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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
5 Days Ago
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I was out of the path of totality on the Connecticut shoreline, and clouds covered the sun during the moon's maximum coverage of 91.5%, so I put together this composite featuring images taken every five minutes, along with a screen grab from NASA TV to assuage my missing out of the real celestial show. The moon is in every image but the first. Maybe I'll do better in 2044.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-22-2023, 11:18 AM
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I couldn't resist a picture of the Super Blue Moon (supposedly the last until 2037) on August 30. Since low-lying clouds made it a Super Blue Smudge when it rose earlier that evening--thus thwarting any attempts to juxtapose the lunar disc alongside any local landmarks on the horizon--I decided to add an earlier picture of the sun to give a sense of how the moon appeared somewhat larger than usual.
The difference is subtle, but if you look closely, you can see that the moon had a definite size advantage tonight (most other times, the sun and the moon are closer in apparent size--and sometimes the moon appears smaller than the sun, which is most dramatically apparent during annular solar eclipses).
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-12-2022, 07:46 AM
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My record of the total lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022. The moon set while it was still in totality.
Taken with a Pentax K-5 and a HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR lens at 300 mm.
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Forum: Winners' Showcase
10-08-2022, 01:38 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
10-08-2022, 01:38 PM
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I would like to nominate this photo
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
09-09-2022, 07:03 PM
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Now I know what we were waiting for the last three months.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-19-2019, 10:26 AM
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Is this with the K-5ii? Looks pretty good on my screen.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-11-2021, 12:53 PM
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I hope you enjoy my picture of the town green in Branford, Connecticut.
I have been using a Pentax K-5 for over nine years, and have obtained a fair number of good images out of it. However, as I push my photography further, I am finding myself bumping into the limitations of what a camera released in 2010 can do. A Pentax K-70 would allow me to do the following:
- The K-70's increased sensor resolution would give me more flexibility with cropping, as when photographing the moon and other distant subjects.
- The K-70's enhanced high ISO performance would reduce the noise that hampers my attempts at astrophotography.
- The K-70's tilting LCD screen would make using the camera easier when photographing subjects near ground level, which I do fairly often in landscape photography.
- The K-70's pixel shift feature would allow for more detailed photographs of static objects, which would be useful when I am called upon to take large group photographs.
- The K-70's removal of an anti-aliasing filter would allow for sharper photographs of almost all subjects, which would also be useful when I am called upon to take large group photographs.
- The K-70's video functionality seems like less of an afterthought than that in the K-5; I might actually use it in this camera instead of having to reach for my smartphone.
- The K-70's built-in Astrotracer would relieve me of having to worry about a separate accessory.
I look forward to working with a camera that was designed in the second decade of the 21st century, instead of the first.
Thank you for your consideration.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-08-2021, 12:00 PM
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The second link provided me with an explanation of what we thought were hot pixels earlier in this discussion. I captured a bunch of these in a curved line across the frame, and used PhotoShop's healing spot tool to edit them out. However, zooming in revealed that these points were several pixels across, with bright centers and dimmer borders--not exactly what one would expect from a hot pixel. The actual explanation: they're geosynchronous satellites, which are always centered over the same spot on the Earth's surface. As a result, they stay put no matter how long the exposure!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-06-2021, 08:16 PM
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Giving it a quick try from my front yard with my Pentax K-5 on a tripod. 1150 seconds, f3.5, ISO 200. A little manipulation in PhotoShop to darken everything somewhat to bring out the stars more; the JPEG generated by the camera looks like a daylight scene. I also captured at least two airplanes flying by.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-04-2021, 10:17 AM
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The Orion Nebula is one of the nebulas that is a massive region of star formation; in fact, it's the closest big one to Earth. Of course, "close" is roughly 1,300 light years away, where a light year is 6 trillion miles.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-03-2021, 12:20 PM
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Actually, the bright spot is the planet Jupiter, which is considerably brighter than the Orion Nebula. You can tell that this isn't Orion because there's no sign of Betelgeuse and Rigel, which are two of the brighter stars in the sky. Jupiter is in Capricorn these days, along with Saturn at the opposite end of the constellation.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-05-2021, 11:54 AM
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I also started out with an ME Super, and then switched to a Super Program to get the TTL flash metering and shutter priority automation. They served me well for many years.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-10-2021, 08:33 AM
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Now I'm waiting for somebody to say how the tips of the crescent moon reminds them of the horns of the Beast...
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-01-2021, 02:32 PM
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I freaked out my friends on Facebook with this picture of the Full Pink Super Moon (at least until they read the caption where I stated that I added the pinkish color in Photoshop).
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-22-2020, 12:54 PM
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Even though I use glasses for computer work, I find that I can still get by without them if the viewfinder on my K-5 is adjusted properly. I'd love to see what it would be like with the K-3 III's viewfinder.
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Forum: General Photography
12-25-2020, 08:57 PM
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That's why we post so often!
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Forum: Photographic Technique
12-23-2020, 02:12 PM
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-19-2020, 08:41 AM
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If you look at Pentax marketing materials from the 1980s, they were clearly targeting serious photographers. The obvious hope was to get you into their ecosystem with the K1000 and be able to meet your needs regardless of how far you advanced, up to and including professional-level work.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-19-2020, 08:27 AM
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The weather in Connecticut is calling for mostly sunny conditions during the day on Monday, then transitioning to mostly cloudy that night. Hopefully, the clouds won't roll in before the big show!
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
12-19-2020, 08:31 AM
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I've always been a bit of a pentaprism snob myself, which is why I skipped the pentamirror models and made my first DSLR purchase a K-5. I am curious about the latest, high-pixel-count EVFs, but I would have to look through one before I'd even consider buying a camera that used one.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-18-2020, 11:03 AM
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I wanted to photograph the moon and the planets Wednesday night, but a raging snowstorm got in the way. Here is what I was able to achieve the next night, after the storm had moved out.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-11-2020, 02:39 PM
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Ah, it's that bioluminescent bulb at the end of its stalk! That must some angler fish!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-12-2020, 02:02 PM
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That's why some people recommend immersing your camera in distilled water if it ever comes into contact with salt water. One can dry out a camera successfully, but once salt gets established in the innards it's game over.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
12-12-2020, 02:10 PM
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They probably concentrate on the markets where they think they will get the best return on their marketing investment. Maybe somebody at Ricoh has decided that North America isn't as lucrative a market as it may have been in the past.
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