Australia and New Zealand - part 1

Recently I took a trip to the countries down under to watch the total solar eclipse of 2012. This is the story of how this trip went and what I saw there...

I will not bore you with the details of the trip to Australia just yet (maybe on a later post :p ), but I'll show you a preview, a "best of" if you will, of what's to come.

This... is Sydney :

Financial Centre

purple tree and moon, early morning

The Sydney Opera and Bridge at night

Sydney at night

Sydney at night, tilted

And because Sydney offers some interesting wildlife, here are some of my favourites:

Humpback whales: mother and calf

Humpback whale waving its tale

Medusas :)

Meeting at twilight

Rex, the crocodile, eager for visitors :)

I didn't stay just in Sydney, after all the country is full of wonderful places to visit:

boats in Cairns harbour

out on the boat

coral reefs straight ahead!

tornado in sight. beware!

Uluru / Ayers Rock

yep, definitely watch out for kangaroos out here

Kata Tjuta

Uluru at sunset

And now that you've seen some of the beauties of Australia, let's move to its neighbour, New Zealand:

Rotorua, North Island

Maori boat - details

Rotorua museum, before sunset

same Rotorua museum, just closer

Mount Ngauruhoe, at the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a.k.a "Mount Doom" (Lord of the Rings)

The Emerald Lakes, inside the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Wellington harbour

Wellington at night

Stay tuned for a more detailed account of my adventures in these wonderful places.

Panstarrs comet - revisited

I decided today to play a little bit in Photoshop and see what I could do with one of the photos I took of the comet last week.
I adjusted the curves and levels a little bit, and I applied Color Dodge to the layers. This is the result:

I realised in my previous post I didn't write anything about the settings used to take the shot, so here they are:
Place: Fundulea, Romania
Camera: Canon 450D
Lens: Canon 75-300 mm zoom lens at f/5
Exposure: 10 sec
ISO: 1600
Mount: tripod

Cometa PANSTARRS

De cometa Panstarrs am auzit anul trecut, ca fiind una dintre cele 2 comete mult asteptate ale anului... Avand in vedere noua mea pasiune pentru astrofotografie, de-abia am asteptat momentul sa isi faca aparitia si in emisfera nordica. Iata ca a sosit momentul mult asteptat, dar cometa se afla ascunsa bine de tot in spatele unor nori grosi... Din fericire, dupa cateva zile, am avut si o seara cu cer senin :)

Am lasat balta tot si am plecat, cu alti pasionati, sa vanam cometa :D
Unde? Pe un camp de langa Fundulea, la 20-25 km de Bucuresti - o zona propice astrofotografiei, din categoria "mai bine de atat nu se poate" langa capitala.
Cand? Vineri, 15 martie, ora 19.00-19.30

Singurul aspect negativ: vantul puternic, de aproximativ 40-50 km/h, ce iti taia respiratia si cobora mult temperatura ambientala. Ma bucur doar ca am avut prevederea sa-mi iau manusile. Chiar si asa, degetele mi-au inghetat dupa cateva minute. In fine, nimic nu se castiga fara sacrificii, nu? :)

Iata si cele mai bune rezultate ale serii:

Imaginile au fost facute cu un aparat Canon 450D si cu un obiectiv 75-300mm, 5.6 zoom lens.
Singura prelucrare a fost un usor crop al primelor 2 cadre.