Posts Tagged photography
Horse Drawn To Water
Composite image by Terry Hancock (downunderobservatory.com) and Marc Hoeksema (hoeksemaphoto.com)
I love putting together “collages” of photos in Photoshop. (Image composites are sortof my bag, baby.) Following last week’s lovely Saturn beach, here is a Horsehead lake, courtesy of Terry Hancock:
This is not my typical image, nor is it scientific, just an artistic idea. The current joint exhibit by myself and Marc Hoeksema feature totally different types of photography. Mark does earthly scenes and I do astrophotography so we decided to do a combination Earth/Sky shot. Marc kindly lent me his image of a fallen tree shot in Grand Haven MI and I combined it with my shot of The Horsehead Nebula.
Here is the original Horsehead Nebula shot:
Photo by Terry Hancock (downunderobservatory.com)
On the Beach
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on July 6, 2010
Astronaut on the beach, image © Hunter Freeman, 2008
One of my very first posts here was a blank greeting card I found in Portland, Astronaut Cafe by Hunter Freeman. Turns out there’s more in the series! Maybe this is an astronaut vacation, maybe he lost his car keys… hard to tell.
Ice-framed Moon
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture, Picspam on March 18, 2010
Credit: Sally J. Smith
This beautiful photograph is featured on SpaceWeather.com today — a crescent moon as seen through an ice sculpture by Sally J. Smith:
Yesterday, March 17th, nature artist Sally J. Smith of Wadhams, New York, created her last ice sculpture of the 2009-10 winter season. “I set it up before the sun went down and hoped it would be in good alignment to catch the crescent moon,” she says. Indeed it was [...] “The winds were warm and the sculpture melted faster than I anticipated, but in the end all was well. Even Venus made it into the scene. A few seconds later the top part of the sculpture fell off.” And so winter comes to an end…
Here’s how the sculpture started out:
Credit: Sally J. Smith
Such a creative idea! It reminds me of something in a book I picked up recently, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School — “Frame a view, don’t merely exhibit it.” This is a perfect example of why framing matters. I’m not an architect, nor am I in architecture school — I just love architecture — but I found a surprising amount of tips in that little book, perfectly applicable to web and graphic design. I find it helpful to step outside my own “industry” and get inspiration from other sources. You never know what “unrelated” thing may help you solve a problem or prompt an idea!
Helene
I’m pretty sure it’s not intentional, but the cropping of this new image of Saturn’s moon Helene makes it really eye-catching. Framing really makes or breaks a photo. I’m in an artsy mood, alright? Also, color images can be gorgeous and breathtaking (and space ones often are), but there’s just something about black and white….
(Somewhere out there, a photographer-reader is nodding. Uh-huh. I see you.)
What’s happening on the surface of Saturn’s moon Helene? The moon was imaged in unprecedented detail last week as the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn swooped to within two Earth diameters of the diminutive moon. Although conventional craters and hills appear, the above raw and unprocessed image also shows terrain that appears unusually smooth and streaked. Planetary astronomers will be inspecting these detailed images of Helene to glean clues about the origin and evolution of the 30-km across floating iceberg. Helene is also unusual because it circles Saturn just ahead of the large moon Dione, making it one of only four known moons to occupy a gravitational well known as a stable Lagrange point.
Meteoric
Fireball Meteor Over Groningen - Credit & Copyright: Robert Mikaelyan
Too fantastic not to (wait until it’s not today’s APOD and then) share, today’s APOD by Robert Mikaelyan is simply astounding. Would love to see one of these first-hand!
The brilliant fireball meteor captured in this snapshot was a startling visitor to Tuesday evening’s twilight skies over the city of Groningen. In fact, sightings of the meteor, as bright as the Full Moon, were widely reported throughout the Netherlands and Germany at approximately 17:00 UT. Accompanied by sonic booms and rumbling sounds, the meteor was seen to break up into bright fragments, eventually leaving a persistent smoke-like trail. Even though there are bright fireball meteors in planet Earth’s atmosphere every day, sightings of them are relatively rare because they more often occur over oceans and uninhabited areas.
Space Tools
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on September 2, 2009
These amazingly artistic photos are by Michael Soluri, who photographed the tools used in the most recent Hubble repair mission, before they went into orbit:
The photograph[s were] taken by Michael Soluri in the clean room at the Goddard Space Flight Center just before the last repair mission, in the most restrictive conditions he has ever worked in. He was kitted out in a nylon “bunny suit”, with boots and latex gloves, and his equipment had to be disassembled and chemically bathed beforehand.
The full story is here. (Hat tip to Joel/@LunarPioneer for the article!)
All images © Michael Soluri and no infringement is intended.
More transits
Another amazing solar transit image of Atlantis, taken by the formidable Thierry Legault (via Flight Plan):
The following transit has been taken from the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center on May 12th, only 24 hours after the launch of Atlantis as it was halfway to Hubble, at a distance of only 260 km. Duration of the transit: only 0.3 second. The thin silhouette confirms that the cargo bay doors were opened.
Looking at this crisp transit image, I found myself scratching my head, wondering where I’d seen Legault’s name before. It seemed awfully familiar… maybe from a few years back? And then I remembered THIS:
Far and away, one of the best space images of 2006, and one that fascinated me from the moment I first beheld it!
Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis (50 minutes after undocking from the ISS, before return to Earth), taken from the area of Mamers (Normandie, France) on september 17th 2006 at 13h 38min 50s UT
Eye Candy
As mentioned Wednesday, a Soyuz took off earlier today, carrying Expedition 19 to the International Space Station. This phenomenal launch photo by Bill Ingalls gives me excited fits; hope you enjoy. There’s quite a few more to look at, as well; I think downloading and enjoying the largest resolution available (otherwise known as ENORMO-VISION) is the only way to go.
In other heart-stoppingly-beautiful image news, the Flickr blog had a feature today on “stellar” Flickr photography, talking a bit about the International Year of Astronomy and such; this image by orvaratli was featured. The colors are what get me, and apparently such a shot is not common: “the combination of clear skies, snowy foreground and highly active Aurora is a rare thing in Iceland but it makes a great shot.”
Last, but absolutely not least, the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Program (LOIRP) released their second image last weekend, a fantastic view of Copernicus crater. For those unfamiliar with the program, the above link gives the history nicely, and I look forward to many more images in the future!
Speaking of ENORMO-VISION, the full-size, full-resolution version can be downloaded for the low, low ticket price of 2.2 GIGABYTES (…the satellite internet says NO. Will have to wait on that one until I’m somewhere fast… and for a few hours solid.)
Enjoy the pics — maybe Friday picspam will become a regular thing?
Apollo Liquors
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on October 21, 2008
In the spring of 2000, I drove around Houston, TX taking pictures of space-named businesses, signs, street names, you name it — I think I was aiming to make a collage, but it never happened, and a lot of the pictures (taken on my 35mm) weren’t really large enough or sharp enough to do much with. (I’d love to go back and try again, digital!) In any case, I have to admit, I never found anything as spectacular as this sign, captured as a Lomo print!
A dramatic and fun 8″ x 8″ Matte Photo Print of my lomo lc-a photo “Apollo Liquors” featuring a space age vernacular sign on the streets of the Austin, Minnesota!
I shot this colorful photo using my Lomo LC-A Camera and Kodak Ektachrome e100g film, then cross-processed it for this dramatic color and light effect! This is not a product of Photoshop; the results come from the magic of darkroom cross-processing and the beautiful Lomo camera!
This is a great sign, a fantastic photo, and a fairly accurate rendition of an Apollo Command & Service Module combo. I don’t know what Apollo has to do with liquor, but there you go.
Outer Space, or Ice?
Posted by Danielle in Art & Architecture on July 28, 2008
At first glance I thought this art print was a watercolor of space. Turns out it’s not space, but ice:
This photograph is actually of bubbles rising on a frozen lake, but I’ve always imagined it to be a view of outer space.
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About Silver Rockets
This blog celebrates space exploration, human spaceflight and the heavens, through lots and lots ofimages.
My name is Danielle Signor, and I am a space cadet. STS-133 NASA Tweetup Attendee!
This is a blog, NOT A SHOP. Click the images for their source or purchase link, if available.
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