Tag Archives: sky

Night Sky

Capturing the moon and unveiling the Carltonaut logo

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What better way to unveil my new logo for Carltonaut Photography than by pairing it with a photo I shot of the moon moments ago.

Waxing Gibbous Moon

I have no intention of including my logo on all my photos, because I like photos that can speak for themselves. But for this photo, I made an exception. I’ve spent the past little bit trying out different styles, colors, fonts, etc. to find a logo I felt would be fun and tie into my love of photography and space. As my blog’s tagline states, “Photos of (and out of) this world.”

Hope you enjoy the photo and the new logo, and will follow my Carltonaut blog to see what I capture. I’m always looking to see what others capture (either on WordPress, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.), so maybe I’ll come across your work, too.

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun

Wild Weekly Photo Challenge: Sunsets

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Although I have shared various sunset photos in previous posts, I figured I would share this post with a compilation of my favorite sunset photos in conjunction with the Wild Weekly Photo Challenge topic of Sunsets.

Enough said. Let’s get to sharing the photos.

Life on the Beach

050912 Waikiki Sunset Guy

050512 Maui Sunset

Setting sun

Utah has some of the most beautiful sunsets in the winter, as the sun illuminates the snow-covered mountains. I will have to capture some of those shots this winter, although I am not sure I can do justice to the true beauty of the moment.

~signed, Carltonaut

GoPro, Travel

Looking out the Plane Window

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How many of us have tried taking a photo out the plane window? It can be a little challenging with the darkness of the plane and the brightness of the outdoors. So on my way to Philadelphia a week ago, I whipped out my GoPro to take a few shots out the window to see if the wide-angle of the GoPro would make for a good photo.

051612 Plane to Philly

I took that photo while in the air, but when we landed in Minnesota, I whipped out the GoPro when I noticed an airplane on the other end of the runway waiting to take off. In order to catch it out my window, I had the camera set to take a photo every .5 seconds in hopes of catching it. Well, here was the result.

051612 Plane taking off

Nothing really earth shattering, but I think it just goes to show that my mind is almost always thinking about ways to photograph the world around me. My wife mentioned to me the other day that a lot of my life is seen through the viewfinder. Is that good or bad?

~signed, Carltonaut

HDR, Travel

HDR in Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

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During our weekend trip to St. George, we spent Saturday indoors because it was cold and rainy; even terrential at times. But on Sunday before heading back home, the rain stopped and the temperature was just right for a hike in Snow Canyon State Park. It was a beautiful day, and I thought I would try taking some HDR photos.

So at various points along the trail, I would stop, adjust the exposure stops to -2 and +2, hold the camera really steady, and snap the three pictures needed to later compile an HDR photo. While not all of them came out good, here are the two that I thought came out best.

041512 Snow Canyon HDR1

041512 Snow Canyon HDR2

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | Bracketed Exposure -2, 0, +2 | Photomatix Essentials

If you’ve ever been to Snow Canyon State Park in St. George, which trail is your favorite? We despise the Three Ponds trail. Hiking through sand to see what ended up being Three mud puddles was not worth the effort. But the scenery along the trail was nice. :-)

~signed, Carltonaut

Night Sky

Gazing at the moon through a leafing tree

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Having lost my NCAA bracket miserably, a colleague and I have challenged two others to a game of basketball, hoping to reclaim some basketball prowess by beating them miserably. However, I haven’t actually played basketball in a long time, so I thought I would practice in my driveway tonight while my kids rode their scooters.

However, when I saw the moon growing brighter in the sky as the sun set below the horizon, I couldn’t help but grab my Canon 60D and snap a few shots through a leafing tree on the side of my house. I tried a couple of different angles, but I found this angle to be the best.

040312 Moon through trees

Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/160 | f/18 | Exposure Compensation -1 1/3 | ISO 400

I needed to find a way to light up the tree leaves, so I mounted my Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash and shot a few more shots. I think my battery was low, because it took forever for my flash to recharge itself. I also had to adjust the exposure compensation a little lower so the colors looked more vibrant and less washed out.

So after lining up the moon a few more times in the center of this clearing in the tree, I was satisfied and headed inside to take a look at the spoils. That photo above is the result. What do you think?

I took another great photo of a blossoming tree at work earlier today, too. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to check out that one.

~signed, Carltonaut