Mar

15

Photo of the Week 4 – Venus with a Crescent Moon

Filed Under Photography on March 15, 2008 | 1 Comment

This photo was taken on the evening of the 18th of June 2007 on the playing fields on the South Campus of NUI Maynooth. The playing fields are large open grass areas for sport surrounded by wonderful old trees. This photo was taken just as twilight was ending when the Moon and Venus were very close together in the sky.


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For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the shot:

  • Camera: Nikon D40
  • Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
  • Exposure: 1/30 Sec
  • Focal Length: 34mm
  • Focal Ratio: F5.6
  • ISO: 1600
  • Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
  • Exposure Compensation: -1

[tags]Ireland, Maynooth, NUI Maynooth, Venus, Moon[/tags]

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Feb

1

My First Real Astrophotos With My Nikon D40

Filed Under Science & Astronomy, Photography on February 1, 2008 | 8 Comments

This week I’ve started on the next rung of the Astrophotography ladder. Until now I was just taking a few hand-held shots of planets in the evening twilight. While they were nice shots, there is a lot more to astrophotography than that! What I’ve started experimenting with this week is using my very bright F1.4 30mm prime focus lens for longer tripod-mounted exposures. I’m already in love with my prime focus lens but this is yet another reason it’s the best €300 I’ve ever spent. I get a lot more use out of it than I do out of my zoom lenses.

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Dec

11

Night Time Photography – Another Reason to Go Fast Fixed Focus

Filed Under Photography on December 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment

NightTimePhotographySample.jpgWhen I recently purchased a 30mm F1.4 fixed focus lens I explained my reasons for doing so while reviewing the lens. Today I realised I left out yet another reason to add a fast fixed-focus lens to your collection. Because fast lenses gather insane amounts of light you can shoot hand-held at night and actually get good results. I did manage to get some night time images before using the standard 18-55mm zoom that comes as part of the Nikon D40 kit, but that was really working at the limit (see the results here). Because that lens is quite slow at F3.5-5.6 I had to crank the ISO up to 1600 and even then the exposure times were still very high. This resulted in images that were grainy and a lot had to be junked because they were blurred to a greater or lesser extent.

On my way home from work this evening I had a go at some night time photography with my new F1.4 lens. It was such a nice experience! With the ISO turned down to 800 I could easily take hand held shots that look pretty good.

You can see the results of my work in this gallery.

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