I'm pretty excited for the next solar eclipse in 2024. I got some pretty good shots of the last one, and definitely learned a lot. I keep thinking about that.

I really like #8!

Play with the spot healing tool. Essentially, you choose a spot right next to whatever element you want to remove. Then, you click over the element to remove, and voila! No more red lights. Its actually pretty easy, and quite addictive. :-)

Joshua Tree NP is one of the placed I'd love to visit to capture the Milky Way. Nice job. If you're looking for suggestions, I would recommend removing what appear to be airplane lights (about 2/3 of the way across the top of the photo). To me, it takes some of the majesty away from what I'm looking at. I think your composition is good. We are at the tail end of MW season, so there isnt much of it to photograph. Next time, maybr either remove the ground/mountains completely, or, find a way to make them more a part of your composition. This is a great shot, very well done!

I got some cool shots of the sun last week (Hudson Valley of NY) "filtered" by smoke. It was eery to see the sun as high as it was and still be able to look directly at it. My 10 year old son said it looked like the suns that Luke Skywalker looked at in Star Wars.

I got my son one of the Instax cameras when he was 7. He still uses it, though not as much. He really enjoyed being able to see his photos right away. He is 10 now. This is what I got him, though in a dark blue color:

https://www.amazon.com/Fujifilm-Instax-Mini-Instant-Camera/dp/B06WW64YM6/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=instax&qid=1600446145&sr=8-13

Very cool! Could you describe your process for capturing these images? I'm imagining one of those glass globes that I used to see at the mall kiosks. The ones that attract the "lasers" when you touch the glass. I don't think that's what this is, so I'm curious.

-Mike

A few weeks ago, I read that the spotlights would not be illuminated in NYC this year to commemorate 9/11, so I made other plans. I found out yesterday that the spotlights will, in fact, be illuminated. I really want to capture them, from the NJ side at their park. Now, I will have to wait until next year.

<bummed/>

Thanks for the tip! I will add this to my watchlist.

If the flower is sheltered, so as to not sway with a breeze, you won't need external light with a long enough exposure. Night photography is fairly easy, once you know what you're doing. Practice on it at night before you "need" to photograph it, to get your settings down. Typically, you can get a pretty good exposure with less than a minute of the shutter being open. Of course, you'll need to ensure the flower doesn't move during this time.

Please post the results (if you can), I am curious to see how it turns out.

A couple weeks ago, one of the B&H "Daily Deals" was a wooden puzzle that assembled into a pinhole camera that uses 35mm film. So I bought it. Its still in the box, but I can confidently say that I did buy film in 2020.

I can only share my experience of shooting baseball, and granted, its been for my son's little league team, but here goes:

I use the Nikon D750, and the Nikon 28-300 lens. It allows me to get the kids as they are batting, but is also fast enough that shots of running don't get blurred. I really like this lens for action shots. Every year, I take pics of all the kids on his team at bat and in the field, and then have prints made for the parents. Everyone is always so appreciative of me doing that, and complimentary of the photos (since the only other cameras I see are smartphones). Side note: I'd really like get a longer lens as well, so could get closer shots, I'd love to capture these kids' faces as they get a hit. Priceless.

Anyway, I know thats not exactly what you're looking for, but the lens is great, in my opinion. Of course, if you were to put the 28-300 on your crop sensor, you could get "closer" than I do, I don't know what (if anything) it would do for resolution. someone smarter than me can chime in on that.

Attached file:
(Download)

Stephen Wilkes utilizes a similar tactic for his "Day to Night" photography. Though, Stephen's process is MUCH more intricate:

https://stephenwilkes.com/fine-art/day-to-night/

I got to see some of his work last fall in NYC at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Giant photographs I could stare at for days and still not see everything he included. His naturescapes are amazing, but his NYC photos are just unreal.

Here is a 6 minute piece that CBS Sunday morning did on him a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjfCJo8Kutg