David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Another clear night and I set up three cameras. Two to record firefly trails, and the other to record the nighttime sky for star trails. I still need to do some testing, but it seems that the Nikon sensors do a better job with low light images (less sensor noise). And among the Nikon sensors, the D810a camera does better with exposures over 30 seconds. In addition to the star trails, I also did a time-lapse video of the night sky.
The sky was clear so I set up two cameras. One for firefly trails (Nikon D810a and 200 mm f/2 lens), and one for star trails looking south (Nikon D850 and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens). The focus point for the firefly image should have been further back. This is my first star trails image with the high-resolution Nikon D850 camera (8256 x 5505 pixel — 45 MP sensor). The image really needs to be viewed on a large high-resolution monitor. I focused the camera using live view using a magnified bright star. I need to figure out how to do the same thing with the firefly images. I also made a time-lapse video (five hours compressed to 20 seconds) of the night sky. This is best viewed on a high-resolution monitor in a dark room. The brightest object that shows up in the early morning is Mars.
Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.
I was part of a team of six photographers that took ~30,000 images as the MV Explorer (Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage) transits the Kiel Canal in Germany.Howard Ignatius used the images to create this time-lapse video of the passage through the canal.
The sky cleared, and the rising sun was reflected into my hotel room off the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. It took six images to get the entire building in order to generate a composite image. I still need to work a bit on the geometry of the two towers.
The first stop in the morning was the Shinjuku Station. This is the worlds largest and busiest transportation hub. We got there in time to observe the morning rush. I have never seen so many people moving in an almost choreographed manner. I couldn’t really figure out how to capture the frenetic activity in a single photograph, so decided to make a short time lapse video of passengers entering and exiting at one of the main entrances.
After this I went outside to clear my head and look for another subject. I found a pedestrian bridge where I could watch a busy street crossing from a distance. The folks in Japan only cross at intersections when permitted by a green light. As soon as the green light starts blinking the pedestrians start running to avoid being in the cross walk after the light changes. These images of folks starting to run rather than walk were taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera with a 70-300 mm VR telephoto lens in burst mode.
In the afternoon we traveled to the famous Harajuku area and Shibuya shopping district. I am starting to lean toward a theme of folks taking pictures with phones, especially if I can see the image within the image on the back of the phone. Despite my preference for B&W, I have to show the two women in Harajuku with brightly colored hair. I noticed a large number of non-Japanese tourists during this walkabout.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.
After a long 10 days crossing the Pacific Ocean, the MV World Odyssey arrived in Yokohama, Japan. It was a cold morning, but many students were up on deck to watch the arrival. Dawn and sunrise images were taken from the deck of the ship. After breakfast, we disembarked and proceeded through customs & immigration. We were told that everyone had to go through the process before we could return to the ship. I took a camera, travel tripod, warm jacket and gloves. It was cold, and there were some snow flurries. I felt safe walking around the Osanbashi Pier (and in Japan in general) with a camera since there were so many locals with cameras out taking pictures. I did several 360° degree image sequences using a Mindarin Astro rotating tripod head. These were then used to create Little Planet and Mirror Ball views of Yokohama and the ship from the Osanbashi Pier.
Later in the afternoon I made two 360° time-lapse videos. The first of people enjoying the day at the Yamashita Park along the Yokohama harbor, and the second from a park with a view of view of the Osanbashi Pier and the MV World Odyssey. The images were taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera that was controlled by a Mindarin Astro 360° rotating head on a tripod. The time-lapse videos were then created using Photoshop CC and Premiere Pro CC.