Dear All,
Mission control here ! I hope you are well and enjoying the cracking sunshine. Another week has passed by..
I read this week that there are three people who couldn't possibly catch the virus as they are in the space station and have been for the past 150-200 days. One wonders what sort of images they might have been taking this week.
Here is a link that will take you to the NASA site where you can (if you so wish), view some of the historical photos. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html You can search by year or between years. Considering this month see the 50th anniversary of Apollo 13, the images are well worth viewing. Remember they were taken with non-digital cameras on film. I know we joke sometimes, that digital cameras allow you to view the image seconds after its was taken, so there's not the 2 week wait to be disappointed.Imagine trying to explain why the images from the moon, were out of focus, or you ran out of film ! or any of the other things that have happened to us photographers in the past.
As it was said on facebook, some people went to the Moon and took 12 -20 images, someone has dinner out or goes to the bathroom and takes hundreds lol. How times have changed. You can imagine judging some of the images taken from the moon landings or from inside the various space craft. Poor depth of field, too much contrast, no interesting cloud formations, poor composition, a record shot ! might look good in mono or what was the photographer thinking and where have all the stars gone ! Just for one of our members, its the sort of shot you get out of the Lunar Lander for, take the image and get back in again. But these images have stood the test of time, they might be a record and were taken on Hasselblads which were adapted for use, but they are special.
One wonders how many of the hundreds of images that we take will be as significant in years to come or how many catch that perfect moment in time.
Hopefully some of you might have taken the opportunity to take some images of the brightest moon we are likely to get this year. I did think about it, then discovered that there was cloud cover - how typical.
This week I've managed to escape from the flat, just so I could visit a local grocery store and stock up on some much needed provisions. It was quite strange to be outside for the first time in 14 days. The good news was there was hardly anyone in the store and we all played a game of avoid the shopper lol. It doesn't look like we are going to get let out early for good behaviour as the lockdown continues.
To prove that life can continue inspite of the lockdown, I took part in an on-line AGM via microsoft teams for the Cornish Institute of Engineers, which worked surprisingly well. It is perhaps something that we could look at doing if the lockdown is likely to continue for some months.
I might not have been busy with the camera this week, but I have been busy with photoshop manipulating some images for some research that I am doing. The results of which I might show you all, some time. I hope you all have been taking images of interesting things which if nothing else could be used for off-camera competitions next season.
As before I have some links/tips etc thanks to my supplier of useful information suitable for publication in the newsletter.