster of what's likely to be coming to my Etsy shop soon.

Over on the right there is a link to some of my stock portfolios - if you can't see something in my shop you fancy - have a look in my stock and let me know - I can always list something for you. I find it very difficult to choose what to list because everybody has different tastes. My stock is a much wider selection - safari animals, flowers and some landscapes as well as portraits, white background objects and other miscellaneous captures although I'm still trying to work out what sells over there as well! LOL

Wednesday - Downhill to the weekend now!

Well it's been an interesting week at work so far. The guy I've been covering for since September came back to work in February but it was easy to see his heart wasn't in it anymore so they've come to an amicable agreement and let him retire early. This means my temp contract just got extended (probaly another 2 months) while they find a replacement and get them trained up.

It's a nice office - great people and fairly easy going but instead of the 10-20 miles a week I'm used to, I'm now doing 200+ and I've come to the conclusion that it's the driving that has probably contributed to my winter blues/tiredness/general malaise. So I've OK'd it with the boss and I'm taking an extra day for the weekend and having a moochy day on Friday :)

I have some ideas for a completely new product line for my shop over on Etsy - still photography related but it's in development at the moment - having some production problems as I've had to learn a whole new skill. Sounds mysterious doesn't it? Good - come back soon and I'll post it here as I launch :)

I also keep meaning to get some stuff listed on Pinkdoodle and maybe try Dawanda too but I think I may wait a while and concentrate on Etsy. I've not been very good at or consistent with promoting/marketing Arty Allsorts so blogging regularly and exploring the possibilities of the blogosphere is my current task.

No really appropriate photos for todays' topic so just added some pretties for colour :)

Look what I bought for my Mum :)

I love dichroic glass and when I showed some from Etsy to my Mum, she quite liked it too. So when Mothers' Day rolled around this year, I headed straight to the Etsy search and looked for a UK Dichroic Glass pendant and this is what I found - Gisellery based in Devon.

Is this the most beautiful piece of dichroic glass - maybe not but my Mum certainly thought so :) She's been wearing it since breakfast this morning and even went to change her top so it would 'go' better!

I know she gets fed up with me talking about Etsy all the time. I haven't quite managed to get her internet savvy enough yet to search for herself but when she sees some of the other pendants in Giselle's shop, I'm sure she will will grab her credit card and ask me to talk her through it!

I've put a few on my favourites list too and showed hubby every piece and ooh'd and aah'd so much, he actually asked me if he should leave the room! LOL

Here's a couple more that I really like and almost chose for Mum but didn't in the end. Go have a look for yourself - such a selection of colours, I'm sure there's something for everyone.

ACEO's - I'm going to try again :)

Some days I have so many ideas in my head, it's ready to explode but I have great dificulty actually starting/doing any of them because I just can't decide which ones to progress with! The other problem I have is hubby - I love him to bits but after 20 years of my 'bright' ideas and whimsies, he has a kinda 'oh oh, here's comes another fad' sort of look.

When I first joined Etsy, I came across ACEO's so I tried some in my shop but not much happened. I think it's because they were photographic rather than 'real' art but now I'm wondering! There's a huge thread running in the Etsy forum at the moment and from some of the input from collectors, they're not so much against photos but as collectors, they are looking for originals or limited editions and most photographic ACEO's don't really fit that condition.

So I've had my thinking cap on for a couple of days now and came up with another 'bright' idea. If I play with one of my photos in photoshop until I'm happy, then print it and don't save it - it will be unique :-)

Bit like this one - I've somehow managed to delete the 'worked' file on my hard drive so all I have is one sheet of ACEO sized prints already printed and no files to reprint from - accidentally limited but hey, it's a start!

Just a Quickie :)

I'm determined to try to blog regularly so I'm probably just going to be waffling for a while until I get in the swing of it!

Had coffee with my Mum's friend Diane on Saturday and took delivery of her latest bunch of watercolours. The light was lovely for photographing them but I haven't had chance to process them for publishing yet. This pair of old style beach prints go well together and I sold some prints of these at work recently (although without the copyright logo of course!).

We've decided to offer these as notecards in the future - I'm just trying to find a reliable source of printable notecards - I've found glossy but not so sure watercolour prints should be done in a glossy finish. I'm going to run some test prints just as soon as my inks arrive so watch my shop for new additions soon :)

Winter Blues

I've never really noticed the Winter Blues in previous years but I have so many things I should or want to be doing and suddenly a whole winter has disappeared and I've achieved nothing. I honestly don't think I've even picked up my camera since mid-Sept :(

Looking back, I think it started in late August - I had almost 2 weeks of emergency babysitting to do, so to stop any little accidents, I put my tabletop studio away. Not a big thing in itself but we then had a death in the family in September and as the nearest relatives, we had to sort everything out - so the studio stayed packed away. It was October before we could have the funeral and November before the bulk of the estate was sorted out.

I'm one of those bah-humbugs who dislikes Xmas intensely so December is always an irritating month and I was ill through much of January. So now it's almost the end of February but we've had a week or so of bright (but very cold) sunshiney days and I can feel myself coming alive again.

But now I'm more aware, I can see how much everything has slipped. Adding a post to my blog is my first attempt at kicking my own butt back into gear.

I've updated my blog list and added my own places around the web so if you want to have a look at some of my more extensive portfolios, you can :) I've been trying to chat a bit more in the UK Etsy Sellers thread and adding comments on various Flickr but it's all a bit half hearted at the moment. It's a start though :)