Astrophotography Revisit

I stumbled upon a new (to me) piece of software that is an alternative to the standard DeepSkyStacker utility that most people use for Astrophotography.  It is called Sequator: like equator, but with an 'S'.  I decided to give it a try, so I pulled out some of my old photographs from last year and ran them through the software.  I have to say, I am impressed.  Not only is it much simpler to use than DeepSkyStacker, but it was also able to easily remove the light pollution from the photos, align all the images and stack them to bring out details I never knew were there.  The nebulae are now full of detail, and you can now see the interstellar dust around the stars.  (Note:  Please ignore the stray lines.  Those are satellites.)

Photograph of the Week

This is one of my very first underwater photographs.  It was taken during March, 1995 in Roatan, Honduras.  The sponge is attached to the hull of the Prince Albert wreck which sits in a small channel between the Fantasy Island and Coco View Resorts. 

View fullsize

Sponge on the wreck of the Prince Albert between Fantasy Island and Coco View Resorts

The photograph was taken with an Aquashot II underwater housing.  It used disposable film cameras sold in any convenience store.  Alternatively, you could go to your local dive shop and find the ones with the SCUBA flag on them.  There was no other difference besides the paper wrapping with the logo.

I love shooting digital, but shooting film was an experience.  You got at most 36 shots per dive, and you never knew if any of them were any good until you got home and had the film developed.  The Aquashot II had the added challenge of not having a real viewfinder.  You got as close as you could and aimed through the plastic cross-hairs on top.  Hopefully, the camera's lens was wide enough that the subject was in the field of view.

Still, I did get a few interesting shots back then using what I'm sure most people today would consider to be antiquated equipment.

Memorial Weekend Bird Watching

I went out to my parent's place with a grand plan to get some fantastic shots of the birds eating out of the bird feeder.  I grabbed my Canon M5 which has an APS-C 1.6x crop sensor and my Sigma 150-600mm telephoto.  I then added a 2x extender for good measure.  Let me do that math for you.  That's a grand total of 1,920mm focal length. 

Well, it didn't quite work like I had hoped.  With the extender, auto-focus didn't work, so I had to dial in the focus manually.  I had the camera on a tripod, but I still think I needed just bit faster shutter speed to freeze the action.  Even when they are feeding, birds jump around a lot.  Out of a couple hundred shots, this is the only one that came out decent, and it's not perfect.  The focus is off just slightly.  I guess I'll have to keep trying.

Welcome to Heath Heflin Photography

Welcome to my new website.  I have created Heath Heflin Photography to showcase some of my photographs as well as to document my travels.  Over the coming months I will be adding an archive of past trips and photographs.  Then as I go on future trips, the photographs from those will be added here as well.

www.heathheflinphotography.com

Stay tuned...