Cliff's Pictures

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  • Flower Moon - The last supermoon of 2020 sets behind an old windmill in rural Baraboo, Wisconsin.
    Flower Moon
  • Project Notes--<br />
<br />
Location: 		Baraboo, WI USA<br />
Temperature: 	50F<br />
Weather: 		Clear sky but fog near ground in early morning<br />
Date/Time: 		2019-10-08	2:00am to 6:00(ish) Central Time<br />
Subject: 		Star Trails around North Star, Draconids/Orionids<br />
<br />
Camera: 		Canon EOS Rebel T7i<br />
Lens: 			Rokinon 2.8/14mm<br />
Aperture: 		f/2.8<br />
ISO: 			3200<br />
Exposure time: 	318 12sec exposures over 1hr 20min<br />
<br />
Comments:		While setting up I saw a very bright fireball!<br />
				There were 930 images taken during the session but fog <br />
				rolled in so most images were not included in star trails.<br />
				The foreground is from an image taken earlier in the <br />
				evening while the moon was still out and all light is <br />
				from the moon.<br />
				There is one meteor in the photo near Polaris (a little<br />
				up and to the left).  The streak near the ground on the<br />
				right side of the photo is a flare from a satellite.
    Star Trails in Moonlight
  • Winter scene
    winter scene
  • New Snow on an early December morning while the world is still waking up.
    New Snow
  • Winding road runs past isolated tree with sunset colors in the distance
    May Day Sunset
  • This image was part of a collection used for a hand crafted jewelry exhibit at the Al. Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, WI.
    Lamppost on the Baraboo River
  • 1st Presbyterian Church of Baraboo
  • Trees growing in sandstone cliffs along the shore of Mirror Late in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
    Trees in Sandstone
  • The constellation Orion stands above "the Narrows," the eastern gateway to Baraboo
    Orion over the Narrows
  • This image was part of a collection used for a hand crafted jewelry exhibit at the Al. Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, WI.
    Circus World Big Top
  • Photograph of a sculpture by Dr. Evermore<br />
<br />
This image was part of a collection used for a hand crafted jewelry exhibit at the Al. Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, WI.
    Captain Henry Every
  • This image was part of a collection used for a hand crafted jewelry exhibit at the Al. Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, WI.
    Devil's Doorway at Devil's Lake Stat..Park
  • This image was part of a collection used for a hand crafted jewelry exhibit at the Al. Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, WI.
    Elephant at the Ringling house
  • Moon over mist on Leech Lakes, Baraboo, Wisconsin
    moon mist
  • Full moon rising behind an oak tree in Baraboo, Wisconsin on the Fourth of July, 2020
    Full Moon on the Fourth of July
  • Full Lunar Eclipse of 2022-05-15 from Baraboo, Wisconsin USA
    eclipse 2022-05-15
  • Did you ever hear the expression "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"?  This photo came from an attempt to photograph the Perseid meteors on August 8th, 2022.  That was a bit before peak but the forecast didn't look to good so I didn't expect a whole lot.  The almost-full moon was another problem because the light brightens the sky and makes the meteors harder to see.  But I gave it a try and did manage to catch about 15 meteors, but they were faint and not quite what I had hoped for.  However... I had a whole nights worth of photos so I decided to blend them all together to make a star trails photo instead, and I love the result!<br />
<br />
Meteors are fast -- the streaks of light last only a second or two -- so the way to catch them in a photo is to set up the camera to take one short exposure after another, all night long.  That's exactly what I did, and ended up with over 1600 pictures.  But all night long the earth is spinning so in each photo the stars appear to have moved a tiny bit. By taking all 1600 photos and "stacking" them, those slight movements add up and show up as light trails, which you see in the photo.<br />
<br />
Of course there are more bright things in the sky besides stars, planets, and meteors; I also captured satellite and airplane lights and spent quite a lot of time removing them from the image but I'm sure there are a few that I missed.  If you examine the picture closely and see a streak of light, it is probably a satellite or airplane trail but might be a meteor.<br />
<br />
I hope you enjoy the photo as much as I did creating it.<br />
<br />
Equipment and Software:<br />
Nikon Z6II camera<br />
Nikkor Z 14-30 f/4.5 lens<br />
Foreground: 1 x 60-sec ISO400 f/8 14mm<br />
Stars: 1605 x 13-sec ISO640 f/4.5 14mm<br />
<br />
PixInsight for photo cleanup and stacking to star trails<br />
Gimp for blending foreground and star trails<br />
darktable for color and final touchups
    Lemonade Swirl
  • Geminid Meteor captured during a brief break in the clouds on December 13, 2020
    Geminid Meteor
  • Total lunar eclipse taken during the total lunar eclipse of January 20-21, 2019 with a Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera v2. 121 exposures taken at 3 minute intervals, exposure time and ISO programmed to change as moon got darker and lighter again. 96 images are visible, the others happened before and after the moon was in the frame. Stars were visible during darkest parts but I edited them out.
    String of Moons
  • Comet Neowise over Mirror Lake, July 16, 2020
    Neowise over Mirror Lake
  • The Beehive Cluster (M44) and eclipsed moon. Taken during the total lunar eclipse of January 20-21, 2019
    Beehive and Eclipsed Moon
  • Evening light falls on a few blades of grass that are still wet from an afternoon rain shower.
    After the Rain
  • Taken during the total lunar eclipse of January 20-21, 2019
    Blood Moon
  • Small pond with reeds and algae is a cozy habitat for birds, frogs, and turtles.
    Watersong
  • October Harvest
    October Harvest
  • Sadr and ic1318
    Sadr and ic1318
  • Rural decay and a threatening Fall sky.
    Stumped
  • Our dog Gracie and her pet hedgehog Hedgie.
    Gracie and Hedgie
  • I drive by this barn on my way to work.
    Barn in Snow
  • I'm quite pleased with this image of the Pinwheel Galaxy given that I took it with a DSLR and telephoto lens! Found it "by hand" too. My polar alignment looked great but in a test image I found that a 5 minute sub was leaving trails, so I reduced exposures to 1 minute.<br />
<br />
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T7i<br />
Lens: Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD<br />
Tracker: iOptron SkyGuider<br />
Focal length: 400mm<br />
Aperture: f/9<br />
ISO: 3200<br />
Exposure time: 60 seconds x 83 = 1hr, 23min.
    Pinwheel Galaxy - M101
  • View of the Milky Way from my yard.
    South East View
  • Rain in the Marsh
  • This is a panorama taken during Crane Count in November 2018 where volunteers attempt to accurately count cranes as they roost for the evening on the islands and sandbars of the Wisconsin River.  My wife and I watched all of these come in and did our best with counting, but it was overwhelming.  We came up with a total of around 5000.  You are welcome to zoom in and give it a try yourself.
    Crane Count 2018
  • Our dog Gracie getting a drink from the hose.
    Gracie
  • Sometimes the mundane things around us become so familiar that they become as comfortable as old friends.
    Old Friend
  • I took this for practice on a night when I couldn't fall back to sleep and ended up growing fond of it.
    Fairfield Milky Way
  • Rocks at Devil's Lake State Park
  • Aldo Leopold's shack near the Wisconsin river
    Aldo Leopold Shack
  • Moonset Reflections
  • I found this guy while on our evening walk.
    Turtle!
  • M42 Orion Nebula
    M42 2021-02-02
  • Milky Way in the early hours of a fine May morning
    May Milky Way
  • Summer Daze
  • This is one of my favorites.  It's a simple little stream almost walking distance from my house, but I love going there to take pictures.
    Marsh Morning
  • Aldo Leopold's "shack" near the Wisconsin river.
    The Shack at Sunset
  • Harvesting corn kicked up a cloud of dust across the street from where I live
    Across the Street
  • Leech Creek Sunset
  • Summer Sundown
  • Spring Sunrise
  • Marsh Moonset
  • View at Devil's Lake State Park
  • Devil's Lake State Park Shoreline
  • One morning my wife said to me "Hey Cliff, the moon looks really neat."  She was right.  I grabbed my camera and got this photo.  Interesting note:  It was so dark at the time that I didn't know the barn was in the picture until post processing.
    Morning Moonset
  • Taken on one of the first warm days of 2019 at Mirror Lake State Park.
    Mirror Lake Sunset in Spring
  • Winter in Wisconsin never seems to quit.  The sun will shine for a few days in March and you think that you've seen the last of the snow, and then you wake up to another blanket of white.  But it's beautiful none the less.
    Evergreen Trees
  • Sandhill cranes on the Wisconsin River
    Cranes on the River
  • The colors from the setting sun are what caught my eye.  Our dogs were more interested in the smell of skunk.
    Woodpile
  • Aldo Leopold's shack near the Wisconsin river
    Shack in Black and White
  • On Tuesday, April 7, 2020 I photographed the "Pink Moon," a full moon which this year is also a supermoon, the first full Moon of spring. A "Pink Moon" does not mean the moon's color is pink, but in this picture the sunset in the opposite direction did give the sky a red-purple hue which did add some color to the moon.
    Pink Moon 2020
  • Mist on Mirror Lake
  • Very early spring has a beauty of its own, but it can be tough to find.
    Mirror Lake Stream in Spring
  • Every once in a while I get the idea for a photo in such detail that taking the picture is mostly a process of waiting for the right season, or the right weather, and then hunting down the pieces and arranging them to match the image in my head. This is one of those times.<br />
<br />
For this picture the subject had to include tulips; and for me tulips bring me back to my high school days when I worked at my uncle's greenhouse with my uncle and grandfather. I decided to photograph a still image that included tulips and a few other items that I associate with those greenhouse days.<br />
<br />
Notice that some tulips are in a vase and others just cut. My thought here was to show the transition from flowers in the field to a finished arrangement. The knife you see is the actual knife I used way back then. The notebook is not "original" but reminds me of the diary my grandfather kept. When my uncle and grandfather disagreed about which week we pulled the bulbs out of the bulb cellar last year, Grandpa's diary settled the matter. The mug is also not from the greenhouse, but it reminds me of the 10:00 coffee break we had -- and which is still a vital part of my day.<br />
<br />
I also wanted a setting reminiscent of the workbench in the greenhouse. Nothing fancy, just some old boards -- yet they have character. They have been around. They have a story to tell.
    Cut Tulips
  • Crabapple tree in bloom
    crabapple
  • Venus shining out in the early evening sky
    Venus
  • Red-winged blackbird perched on reeds growing in a pond
    Kok-a-Ree
  • Cassiopeia shines over Aldo Leopold's "Sand County" Shack on the Wisconsin River.
    Winter Night at the Shack
  • Another early Milky Way photo.
    Milky Way in Snow
  • November Reflections
  • Evening Walk
  • Milky Way over Devil's Lake State Park, June 25 2019.<br />
<br />
Canon EOS Rebel T7i, Rokinon 2.8/14mm<br />
<br />
15x 12sec ISO3200 f/2.8 stacked in PixInsight, one of these frames for foreground.  Composite done with Gimp, processing done with darktable.
    Devil's Lake, Baraboo WI
  • August Sunrise over Baraboo
  • Baraboo Bridge
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