New ornament and metal print available for special order. Ornament is $25, 12x18 photo on metallic photo paper $75 and 12x18 Metal Print $175. Shipping and tax extra. Milky Way with Saturn and Jupiter photographed on Myers Grade road Sonoma Coast.
Metal Ornament of the Milky Way with Jupiter.
Milky Way with Saturn and Jupiter.
16x24 Metal Prints Normally $300 On Sale $225
11/5/2020 TO 12/20/2020
This sale is existing inventory of metal prints. Only one print each available. Prices do not include shipping. Prices for this sale are near cost. Normal price for 16x24 metal is $280 to $300 depending on mount. I will be adding more sale item each week. Payment will be through PayPal invoice.
Metal Ornament order will be going out in a week. Select the photos you want on the front and back. They come with a red ribbon. Facebook message or email me. I will then PayPal invoice you the total. California residents will pay state tax. I will be printing a limited amount for the Artisans' Co-op gallery in Bodega Bay.
New for 2020 Lightning Storm off Goat Rock, Jenner CA
New for 2020 Persieds Meteor Shower & Milky Way, Sonoma Coast, CA and Comet Neowise at Sonoma Lake.
Milky Way at Arches National Park in Moab, Utah
Time-lapse stacked photo of the Milky Way and the Presides Meteor Shower 2020. In this stacked image of three time-lapsed photos you see the three meteors that were captured by the milky way. A 16x 24 high resolution metal print with insert frame back available for $350 including drop shipping in the US.
Early this morning we had an unusual summer lightning storm on the Sonoma Coast. Here is a sample of what I was able to capture. The color is what the camera photographed. Click on an image to see a larger photo.
In this photo we have two planets in the night sky by the tree on the far left. Saturn on the left of the tree. Jupiter on the right. The Milky Way in the center of the tree cluster. And a Perseid's meteor with its green glow to the right. Saturn and Jupiter were in the Sagittarius constellation.
Taken around 12:30am.
Camera Nikon D85. Lens Sigma 14mm 1.8. F/2.0 15.0 seconds. ISO 6400
Early in the evening around 11am. Some light pollution.
Lake Sonoma
Discovered on March 27, 2020 by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, Comet NEOWISE is putting on a dazzling display for skywatchers before it disappears, not to be seen again for another 6,800 years.
The comet made its closest approach to the sun on July 3. Officially known as C/2020 F3, Comet NEOWISE is a comet that was discovered on March 27, 2020, by NEOWISE, the asteroid-hunting afterlife of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.
Comets, often nicknamed "cosmic snowballs," are icy, rocky objects made up of ice, rock and dust. These objects orbit the sun, and as they slip closer to the sun most comets heat up and start streaming two tails, one made of dust and gas and an "ion tail" made of electrically-charged gas molecules, or ions.
It's quite rare for a comet to be bright enough that we can see it with a naked eye or even with just binoculars."
There is "about 13 million Olympic swimming pools of water," in Comet NEOWISE, Emily Kramer, a science team co-investigator forNASA's NEOWISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said during a news conference July 15. "So that's a lot of water."
"Most comets are about half water and half dust," she added.
Comet NEOWISE has two tails that typically accompany every comet.
As a comet nears the sun, it warms up and material pulls away from the surface into a tail. Often, dust is pulled away along with gases from sublimating (going directly from solid to a gas) ice. This dust tail is the sweeping trail seen in most comet images. Comets also have an ion tail made up of ionized gas blown back by the solar wind.
Researchers studying Comet NEOWISE might actually also have a sodium tail. By observing what they believe to be atomic sodium in the comet's tail, researchers can glean keen insight into the object's makeup.
The comet is traveling at about 40 miles per second (that's about 144,000 mph, or 231,000 km/h).
Story Behind the Photo: Wave Rider
One of my favorite things to do is be on a boat watching marine life above and below the water. The Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary is Southern California's Monterey Bay in terms of sea life. Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary protects 1,470 square miles of ocean waters around the Northern Channel Islands: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara islands. This diversity of cetacean species offers a great opportunity to whale watch year-round. The most common sightings are of gray whales from mid- to late-December through mid-March, blue and humpback whales during the summer, and common dolphins throughout the entire year. You can also witness super pods of dolphins.
I would take the Condor Express boat ( 75’, quad-jet catamaran) out of Santa Barbara. The biggest challenge photographing marine life is as follows: You are on the boat with 127 passengers who want to see the same marine life. The boat is a moving vessel. Depending on the seas it can get rough. You need a heavy long lens and cannot use a tripod. Conditions require an ultra fast shutter speed, a super telephoto lens because of the distance of the animal from you, a lens with a fast aperture required to gather as much light. Under these conditions a cellphone would not work. Lighting conditions are tough with the sky reflecting off the water and bouncing off waves. The marine life is not use to posing for the camera. They can come up at any view point off the boat. By the time you spot them along with 127 passengers and get into position they are down deep. So I tend to stake out a good vantage point and what ever comes in my view I photograph. So sometimes you lose out if they happen to come up on the other side. Dolphins are so quick and can be in super pods of 1000 plus. Now the challenge is to focus on the best angle. Be quick and hope with a fast shutter speed and lens you will freeze it in motion. Also you hope that the lighting gods are with you. With this particular photo I placed my body so I was facing towards the back of the boat. Goal was to capture the dolphin when it was riding a wave. Take a long breath, hold the camera and lens close, let my legs go in sync with the motion of the boat and take the shot.
So did I get it? I would not know anything until I get back to my studio and look at the days photo shoot. You dont have time during the action to look at what you shoot. When I get back to the studio the first order is to make a backup to two different drives. After backup the moment of truth you start to review the days shoot. Okay first photo might be nothing but sky, nothing but sea, remember a boat goes up and goes down and sometimes you miss the marine animal in the photo set. Now a passengers head blocking your shot and then what you spent the entire day waiting for this photo.
Today is the first in a series entitled "The Story Behind the Photo ".
Burrowing owls can make a network of holes in a large swath of land. They are not always active during the day certainly not out of there burrows waiting for a person to take there picture. You also have no idea what burrow they could be in. So I have gone and spent several hours with not a owl in sight. This day I waited in my bird blind aka Tiny the Sprinter van and selected 1 of 45 + holes with my camera and long lens set up on my bean bag in the driver's side window. Had my drink and some snacks. I was far enough away with my long lens for it to not be affected by my stake out. About an hour later I saw a head just peeking out of the hole. Game on! Another 45 minutes half the body could be seen. A short time later full body out. My heart was pumping and my excitement was off the charts. You could tell it was surveying every angle checking for predators. The head would rotate up, down, left, right and behind. Challenge was in all of this head movement capture a photo looking forward. Done! Time elapsed 30 minutes.
Now to wait and see what happens next. Does it fly off or better yet does it have a mate waiting to come out? About 90 minutes went by and he moves over and I see another head just starting to peek out. Oh my I thought. Now the biggest challenge was hoping that in all the head moving of both owls I might hit the jackpot and get both looking forward at the same time. It was like dropping quarters in a slot machine. It took patience and time but eventually it happened. Total time frame for the final photo approximately 4 hours.
Loved every minute of the experience.
On the main page there is a main gallery photo that now links to several photo galleries in that subject category.
Example: Main photo for Utah Parks will include links to Canyonlands National park, Arches National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Dead Horse State park, Monument Valley, Goblin Valley State Park and Bryce Canyon.
International Dark Sky Week is a week long celebration of the night. This year, IDA is encouraging people around the world to come together online to celebrate the night and engage with authors, creators, scientists, and educators whose works have been vital to the movement to protect the night from light pollution.
