The sun had just set, the wind was gusting, and the temperature was 2 degrees Celsius—very low for our part of the world, even during winter time.
30 seconds exposure on x-ray film.
Rittreck view with 18x24cm back.
Fujinon W 250 at f32
Scan from negative, finished in PS.
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.
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
(Click for a larger view.)
A five hour exposure of the southern night sky.
September 19, 2014.
For the technically inclined:
5hours exposure on medical x-ray film, with a 135mm Optar at f/4.7 on a 4×5″ Speed Graphic.
Developed for 10min in D76 (1+5) at 24C, with minimal agitation.
There’s still a month or so of Summer like weather here in Cyprus, before we start considering long pants and socks.
Despite the temperature though, the Autumn clouds are already here, decorating the sky.
Such a beautiful time of the year.
Trees, and especially the unusually shaped ones, have always fascinated me…
For the past month, I’ve being posting a series of pictures of trees from my archive…
This picture is one of my oldest and most favorite ones…
Was shot in 2001 on the Greek island of Rhodes…
Scan from a darkroom print on Agfa MCC 111 FB paper…
(click on picture to enlarge)
In heavy mist…
Scan from a darkroom print on Ilford MG warmtone paper…
Still haunting the forest…
Scan from a darkroom print on Ilford MG warmtone paper…
Scan from a darkroom print on Ilford MG warmtone paper…
In Search of Lost Pictures 