Comet Shoot

Early tomorrow morning, I am going to attempt taking some photos of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) with my Canon Revel T5i. I have never taken time exposures with a digital SLR, so this will be a new experience for me.

I am in the perfect area for astro-photography as the Milky Way is very spectacular on clear nights.

Above, Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I did take some time exposures of Comet Hale-Bopp back in 1997. I was using my Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR film camera. A neighbor and I went to Acton, California to do the photography, where it was nice and dark between the San Fernando Valley and Palmdale. I was pleased with the results I got. 

Right now, I am charging the camera's battery. I just hope I can accomplish this even though it will be bone-chilling cold.

UPDATE (2/2/23):

I decided to skip going out to shoot the comet (with the camera). It is 14° outside and I found that extremely cold temperatures wreak havoc with digital cameras. Plus, there are some clouds.

Sequence Photos of Tsutomu Kitagawa As Godzilla In Hollywood

As this weekend marks ten years since the Godzilla events in Hollywood, I posted a bunch of photographs of those events over at Facebook. So, I might as well post them here, too (actually, more of them).

At the time, I was using my old, reliable Olympus OM-1 with a motor drive (ah, the days of film cameras) and caught Tsutomu Kitagawa coming out (in sequence) to the Walk of Fame ceremony in a Godzilla Final Wars event suit and "vaporizing" the assembled press:

All photos © Armand Vaquer.

5 Travel Photography Essentials That Won't Weigh You Down

Above, a shot of Asakusa, Tokyo's Nakamise Street on film.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One of the best things about travel is that one can "take home" things and places they've seen in the form of a photograph.

Lonely Planet's Richard Waters has five essentials of travel photography to take along that won't weigh a person down.

Before getting into the five, he starts with:

Some of your best travel pictures will be off the cuff, spontaneous affairs, but taking a few basic pieces of kit – like a tripod, zoom lens, polariser and GorillaPod grip – can ensure you’re ready to make the most of a golden opportunity. Here’s a round-up of the best photography kit to sling in your day pack.

Before digital cameras, I basically used an Olympus OM-1 SLR 35mm camera (along with a Sharp Hi8 camcorder). I took it everywhere with me and it has always been reliable. The only real drawback on film cameras is that one has to buy and lug rolls of film and, after getting back home, finding a place (these days) that will do quality film development. Those are becoming fewer and fewer in number.

Above, a digital image of Nakamise Street.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

I have been using a Canon Powershot camera for the past six years. It frees me up from packing rolls of film. The only basic problem with digital cameras is that if you see a shot that requires split-second shooting, the digital takes about a second or two longer for the shutter to trigger. Film camera shutters trigger more instantly. But, digital cameras are more versatile in different lighting conditions than film.

The essentials Waters listed are good for either film or digital cameras.

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/themes/photography/five-travel-photography-essentials-that-wont-weigh-you-down/#ixzz2bigKoWb4

Film or Digital Photography?

Photography has always been one of my passions.  This started when I got my first camera (an Imperial Lark) at age nine.

I read with interest an article in the Japan Times on one fashion photographer's lament about the move from film to digital photography.  He is none to pleased about it.

Here's an excerpt:

NEW YORK – Sante D’Orazio, a photographer at the heart of the supermodel era, believes the switch to digital cameras means greater detail than ever before, but the loss of something more important: beauty. 

“The sense of emotion is gone. It creates a detachment from the subject. The character of the personality is gone,” D’Orazio said of the digital production chain and its torrent of perfect, heavily-edited pictures. 

“That’s the danger of post-production in digital. People kill anatomy. They have no sense of anatomy. The sense of realism takes away from the sensuality.”

He may have a point.  While I like digital photography for its detail, I also like the colors that come from film.

Below are two pictures of the Asahi Beer Hall in Tokyo.  The first one I took in 2005 using my old Olympus OM-1 35mm film camera (that I occasionally still use):

The next one is from by my Canon digital camera in 2010:

The digital image may be truer to the actual scene, but the film image has more of an (for lack of a better description) artistic (like the blending of paint colors) feel to it.  What do you think?  Is he right?  Which do you prefer?  Film or digital?

To read the full article, go here.