Best Of
Solar Eclipse - April 8, 2024
I didn't see a thread here, so let me be the first! We went up to Fishers, Indiana, just northeast of Indianapolis, for the eclipse. That's an 8-hour drive from home, drove up Sunday - I'm not an astrophysicist, but we did stay at a Holiday Inn Express! We watched from the hotel parking lot with a couple dozen other folks. We had some high, thin cirrus clouds that really didn't affect our shots. This is the second eclipse that I've experienced totality - I was out for the 2017 show as well - and it is an absolutely amazing sight to see!
Please feel free to add your photos to this thread; I look forward to seeing what everyone was able to capture!
Mini Challenge #366 -- Life After Dark
I really had to wrack my brain for a topic for this mini! I've always envied those photographers who manage to get awesome photos at night--whether it's fireworks, milky way or star shots, downtown skylines, or just whatever is of interest after dark. I have made some attempts over the years to figure this out, but I always fall short of anything stellar. What I would LOVE to see in this mini is your awesome after dark photos (and maybe a short how-to for the rest of us to learn from). I don't care what the subject or scenery is--fireworks, milky way, cityscapes, bridges, or any after-dark events you photographed. Extra points for a little instruction or tips that you pass along.
I am going to have this mini go for slightly over 3 weeks to end on Sunday, March 17th at 6 pm Central Daylight Time (since I think the time changes in early March). I hope that gives everyone some time. Please make this hard for me to judge!
If you need a reminder, the rules are at this link: https://dgrin.com/discussion/248032/mini-challenge-un-official-rules
Here are some of my examples. I've already said I'm still trying to figure this out, so none of these are of the caliber I would like to share, but I hope it gives you some inspiration.
Milky Way at Zion National Park -- this was shot with my Canon 5D MKIII and my Canon 24-70 lens, f2.8, 25 second exposure, ISO 6400.
Paul McCartney at the ACL Festival in 2018. I actually shot this with my cell phone, so no real skill involved.
Marching Band's Halftime Performance -- For the last 14-15 years, I have been photographing a local high school's marching band during football season. I have so many examples from band kids at night, but will just post a couple. The biggest key to these is using as fast a shutter speed as you can because these kids are moving (usually fairly quickly!) For this one, I used my Canon 5D MKIII with my Canon 70-200 mm lens at 200mm, f4, 1/200 shutter speed, and ISO 2500.
Another night-time marching band shot. This one same settings as above, but f5 and ISO 3200.
- The Moon -- I shot this at a football game. I had my Canon 5D MKIII and a Canon 100-400mm lens. This was zoomed to 400 mm, f8, 1/200, and ISO 200. Also handheld!
Alas, I have no fireworks images that aren't blurry and I can't find my city skylines. I'll add them later if I find them.
I hope to see lots of entries for this one!
Sherry Pollett
SmugMug WordPress Plugin
I see so many SmugMug subscribers with WordPress websites who design their SmugMug page and WordPress in a similar way to create a consistent brand for themselves. I assume many of us wouldn't even need a SmugMug website separate from our WordPress website if we could just embed our SmugMug gallery directly into our WordPress website.
WordPress is the biggest CMS on the internet, so I was surprised to learn that SmugMug didn't have an official plugin for it. My website's visitor's experience would be so much better if they didn't have to jump between my separated blog and photo gallery, its confusing for them because it's impossible for me to make both websites look exactly the same. My print sales would go up if the customers had an easier time navigating (along with SmugMug's profit from their 15% commission)
WordPress is open source, and building a plugin would make SmugMug look good as a company because they are supporting the open-source community. An official SmugMug plugin would help the company gain more customers by driving traffic to SmugMug's website from the wordpress.org plugin repository that millions of people use on a daily basis. More people would subscribe to SmugMug service if they noticed a WordPress compatibility feature on SmugMug's landing page.
With all of these different benefits to having a SmugMug WordPress plugin, why hasn't one been created yet?
Re: Mini Challenge #365 - Clouds, clouds, and more clouds
Ooh I love these images! Here are some of mine:
Northern Iowa Storm
Taos Pueblo
Rural Iowa
Re: Mini Challenge #365 - Clouds, clouds, and more clouds
A few for my contribution
Sea Side, Oregon
Rainbow Lake, Pinetop, Arizona
New Smyrna Beach, East Coast Florida
Been awhile.
Been awhile since posting. Life has a way of getting in the way at times. This is my little friend from next door.
Re: Post your Bridges
Great idea Peter, we can use some more activity here
Let me start with two bridges you showed as well
Scanned colour slide from oktober 1982 (the only time I ever was in SF)
And a similar nighttime shot from Köln
I don't have photo's of your first bridge, but that's easily corrected since I don't live too far from there, I'm guessing it's the bridge across the Schelde in Temse.
Re: Mini-Challenge #360: Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers
I don't have a lot of water pictures, but I have a few from some of our travels.
Mill pond by 1781 Selectman's Bldg, Somesville, ME
Schoodic Point, Acadia National Park, Maine
Oxbow Bend, Snake River, Grand Teton National Park
It was foggy and overcast on our last trip to Grand Teton NP. We never did see the tops of the mountains. No worries, though! We saw them on another trip to the area.
Sherry P.