Volume 4, Issue 1, 11 March 2024 | |
Carpe Noctem! - Seize the Night! | |
Hello and welcome to the Carpe Noctem! newsletter | |
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A belated welcome to 2024, it feels like spring is almost here. It has been a mild and fairly warm, albeit wet winter in Massachusetts.
We are only one month out until the last total solar eclipse in the US until 2045! Make sure to catch it if you can. The button below the photo on the right gets you to a public tutorial about how to shoot a solar eclipse. You can read it for free, but please consider following that channel. There is also an extended print version, see further below for eBooks.
Personally, I am likely in my last year of scientific employment, I am mentally and physically getting ready to retire from my corporate job, to dedicate more time to photography, teaching it and organizing workshops. It has been a few years of contemplating, but I think I am ready.
I have a number of plans for this year, from publishing more eBooks, some photo books, maybe a real book, to doing more workshops.
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Let me know if you have any special interests for topics, locations or experiences. Just reply to this email or use the link at the bottom.
I am also excited to return to the Art Complex Museum for another exhibit. That won't be until August, so stay tuned for updates on this.
I hope you are well on your way to a successful, healthy and interesting year! Make sure to take your camera out often.
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You are receiving this newsletter, because you signed up for it or gave me permission to add you to the distribution list on one of my workshops, presentations or online events. You can unsubscribe at any time, simply scroll to the bottom to find that link. If you want to continue receiving it, thank you for your interest, you will remain on the list without further action. | |
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If you live in the Boston area, consider attending one of my workshops.
The first one is an advanced night photography weekend in April, there is still time and space to sign up! The workshop consists of a 3 hour introduction on Zoom, followed by a 3 hour photo shoot on site an hour west of Boston. We will wrap up with an in-person editing session at the Griffin Museum on Sunday morning, where I will guide attendees with editing techniques for this kind of image and demos on how to get the most of the images you took.
The workshop covers advanced night concepts like astro-landscape photography, star points, star trails, cloud bands and light painting.
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The second workshop will be a 9-week course from May to July, where we alternate five classroom sessions with four photo shoots. We will shoot in the Boston area, with classroom sessions at the Griffin Museum, which include a comprehensive introduction to the topic, recurring photo reviews and live editing sessions.
Post-processing techniques will emphasize the powerful Lightroom / CameraRaw masking features, as well as trichroic conversions, HDR and panorama creation.
Daytime Long Exposure (DLE) Photography is a wonderful addition to any landscape skill set. DLE captures time, or the effect of time, making images look serene and very different from the momentary exposures that we are used to taking.
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Merchandise
I added more downloadable content to my Patreon store. Aside from the Iceland travel maps that I published last year, you can now download these eBooks.
Click on the below links to get to the respective pages.
If you have any suggestions or requests for future eBook topics, please do let me know.
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I have all the photography gear I'll need! (said nobody ever!!) | |
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I often get asked what equipment I use or recommend. I recently reviewed the Anvil 11 backpack and added it to my Amazon storefront. I continuously update the content there and add new useful items that I find.
It contains several lists by topic. Each item has a small popup comment to tell you why I recommend that particular product
Click on the image to see my recommen-dations. Don't forget to bookmark it!
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases with the links I provide throughout my posts.
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Patreon Update: What's been added? | | |
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My Patreon channel now has over 330 articles from the past four years. Here's a selection of what has been added since my last newsletter. Many of these are public, you can follow my channel for free. | |
- Full tutorial on how to shoot a total eclipse
- Equipment reviews: Tamrac Anvil 11, Nikon Zf camera, the Nikkor 180-600mm lens, Meike lens adapter Sony E to Nikon F and more.
- Diffraction Spikes and StarSpikes, the Plugin
- The "Rule of 4" and "Loony 11" to shoot the moon
- Deep Dive: The RGB Histogram
- White Balance Settings for Night Photography
- How to shoot star trails: Intrigue vs. in your face
- and many more
You can find more than 50 public posts that you can read without signing up. Look under COLLECTIONS - PUBLIC
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Urban Exploration
My last trip took me to Germany, where I was able to visit a long-standing bookmark and destination of mine, the Teufelsberg ("Devil's Hill") in Berlin.
This place has a fascinating history, I wrote extensively about it on my blog.
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The short version is that this is a US army radar and listening station to spy on former East German and Russian communications. Abandoned after the cold war ended and the Soviet Union broke apart, it has decayed ever since and it is a popular tourist destination.
I was able to convince the guards to let me roam around after it officially closed and made the most of the two hours I had, about an hour and a half after sunset. The most intriguing part is that the hill was built on top of a former WWII bunker, which apparently was fully functional, including offices and a stocked library, but nobody knows how to get in. I hope I get to roam around it once again before it may be dismantled to make space for luxury homes on Berlin's highest hill.
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Until next time, please find me online here.
Have a wonderful spring!
And, of course, with lots of (night) photography!
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