Waiting until everyone’s attention was on the couple fighting over by the guacamole, September slips quietly out the door, but not before leaving a couple of abstracts on the gift table. Hey, why is it that on birthdays you open all the gifts in front of everyone, but for weddings you do it in the privacy of your own home? It’s completely ruined the fun of gag gifts…
Anyway, it’s time for the month-end abstract, or multiples in this case, because I came prepared. First off, we have one of the frames from when I actually got the telescope working, of the Sprei Nebula in the constellation Taurus:
Really, not too shabby after all the rotten luck I’ve had with the ‘scope.
Okay, I lied, which was hinted at by the Taurus bit: this is merely the top of a breaking wave, cropped in tight and with boosted contrast. But I had you going for a moment, right?
Since that was shot on the 27th, let’s go to the other end of the month, because I had already bagged one on the 2nd too.
Back when I did a few shots of the clouds being dramatic, I went in tighter for the sun breaking around the edge of them, down within the treeline, and liked the contrast and mood, a sense of foreboding. No no no, this was actually my pretentious art instincts, demonstrating chiaroscuro, yeah, that’s it…
And finally, one that wasn’t really intended to look this way, but I’m using it anyway – like that’s something new.
I chased a few different astronomical events this month, and I don’t think I nailed any of them. This was during an attempt at a less-than-1% crescent moon, something I’ve had on my bucket list for a while; the conditions have to be right, and even then, it’s still a bit iffy. But while I was on the river before sunrise watching for this tiny crescent, I turned and shot some ducks flying past a little patch of clouds, high enough to catch the sunlight while it was still hidden below the horizon for me. Too little light for a decent shutter speed, so this is what happened, but that’s impressionism, right? Let’s see, that’s three different artistic techniques this time: impressionism, chiaroscuro, and bullshit. I’m ready for the big time.