2010 Alaska Photo Contest Finalist

Today I learned that I was a finalist in a large photo competition that Alaska's tourism site holds. I knew that the competition was being judged around now, so I took a look to see what what up.

I don't enter many competitions, so this is encouraging. Better luck next time though :)

Here's the photo that placed:


Here is the winner and finalists:
http://www.alaskatravel.com/photo-contest/

Introductions are in order.

The holidays are usually a very busy time of year for me and, well, probably most everyone. This business can adversely effect my photography, and thus the ol' photoblog.

Fear not readers, I have decided that I needed a co-host to this blog in order to keep up with regular postings. Without further adieu, I give you the new contributor/photographer to Hypengyophobia: "Ace"



Since Ace is too small to use a keyboard without treating it like a game of hopscotch, I will be taking most of the responsibilities for the text-related portions of his content. Ace was kind enough to get himself from the airport (above) over to my house where he will be staying/vacationing and seeing the sights and wonders Massachusetts and beyond has to offer.

He got off to quick start once he arrived. Whipping out his Canon .005D camera and hitting all the local tourist traps:



Ace took a keen interest in the local wildlife. I cautioned him about the inherent dangers of this, but he insisted on sneaking up to snap a few pics:



I quickly found that my small and plastic friend had a knack for getting himself into trouble:



Things got a bit heated between us after this incident. I am going to have to set some ground rules about where his is allowed to venture during his stay:



Anyways. That's all for now. I will still be attempting to progress through my normal experiments and traditional photography, but be on the lookout for further updates from Ace, as he continues to explore and discover.

Stacking Photos: You're doing it wrong.

So...North Conway was great. I went up for a weekend getaway with Andrea and the pup. (The hotel we stayed at was wacky, awesome, and allowed pets. Good times.)

I also was hoping to utilize northern NH's darker skies to try more star-trail type shots in a more astronomically-brilliant kind of setting.
That didn't work out so much...But I continued to screw around with new methods. Mostly to no avail. I did come up with the below shot. Which, in all of it's unrealistic glory, still looks kind of neat.

More experimenting soon. I will get this right, I swear. :)

Time lapse and stacking

Night Photography Attempt #2 - Quickie Post

Tried the stacking technique on a night exposure. about 150 frames over 20 minutes, stacked. Time-lapse of the frames is linked below the pic.

I need more practice, but this is my 2nd attempt at this kind of night exposure, and 1st attempt stacking. Bear with me :)



Recommended viewing of photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34578262@N05/5202556717/

Time Lapse: (try Flickr link for better viewing)



flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34578262@N05/5202553485/

Night Creature

I've always been completely fascinated by what some photographers can capture at night, especially with no artificial lighting whatsoever. Quite frankly a lot of the photos I see make me very jealous of what they are able to do.

So, if you can't beat them, join them!

My wife made me aware of an upcoming meteor shower that was to take place that night, and should be visible if the skies were clear. I live in an area with substantial light pollution, so only on the clearest of nights can you see the stars well. As the meteors would be best visible and active in the dead of night (around 3-4:00am)I checked the weather, and conditions looked promising. Making all the necessary preparations, I set myself up to wake up at 4:00, take an hour long exposure, while I slept, and wake up again at 5:00 to stop it before the 90min before sunrise mark (which is enough light to completely wash out the stars).
When I woke up, everything went according to plan, the sky was crystal clear and there was very little wind. I set up, and ran back to bed for another hour...or so I thought.
My alarm, for reasons not clear to my brain at the time, went off at 6:00 and I could see it was already getting much brighter out. I scrambled downstairs to see if the exposure was ruined. Yes. The whole thing was completely pink, with no stars, and definitely no meteors.*
I was not happy....and there may have been a few choice words uttered on my way back up to bed.

I kind of stewed about it throughout the day, and told myself I'd make it up by taking some good photos on my upcoming trip to the white mountains. However, Andrea convinced me to give it a go again, on the off chance the meteors were still around, and probably just to make myself feel better about executing a shot that I wanted to get.

Well, there were no meteors to be found, but the shot still came out interesting. This was later in the morning, so the creeping light added an interesting effect. i can do much better, I know it...but that will come with practice, and patience.



*(For those who don't know, leaving your camera's shutter open for a long time is kind of like making it a sponge for light. Every bit of light it sees it soaks in, so if it sees too much, that light will basically override the much fainter light of things like the stars, etc).

Being sick forever

Not a fan.

In Memoriam

"Look at these towers, passerby, and try to imagine what they really mean - what they symbolize - what they evoke. They evoke an era of incommensurate darkness, an era in history when civilization lost its humanity and humanity its soul . . ."


"We must look at these towers of memory and say to ourselves, No one should ever deprive a human being of his or her right to dignity. No one should ever deprive anyone of his or her right to be a sovereign human being. No one should ever speak again about racial superiority... We cannot give evil another chance."

- Elie Wiesel



I don't go downtown much. When I do, I usually find something I've never seen before in the city. Walking around the city at night with Andrea on my birthday, killing time before seeing an improv show, we came upon this memorial. I didn't know Boston had this monument, and didn't realize what I was looking at, save for my wife enlightening me.

Not only is it quite unique and somber in it's design, depending how you choose to view the steam-vents under each tower, the memorial is something you can easily pass by and not give a second thought. I almost did just that. I am glad I didn't. I am glad I took a few minutes to capture just a fraction of the six million bar code numbers that seem to go on endlessly.



"The design utilizes uniquely powerful symbols of the Holocaust. The Memorial features six luminous glass towers, each 54 feet high. The towers are lit internally to gleam at night. They are set on a black granite path, each one over a dark chamber which carries the name of one of the principal Nazi death camps. Smoke rises from charred embers at the bottom of these chambers. Six million numbers are etched in glass in an orderly pattern, suggesting the infamous tattooed numbers and ghostly ledgers of the Nazi bureaucracy. Evocative and rich in metaphor, the six towers recall the six main death camps, the six million Jews who died, or a menorah of memorial candles." - http://www.nehm.org/intro.html

I am glad we lingered. Such things should not be forgotten.