The beauty of winter

[Diane Kauffmds]

After the multiple and copious snowfalls, culminating in the Blizzard, I thought maybe I'd post some photos showing the beauty of snow. I took these photos a couple of years ago, with my Canon bridge camera and a Raynox super macro lens attachment.

Enjoy.

[tippie53]

nice pics but right now anything over 32 degrees would be nice we are now 13 days under freezing. echhhhh I would make a poor amish eskimo

[Diane Kauffmds]

nice pics but right now anything over 32 degrees would be nice we are now 13 days under freezing. echhhhh I would make a poor amish eskimo

I'm with you. It's too cold.

Okay, so something a little different. I'm an astronomer. I was the instrument chair for the Cincinnati Astronomical Society, prior to moving to WV. I used to love conducting impromptu sessions in public areas, to allow people to look through my telescopes.

3 years ago, I decided to see what my Canon powershot SX40 would capture if I simply pointed it at the Great Orion Nebula. M42, the Orion Nebula, looks like a fuzzy star with the naked eye. So, I pointed the camera at the Constellation, then at the "sword" where the nebula lies, then at the maximum magnification that the camera could offer. All exposures are 30 seconds, from my back yard in parkersburg, which unfortunately has a lot of light pollution. The shots are still shots.

The only thing I did was crop the photos. The color you see is what the camera recorded.

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[justdoug]

Amazing shot Diane. What are the optics? Thats a lot of clarity and light gathering for a camera with no scope.

Doug LaFleur

[Diane Kauffmds]

Amazing shot Diane. What are the optics? Thats a lot of clarity and light gathering for a camera with no scope.

Doug LaFleur

I agree with you. This is simply a Canon SX40HS on a non motorized Bogan tripod. I'd have to look at the settings. I always shoot in manual mode and I never use flash. I later sold the camera and bought a Fuji HS50EXR, which I greatly regret.

So, to answer your question, the constellation and Nebula were shot with the optics that came in the Canon bridge camera; I took a lot of shots at various settings to capture the photos.

The snowflakes were shot with the same camera, supplied with a Raynox DCR250 converter lens. Since focusing with the Raynox lens is dependant on moving the camera itself, I had it mounted to a macro focusing rail, on top of the tripod.

[LessPaul]

+1 for the rad pics!

The grass is always greener:
I feel silly complaining about warm weather... but the ski slopes here could use some fresh pow pow. It's been north of 50F here. I just wish the lakes were warm enough to fish haha!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

All those pics are awesome

[Kbore]

Fantastic.

[Mal-2]

+1 for macro photography.
+1 for astrophotography.
+1 for outsmarting the camera.

Back in the day I'd be talking about hypered film, but I don't think anyone uses film for astrophotography anymore.

Sorry you had to endure brutal conditions to get those snowflake shots. The closest I've been was to photograph hailstones that landed on my balcony -- with the temperature in the mid-50s, the risk of getting pelted if the wind shifted was much more of a concern than the temperature. I mean, I've certainly seen snow (although I have to go to it, it doesn't come to me), but I haven't attempted to photograph snowflakes. Flowers -- especially with pollinating insects on them -- have been my primary targets for macro photography.

If you don't want to worry about hooking your camera to your telescope, long telephoto mirror lenses aren't that expensive, especially compared to glass of the same focal length. Here's a thread I liked.

I am submitting my far less pretty montage from one of the lunar eclipses of 2015. It was done with an unassuming point-and-shoot camera (Canon PowerShot A530), and it does pretty accurately reflect what I saw with the naked eye. I didn't get anywhere near the color saturation that other people did, and it's not the camera's fault. I saw it the same way.

[Diane Kauffmds]

+1 for macro photography.
+1 for astrophotography.
+1 for outsmarting the camera.

Back in the day I'd be talking about hypered film, but I don't think anyone uses film for astrophotography anymore.

Sorry you had to endure brutal conditions to get those snowflake shots. The closest I've been was to photograph hailstones that landed on my balcony -- with the temperature in the mid-50s, the risk of getting pelted if the wind shifted was much more of a concern than the temperature. I mean, I've certainly seen snow (although I have to go to it, it doesn't come to me), but I haven't attempted to photograph snowflakes. Flowers -- especially with pollinating insects on them -- have been my primary targets for macro photography.

If you don't want to worry about hooking your camera to your telescope, long telephoto mirror lenses aren't that expensive, especially compared to glass of the same focal length. Here's a thread I liked.

I am submitting my far less pretty montage from one of the lunar eclipses of 2015. It was done with an unassuming point-and-shoot camera (Canon PowerShot A530), and it does pretty accurately reflect what I saw with the naked eye. I didn't get anywhere near the color saturation that other people did, and it's not the camera's fault. I saw it the same way.

Your photography is excellent. I didn't know that any telephoto lens could be used with a bridge camera. The camera had an effective telephoto length of ~1200mm (if I remember right).

The photos were not through a telescope. The images of the Orion Nebula were caught by the camera, with the telephoto fully extended. The SX40 is a point and shoot bridge camera. I was really surprised at it's performance.

I own a couple of fair sized telescopes with an astronomical CCD camera, although i've never had the chance to use the CCD.

I usually shoot insects too. I'd love to see some of your photos. Here are a couple of mine.

For the record, I'm scared to death of things that sting. Apparently bumble bee's are really curious. Several decided to hover around the camera, to check it out. I stayed long enough to get the shot of one, staring into the lens, before running like hell. Lol! They finally went back to their business, ignoring the camera.