Category Archives: Landscape

More on Star Trails…

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Wacousta Time Lapse Stacked

 

HAPPY (LUNAR) NEW YEAR!

A few weeks ago, I went back to visit my parents in Michigan for a weekend, and spend some quality time with them for the Lunar New Year (a.k.a. Tet). In addition to the good food, and the spending time with the parents, another one of the benefits of leaving Chicago is the ability to get away from the light pollution. Granted, it’s great living in a big city, where street lights allow you to see where you are going, and give you some feeling of security at night, but if you’re trying to look up and see the stars, it’s no bueno, as they say. All those bright lights reflect back into the sky, and diffract in the atmosphere, making it much more difficult for the already dim star light to find it’s way to our peepers (a.k.a. eyeballs). In any case, using the Photographer’s Ephemeris app, I was able to find the times of the sunset and the moonset, and then using the Star Walk app, figured out which direction to point my camera. After getting the settings dialed in, I set up my camera to manual, using a remote timer to take 99 shots. 16mm, F/5.6, 20s at ISO 1600. And just like with a RonCo rotisserie cooker, I just set it and… FORGET IT! Well, not quite, I still hung around out in the cold for about 40 minutes trying to stay warm as my camera fired away.

The eventual shots I took, converted to jpeg, and imported into Adobe Premiere Pro to turn into this 9 second timelapse (Best viewed in 1080p, fullscreen, if possible).

It’s kind of crazy how many shots you need to take to turn into a timelapse video of a respectable length.

So now, you’re probably wondering, what does this video have to do with star trails? Well, I’m glad you asked. Previously, I would shoot with low ISO, small aperture, and a long shutter speed to get the star trails. This time, I went with a different method. Taking a large number of discrete shots, and then stacking them in photoshop. There are pros and cons to each method, especially since this method takes a whole lot more effort to get the final star trail photo. I’m lookign to do a little camping this summer, so hopefully I can do some more star trail photos. That’s it for now! So, how are you doing?

Photos from Hard Drive Purgatory: 2011 Roadtrip – Las Vegas & Red Rock Canyon

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Rock Hopping in Red Rock Canyon, August 2011

What happened last night?!

That was the first thought that crossed my mind last Thursday.  After my last blog post, I gave my teeth a bristling rubdown, and I promptly zonked out on my friend’s couch.  During the night, as I was busy sawin’ logs, people were busy readin’  blogs.  I awoke to my regular morning routine (well, as regular of a routine as you can have for only being in existance for about 6 business days at that point), to find that I had 30 unread emails.  Which isn’t necessarily unusual, but these all came from the same source… Some inbox-clogging spammer who goes by the name “WordPress” was probably trying to get me to help out his rich uncle with an unclaimed inheritance… But wait a second.  WordPress?  I rubbed my eyes.  Is this real life?  Well, let me back up a bit…

What’s my “regular morning routine?” (Which, I realize, is redundant to say regular, in regards to a routine.)

Well, the first thing I do when I wake up, is to promptly hit the snooze button on my alarm.  I’m trying to sleep, dang it!  Once I’ve done that a couple times, and I’m ready to wake up, the first thing I do is check email on my phone.  People might think that’s weird that I might be tethered to my phone, or addicted to internet or something.  And while those things may be true, the real reason I do it, is because I find that forcing myself to read something really helps arouse my mental faculties.  Sorry if it weirds you out that I’m talking about arousing myself early in the morning, but am I the only one who does this? (To clarify, I’m talking about checking emails first thing in the morning…)

In any case, it took me a moment to figure out that my blog was busy getting some action last night, and didn’t even think to leave a sock on the doorknob.

Blogs would be terrible roommates, wouldn’t they?

Not only don’t they tell you before hand that they’ll be getting action, they are the kind to brag about it later and let you know every time a sexy blogger is giving them some love.

Anyway, come to find out that I was…

Freshly Pressed

As I’m sure you all know by now.  I mean, that’s how you found my blog, most likely.  Either that, or you are typing in some really specific google searches right now.  Of course, I was as surprised as could be.

How did they find me?

It’s not like I’m going out of my way to not be read, but I don’t really blog too often, and I don’t really promote my blog to people.  But, for some reason, I feel the need to update periodically, as if I only do it out of some strange, innate and primal urge to document something in my life.  And I wouldn’t say I’m that prolific or proficient of a writer.  I usually start off a blog post with an idea of how to start it, and the intent of sharing some photos, but rarely do I ever know where I’m going, and when I’m going to stop.  Usually, I get bored of my own ramblings, and then end up posting photos without ever really fully getting through what I thought I’d say.  But, in any case, thanks for reading my blog anyway!  I appreciate those who read, liked, commented, or followed my blog.  I obviously made some grandiose claims in the last blog post about me posting more frequently or something, but if I were you, I wouldn’t put any money on it.  And, it’s not too soon, is it?  I mean, I know in some cultures, there is typically a 2 day waiting period where you gotta try and play it cool, or you’ll seem really needy.  But with what seems like an audience now, I may feel the need to update more regularly.

But I will add, if I get nervous, and have writer’s block or something, be warned that I’m probably picturing you naked.

Just sayin’… I mean, it works for public speaking, right?  So, it’ll work for some public writing too, right? 😛  It’s just science.

Anyway, as promised in my last blog post, here’s an update with some photos from…

Las Vegas & Red Rock Canyon

These photos were taken in August of 2011, when my brother, Jimmy (the dude in the pictures), and I went on a 6 week roadtrip from Michigan, all the way to Seattle, then down the coast of Cali, through Nevada, Colorado, and then back to Michigan.  Las Vegas was actually the last stop for my brother though, as he was flying out of Vegas to start his new job in Montana, and I would continue on the rest of my roadtrip  solo (although, I met up with a lot of friends in various places on the way back).  In any case, we spent the night wandering the strip, and the day in Red Rock Canyon, hiking around, climbing on, and jumping off of stuff.  It was truly a wonderful time with my brother… And here are the pictures to prove it (all taken with my Nikon d700, in case you’re curious.  🙂

Okay, so that’s it! My next post will probably be sometime between next week, and 6 weeks from now. Just to give a timeframe equivalent to what the cable companies provide. 🙂 Have a good one, everyone! And thanks again for reading, liking, commenting, or following!

An April 2012 Update…

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From the top of Cat in the Hat, in Red Rock Canyon, NV.

Where have I been?

They say, absence makes the heart grow fonder… although, sometimes the authorities may refer to it as “unlawful neglect of a blog”.  So, I apologize if it seems that my blog has been wallowing in it’s own filth, and had to survive only on the little tidbits of updates I provide my flickr feed via instagram (located at the bottom of my blog), but I promise I have excuses a-plenty!

A New Job, a New City

So, if you aren’t a facebook friend, or a personal friend, you may not realize that I just started a new chapter of my life.  (Hopefully, this new chapter will see much more action than my blog does.) Even though I’ve been “Fun-employed” for the past 8 months, and I enjoyed every single moment of it, I had an opportunity come my way that was difficult for me to pass up.  After my trip out to Montana, I had updated my resume, and sent it to a friend who told me of a great opening at her company.  This followed with a couple of phone interviews, which then led to a day of in-person interviews.  Several weeks later, that incubated egg hatched into a job offer.  So, while it may seem that I’ve been neglecting this blog (which I have), It’s really only because I’ve been cheating on it by getting a job.  So, is that a lesser evil?  I don’t know.

So to sum up what I just said, (or TL:DR, in internet speak), I applied for, interviewed for, received, accepted, and began my new job since my last post.  I am now a Project Manager at Schawk (http://www.schawk.com/), and am now sleeping on my friend’s couch in Chicago!  The couch thing is only temporary, until I find my own place, but hopefully the new job thing lasts longer.  I’m excited to return to being a contributing member of society, and also to have a new city to explore!

But, Seriously!  Where else have I been?

Okay, so, I’m not being completely honest.  It’s not like I was locked up in some dungeon, feverishly working on my resume, and practicing my interviewing skills.  I was still out doing this, that and the other, when I watching episodes of Doctor Who on netflix.  So, where was I?

Las Vegas, and Red Rock Canyon

My last big trip was an extended weekend in Las Vegas, and Red Rock Canyon, in Nevada.  I met up with some friends there, with the main goal to do a 5.6/5.7 multi-pitch trad climb called “Cat in the Hat” in Red Rock, but also squeeze in some fun in Vegas.  I’m not a big gambler, but I did end up winning $80 on slots on the first day, and gradually giving back $60 throughout the weekend via video black jack, one quarter’s worth at a time.  But we balanced out the excitement with a Cirque show, (Ka, which was utterly, breath-taking, and edge-of-your-seat exhilarating).

It was a great trip, and although I’ve been to Red Rock Canyon before (I’ll post photos from last August when I was there, in my next post), I’m sure it won’t be my last time.

Anyway, I’ll post some photos now, and shut up. 🙂

Red Rock Canyon & Climbing Cat in the Hat

Whoa, so I spoke too soon.  I’m not shutting up, quite yet.  I just wanted to add that I didn’t take quite as many photos as I would have liked, and since we got a late start to the climb, and with how busy the route was, it seemed we were always in a rush, especially since we had to be out of the park by 7pm, or we would have been fined an additional $100+.  I think next time I come back, I’ll see if I can take some night photos; the hike out via headlamps and moonlight was amazingly beautiful, even if we were trying to race against the clock.  Okay, I digress, here are the photos. 🙂


The whole climb took about 6 hrs, but a lot of it was waiting for others ahead of us to come down, as the belay stations at the top weren’t very big.  I’ll probably update this with more descriptions for photos, but I’m just going to publish now, because I’m going to bed, now that I have a job to go to in the morning! 🙂  Thanks for reading!  More posts soon, I promise!

Hiking Long’s Peak: Redux

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Hiking Long’s Peak:

A slideshow

So, I made a slideshow for the Long’s Peak hike, which I blogged about in laborious detail here: https://jletookthis.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/longs-peak-my-first-fourteener/

I know some people appreciated the timelapse-slideshow I made of my Europe trip, so I decided to do the same to all the photos from the hike.  You can watch the video in HD on Vimeo, or in the embedded video below.

Long’s Peak: My First Fourteener from Justin Le on Vimeo.

In August of 2011, some friends and I attempted to hike Long’s Peak – one of the more well-known fourteeners in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. The journey is grueling, and reportedly perilous. Would we make it? Watch the video to find out!

I blogged and posted some photos of the hike a couple months ago (https://jletookthis.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/longs-peak-my-first-fourteener/), but then I decided I’d put together a timelapse-style slideshow of the hike with all the photos I took. These photos were shot in raw, and were taken straight out of camera with no editing or cropping, and batch exported to jpeg.

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 20mm f/2.8, Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8

Song: Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

http://vimeo.com/34117404

Hometown Stars…

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Went home to visit the ‘rents today, and thought I’d take some star photos.  My hometown is about 20 minutes outside of Lansing, MI, (which is to say, 20 minutes into the boonies), so there is less light pollution than the city, but it’s not completely absent.  My buddy Andrew had sent me a shot of what I think is called a star field (correct me if I’m wrong), and I figured I’d give it a shot.  The sky was clear enough, but I definitely think it’d be better if I was further away from any large light sources polluting my sky and my photos. 🙂

 


 

My first attempt trying to capture star fields. All shot with my Nikon D700, and the Nikon 20mm f/2.8 at various settings on a tripod.  It was hard trying to set the camera in the dark as well as having to focus manually, so I might have some things I want to change for next time.