Reflection Lake Star Trails #3

Long nighttime exposure, with star trails, of Mt. Rainier from Reflection Lakes


My best guess is this is from 2010. This is a one-and-a-half hour exposure at f16 from 2 Hasselblads. These would be the 50mm lenses, and the film is Provia 100F. I don’t remember if I’d planned it this way, or if I later determined I’d gotten the exposure very wrong, but I ended up pushing the film 2 stops which was clearly the right thing to do. (I may have taken a test exposure from another film magazine to make the determination; just don’t remember). I probably had some children’s socks tied around the lenses, with handwarmers inside, to keep the lenses from fogging.

I’m impressed with the color and how blue the sky looks. Well, it is sunlight after all, it’s just getting to the scene via a large reflector in the sky. The moon would have been pretty full here. The challenge with these shots is to get enough light on the trees on the other side of the lake without blowing out the top of the mountain. I do like the reflected star trails in the water.

Miracle Mile – Coral Gables Florida

The center island of the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables is lined with these trees.   I used a TL-120 on a tripod with a Vivitar 285H fill flash, this was taken after sunset.   The fill flash brings out a little touch of detail in the passing cars.   I used an incident meter to determine the exposure, hoping to bring out the detail in the trees at the expense of blowing out the store in the background.   I think this was a 30 seconds at f22.

Fantastic Bursts

Independence Day fireworks  above Seattle's Lake Union, July 2017

Independence Day fireworks above Seattle’s Lake Union, July 2017

One of my best all-time fireworks shots thanks to all the “sparkly shit!” There’s something special about the depth in this shot, which got a lot of ooohs, ahhhs, and long looks at the 2017 NSA Convention. Shot with Hasselblads separated by 40 feet and outfitted with 150mm lenses.

This year (2018) I aimed my cameras high based on the height of the fireworks from last year. That turned out to be sub-optimal, as they put on a “low show,” and I didn’t get nearly as many shots as I might have. I’m thinking next year I may try to go wide and capture the whole scene, with the barge and city background.

Rocket Bursts

This was from the first year I successfully shot hyper firewords bursts from my twin-rig setup. I only got a couple of shots that year, but the results were good enough to keep me trying. I used a formula I got from Don Lopp to calculate the stereo base, and I came up with 22 feet. After Don looked at the shots he said, “You know, since you don’t have anything *behind* the fireworks you could double the base. Ive been shooting with a 40 foot base ever since. Shot with twin Hasselblads fitted with 150mm lenses.

Carousel Follow Pan

WSF_Carousel_2_225x190This was another experiment to do something a little different with a stereo image. I tried following the ride as it was moving to get a crisp subject with a streaked background. Can’t claim success, but I’m encouraged to keep a’tryin’. One of the challenges was the lighting, which was a combination of fluorescent and tungsten. The original film I got back was awful to look at — super saturated ugly yellow-orange where you should see white. With some experimentation I settled on two filters stacked — one fluorescent and one blue. I think it was an FL-B and an 80A. If I remember right, the ideal exposure would have been 1/15th of a second but I couldn’t get there with my filters, even with pushing the film. I think these were shot at 1/8 second. I could probably get there with a flash that’s gelled for tungsten and fluorescent. Maybe next year! I’m not sure if this is the exact same image that’s in the folio (I sent some images in by mail and didn’t note exactly which scans they matched!). TL-120 with Provia 400X pushed to the limit.

Construction

For the past year or so there’s been a hotel going up across the street from my studio.  Though I swore some years ago that I was “done” with “clear buildings,” the proximity and thus convenience of this building stimulated me to make one last one.  It’s the reason I bought a Sigma (DP-1 Merrill) camera: this last Clear Building will be shot with some decent resolution, so that I can make truly large prints.

construction_MFT-folio28A

That work has been digital and is ongoing.  But on a recent early morning, I found the building looking quite attractive, complex and mysterious.  I shot it with a Sputnik, shooting cha-cha to obtain a larger baseline – maybe 12 inches – to give it more depth and interest.  I did not record exposures but I think I shot thirty seconds at f-11 onto Kodak E-200.

 

String of Pearls

String of Pearls

Brooklyn Bridge with the lights on

In all but one of my shots of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side the lights are off. This is the outlier. I think they were turned off this day at 1 am, shortly after I shot this. Twin Hasselblad 500Cs with 50mm lenses mounted on a wooden bar as close as I can get them (about 4.25″ between lens centers). Provia 100f, f22, 4 minute exposure.

Golden

Golden

Fireworks above Lake Union in Seattle.

This was shot on July 4, 2014 from the rooftop of a friend’s condo. I get the entire 40′ long, flat space to myself! And I take advantage of the full length. The cameras are Hasselblad 500Cs, outfitted with 150mm lenses. They are triggered by a wired remote devised by my genius friend, James Baker, who owns the condo. There is an article in the 1.2014 issue of STEREOSCOPY detailing what goes into the planning. See:

http://www.stereoscopy.com/isu/stereoscopy-journal-97-2014-1.html

US Botanical Garden, evening in the “Jungle”

USBG-1302_MFT72_PV_I shot the USBG earlier this year during the day, and it is a smorgasbord of post-industrial steam-punk vs. wilderness 3d imagery.  I returned last month to try and capture the magical evening light, which makes the place look even more mysterious than it already is.  I was hampered by equipment problems (in part of my own making), and did not get very many shots.  This is one of the better ones, taken about 5 minutes after the “magic” lighting had ended.  (Equipment failure prevented pictures during the magic 15 minutes!).

Then, on the drive home (about two hours highway driving), my car broke down near Culpeper, about halfway home.  Michele and Jet had to come fetch me in the middle of the night.  The car was repaired in Culpeper over the course of three more weeks.  I only got it back just recently.  All in all, an ill-fated photo mission.

 

Sputnik, RSX 400 film, f16 probably, 30 seconds exposure.