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Before we started our trip to Eastern Canada and USA last fall (2019) I purchased a neutral density (ND) filter for my Nikon DSLR camera. I didn't spend a lot of time with the filter while we travelled, but I did make a point of using it while we visited the Hays Falls in New Brunswick. Changing the visual effect of water was my original goal for buying the filter, and this was a perfect opportunity to try it out for the first time.
Hays Falls is located between Woodstock and Meductic, NB. Using Google Maps, we had difficulty locating the trail to the falls from Highway 2. We made a couple of passes along the highway, and finally drove south along Highway 165 until we found a parking area beside the road. The falls are located between the 2 highways, and although the trail from 165 was the longer route, it was an easy hike with only a moderate uphill climb.
After taking some time to enjoy the view of the falls, and the obligatory photos of us in front of the falls, I set up my tripod to take a few shots with and without my filter. The filter is an inexpensive ND1000 for which I only paid about $35 or $40.
For my initial shot, I set the camera at ISO 400 and f/7.1 - aperture priority and the lens at 22mm. This allowed the camera to automatically set the shutter speed to 1/25s. From that point, I installed the filter on the lens, changed to manual mode and included all the same settings. Of course the first shot with these settings was all black. I checked the photo app I was using, and it calculated the required equivalent exposure to be 40 seconds. That seemed a little excessive and it required me to use bulb mode on my camera. I double checked using a manual calculation - multiply by 1000 (for ND1000). That also works out to 40 seconds ( 1/25 * 1000 = 40). Instead I counted the stops on my camera: 10 stops - 1/25 - 1/20 - 1/15 - 1/13 - 1/10 - 1/8 - 1/6 - 1/5 - 1/4 - 1/3 - 1/2.5, and started from there. My first shot at 1/2.5 was still quite dark, so I thought, lets sneak up on the correct exposure by changing the shutter one step at a time. It took another 15 exposures before I reached what I thought was an optimum setting of a 5 second exposure. Why did my results differ so much from the suggested calculation? I can't explain it, but perhaps the cheap filter I bought isn't a true ND1000? I know some of the difference may be due to clouds that passed over during the 10 minutes I spent with my experiment, but that wouldn't explain it all.
After loading the final exposure into my computer, I realized that I probably could have bumped up the exposure by another second. However, better to be a little under exposed than over. It only took a couple of minor adjustments in my editing software and I now I have what I think is a very good first attempt with my ND filter. I really like the effect created by the filter and long exposure - the water takes on a creamy appearance and everything appears soft. I've noticed a couple of differences when comparing the initial and final photos. Check out the illumination at the base of the trees at the bottom left, and note that the fallen tree in the bottom right is brighter in the initial picture versus the final. I'm not sure of the reason for this as I didn't perform any significant exposure adjustment when editing. I think these differences are caused by cloud cover.
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The Transit of Mercury is a relatively rare event that amateur astronomers like myself look forward to when the opportunity arises. It only occurs about 13 times each century, and of course is not visible from every location on earth. During this event Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun, and the planet appears as a small black dot moving across the face of the Sun.
The event on this day began at 12:35 UT (05:35 MST), so from my vantage point in Western Canada, the transit started before sun rose above the horizon (about 7:30 AM MST). Of course from sun rise to actual visibility varies due to buildings and trees in the vicinity. Thus, the transit was well under way by the time the sun started peering between the tree tops. However, as the sun continued its progression I was able to watch through the my telescope with solar filter, pausing at times while the sun passed behind tree branches.
At 9:30 AM I setup my small imaging camera, a Point Grey Chameleon using an Altair Astro 70mm OTA as a lens. Initially I was using video mode, capturing 1000 frames at 15 frames per second which provided video clips of about 67 seconds. My field of view was not quite perfect as I was unable to get the full sun to appear in the frame. However, I was still happy with the results, with the top and bottom of the sun chopped off. At least I was able to see Mercury as it made its way across the face. I reduced the length of a couple of these videos to 15 seconds.
For all videos it is best to open them to full size before starting playback. Otherwise Mercury is nearly impossible to see.
Shortly before 10:00 AM my view encountered another obstruction as seen below. At least I could still track Mercury with the tree branch hiding the lower left quadrant of my images.
Once the field of view cleared the last tree branch, I was able to capture the following video which again I have trimmed to 15 seconds duration.
To change things up a bit, I adjusted the settings on my camera to capture and record still images rather than videos. Starting at 10:18:56 I started recording a single frame approximately every minute. At about 10:56 I increased the frequency of the frames to every 10 seconds. Finally, at about 11:01 I increased the frequency to every 5 seconds, and continued this process for the remainder of the event which officially concluded at 11:04:14 MST (18:04:14 UT). I compiled these single frames into the following time lapse. This final video shows more movement since it is covers a longer time frame.
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The weather was questionable for the Canada Day fireworks display on July 1, 2019. Warm in the afternoon, but soon lots of clouds, rather cool weather (for July) and heavy wind as the day progressed. By early evening the temperature dropped considerably. We kept close watch on the forecast and the City's Twitter feed, hoping that the wind would diminish and the rain stayed away so the City wouldn't cancel the show. We were rewarded with almost perfect weather - a little cool, but only a light breeze and dark clouds approaching from the west provided a great backdrop for the show.
Our good friends Norm and RoseMarie attended with us, and we set up our cameras on the peninsula that crosses Henderson Lake. This was a perfect spot to watch and photograph the show.
It was time to experiment as we had never seriously attempted to photograph fireworks. We had a number of sources that suggested the "ideal" camera settings, but of course I prefer to experiment. In the end I might end up at the same settings as suggested by a third party, but by experimenting I actually understand why certain settings work and why others don't. I get more satisfaction from following this approach, and I get to innovate.
Brenda started with the settings suggested by a web site she found, which recommended using F5.6 to F8. Unfortunately early on, as she was trying to adjust the field of view, her cameral disconnected from the tripod. The custom plate she has is finicky, and rather than fumbling in the dark to reattach her camera to the tripod, she turned her camera off so she could just sit back and enjoy the show. We always try to remember that our first priority is to see the show whatever that might be, and photography is secondary.
The following photos are the results of my trials. I'm quite pleased with the results, and learned a lot about camera settings for fireworks photography. All of the photos below were taken at ISO 200 and F11. I varied the shutter speed between 3 and 5 seconds. Of course the longer shutter speed collected more explosions, but also seemed to display more of the lingering smoke. In some cases, it almost seemed like the longer shutter openings actually resulted in photos that were a little too busy. You be the judge ...
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The following paragraphs came to me via a friend of mine. I think it is definitely something that makes a lot of sense. I'm placing this in my blog in the hope that many people will read and consider the message. As per the last couple of sentences, please feel free to share this link with your friends, or copy and paste the text and share via whatever method you prefer.
Strong words...wouldn't it be great if it happened?
Warren Buffett, "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.
Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. In three days, most people in Canada will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
Let's adjust this for Canada
*Parliamentary Reform Act
- No Tenure / No Pension. A Member of Parliament collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
- Members of Parliament (past, present & future) participate in the Canadian Pension Plan. All funds in the Parliamentary retirement fund move to the CPP system immediately. All future funds flow into the CPP system, and Parliament participates with the Canadian people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
- Members of Parliament can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Canadians do.
- Members of Parliament will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Parliamentary pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
- Members of Parliament must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Canadian people.
- All contracts with past and present Members of Parliament are void effective immediately. The Canadian people did not make this contract with Members of Parliament. Members of Parliament made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Parliament is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term's, then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the Canada) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX PARLIAMENT!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on.