Archive for February, 2011

It doesn’t seem possible it has been weeks since my last post. Some of the people I follow post several times in one day! I have been busy with work, family, travel, and arts and craft shows.

We seemingly had a great launch of STS 133, Space Shuttle Discovery on Thursday. It is estimated that some 300,000 plus people came to our area to watch the launch. It took some 8 hours for the traffic to filter out and blend into the normal traffic flow. What typically takes me 25 minutes turned into a 4 1/2 hour trip home.

The next Space Shuttle launch is currently planned for April 19th at 7:38pm. That week in April coincides with the peak of the spring break season here in Florida so there should be a lot of people here for that.

The photos below are a few I took on launch day. I found a spot in a parking lot just south of the Launch Control Center (LCC). The location was some three miles away from the launch pad. The press site was just across the street. I had my Canon 1D Mark IV attached to a 500mm lens. I shot in manual mode setting the shutter speed to 1/4000th of a second. That was just a guess on my part. I set the shutter speed that fast because of the brilliance of the engine exhaust. On the second image, I applied a radial blur effect to the image to give it a sense of movement (warp factor 6?). Contact me if you want to know more about the radial blur application.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Regards,

Jim

On Monday Evening, January 31st, STS 133 with the orbiter Discovery rolled to the launch pad for the last time. I was able to get a car pass that enabled me to get very close to the crawler way. The crawler way is a specially prepared road bed that allows the crawler transporter to take the millions of poinds of weight to the launch pass. The roll out was at 8pm so a lot of us workers could take family members out for a farewell.

I decided in advance that I would try high dynamic range (HDR) photography. As a refresher, that is where you take multiple images at different exposes to capture details that ordinarily be hidden. I was using my new camera which allows for 5 exposures instead of the three available in my other camera. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since the crawler transporter is moving even though it is at a modest half mile per hour. With HDR, it is best with no movement to eliminate a ghosting effect.

I have included 3 images from the night. let me know what you think.

Clearing the Vehicle Assembly Building

Regards,

Jim

I recently went on a tour into prime Scrub Jay habitat. The tour was part of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival that was held the last week here in Titusville, Fl. The tour began at the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. The group listened to a presentation from a biologist that works with NASA to help NASA manage the habitat on Kennedy Space Center to the benefit of the Scrub Jay.

After the one hour presentation we hopped on a bus where we were driven onto the Space Center into Scrub Jay habitat. Even though I work on the Space Center, this is an area that is off of the beaten path. I don’t travel to these places because I would rather not try to explain to a security detail. So, each year I try to take this tour.

There were about 25 or so people on the tour. We had an option of following the tour leaders into the habitat or explore the immediate area on our own. We were encourage not to explore too far away from the bus. Last year I followed the tour leaders. There was too much commotion so the birds stayed hidden. This year, I chose to go on my own so I could get some decent photo opportunities.

The Scrub Jay is usually extremely inquisitive and usually comes out to check things out. I was able to find several groups (families) of birds. At one point I sat in a sandy spot and the birds came out to me. The birds dared to get within a few inches of me but none hopped on my hand or head. Since they were so close, I had shorten up the focus range of my lens (I was shooting with a 70-200mm lens, hand held). I have included a couple of photos I took on the tour.

Scrub Jay Sentinel

Up Close!

Hope you all have a great week!

Regards,

Jim