Horizontal Icecicles

The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, the air was cold, the sprinklers were running... PHOTO OP! :-)

Total Lunar Eclipse

This was my first attempt at astrophotography. Conditions... sucked; that's an astronomical term meaning that my neighbors' porch lights where on, street lights were on, and there was a slight weather inversion (layer of trapped fog in the upper air), all factoring in attempt to destroy my viewing opportunity. Fortunately, at least I got to see the lunar spectacle. My dad didn't get to see a thing from his cloudy and raining vantage point in Arizona. I setup on my front porch with my Canon 30D and Sigma lens mounted on a sturdy tripod, connected my shutter release cable, and took about 140 shots. Please enjoy these pictures.



This next one was a mistake. I thought I had set my shutter speed at 1/30 of a second, but it ended up being 30 full seconds. Happy accident, as this exposure picked up some other star light that I didn't observe with my own eyes. Looks closely to see a few stars tracking through the sky.




I don't have a cool set of images showing the phases of the eclipse, but this series shows the movement direction and distance of Moon through the sky in just a short seven minutes.


The last of Earth's shadow covers Moon as it passes through Sun's path. (Makes a decent desktop wallpaper.)

geoGreeting...

The surface of the earth holds a message for you. You just need to look a little closer. Click the picture to the left to see.

Sunsets

These pictures were taken just a few days apart and show how different and beautiful our backyard sunsets are. It's like a new painting of the sky each night.


7/24/06 @ 10pm
8 sec @ f/5.0

Swimmers are enjoying a dip in the cool pond waters on a hot summer eve.





7/27/06 @ 8pm
1/400 sec @ f/10

Tequilla Sunset

Photo taken from my backyard porch.f/5.6 • 1/60 • ISO 400

Lighting Strikes!

I must've taken nearly 200 pics to catch about three good imageas of lightening striking, this being the best shot. I know... looks horrible. I was holding the camera on the sill of my bedroom window with a 2-1/2 second shutter time (f/3.5). Trying to stay steady for that long caused obvious camera shake. But it's an amazing shot (for a rookie's first time)!