The Old Ship On The Shore – x-ray film

Late afternoon light at Latchi, Cyprus.

October 2015.

Speed Graphic 4×5, with Optar 135mm, at f/8.

Agfa x-ray film (CP G+).

Developed in Ilford MG 1+80 at 22C for 8min on Jobo.

The Olive Tree And the Monolith – x-ray film

Late afternoon light at Latchi, Cyprus. October 2015.

Speed Graphic 4×5, with Optar 135mm, at f/8.

Agfa x-ray film (CP G+).

Developed in Ilford MG 1+80 at 22C for 8min on Jobo.

The Moon Entering Earth’s Shadow

Today’s APOD is one of mine!!!

From all my publications over the years, this is the one I feel proudest of.

Not because it’s the “biggest”; but because it’s the most personal one, in a particular kind of way.

Astrophotography (and astronomy in general) was the reason I became interested in photography, in the first place.

As a teenager I was fascinated (and still am) of the Cosmos. So much so, that I convinced my parents to let me close down my savings account in order to buy a BIG telescope. That was 20 years ago. Time flies.

Long story short, a telescope by itself doesn’t make its owner an astronomer (or an astrophotographer in my case).

There is a steep learning curve. After getting thoroughly disheartened when my first few rolls of film came back looking nothing like the pictures I fell in love with in the magazines and books that I was reading, I started reading up on photographic technique. That’s how I got hooked on photography properly.

At the time I was living in Athens, which is probably one of the worst places on Earth for astrophotography, and since 20 years ago the internet was nowhere near what it is today (you couldn’t just google “polar alignment with an SCT on a wedge” and get youtube videos with people explaining the process to you–you had to visit an actual library and do actual research to find out such information), I just focused on other kinds of photography, shooting nightscapes now-and-then as a reminder of my first love.

So, this is my first picture of the night sky published by NASA!

Feeling giggly…

It’s good to be home.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151009.html

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 08

The Opera Holland Park, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 07

Late-late afternoon at Hackney Marsh, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 06

The river Lea, in Hackney, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 05

The artificial hill at Stave Hill Ecological Park, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 04

The boathouse, the dragon, and the river Lea, in Hackney, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 03

Near the river Lea, in Hackney, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]

London, With a Pinhole Camera – 02

View from the top of the artificial hill at Stave Hill Ecological Park, London.

[The next several posts will be from a trip we took to England last December.

The trip was mainly for the launch of our literary magazine MatchBook Stories issue 2.

During the trip, I took the opportunity to shoot some pictures with my handmade pinhole camera, fitted with a Horseman 6×7 roll film back.]