Uploads from Adam BStar, with geodata

Dark sky over Cribyn

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:18:14 -0700

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Another shot from my hike in the Brecons, this time of Cribyn. The weather had changed dramatically over the course of the day, you wouldn't believe it but I put on sun cream on about 30 minutes after this shot was taken!

Thanks for looking

Pen Y Fan in Snow

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:41:41 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

A fresh day up Pen Y Fan, South Wales UK. Temperatures of minus 4 Celsius and winds of 40mph made this one of the coldest walks I've done for a while.

I approached Pen Y Fan from the North on the Cwm Llwch path, the path was very quiet and more interesting compared to the more 'touristy' path from Storey Arms.

Thanks for looking!

The Cheddar Gorge

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 09:39:36 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

It's not going to win any awards but I like this shot. This is another one of them times where owning a fish eye lens comes in handy. This was my first time into the gorge and I really didn't expect it to be this big! This image is a single RAW shot, not an HDR, tweaked only in Adobe Camera RAW.

I'm hoping in summer to come climbing here, if we get a summer this year that is!

Thanks for looking!

Back in the Hills

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 01:45:23 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

It's been a while since I have done any 'large' hills due to moving out of Snowdonia for work. Yesterday I took a trip up to the Brecon Beacons and did a 10 mile mountain hike... my knees are feeling the strain today! This shot Is of Pen Y Fan (886m) on the right and Corn Du (873m) on the left. It was a cold day but as you can see the blue sky was out! Not quite as impressive as Snowdonia but it will do!

Thanks for looking!

Top of the Falls

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:50:09 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Hanging what felt like over the edge to get a better view, I slowly shuffled forward on the snow at the top of Skógafoss; one of Iceland's more famous waterfalls. The water plummets 60m towards the earth before hitting the river below. An incredible sight and definitely worth the walk up. It appears like they are constructing a viewing platform up there however it was far from finished when I took this.

A must see sight for anyone travelling to Iceland!

Thanks for looking and happy new year!

Sunset over Snowdon from Crib Goch

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:21:44 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

This shot was found while doing a bit of reminiscing of my time in North Wales. Taken from Crib Goch looking at Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain, the evening sunlight is just setting over Anglesey.

I was hoping to get up to North Wales to do a bit of scrambling over Christmas but the weather has just been too poor... Hopefully I will get up there again soon

Thanks for looking!

Hiding behind mummy

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:37:26 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

I took a trip out to Longleat Safari Park today, the weather was a bit wet but still managed to get a couple of shots when the clouds parted. Going to a safari park like this with a big lens is like shooting fish in a barrel however it's still a bit of fun without having to go all the way to Africa!

Thanks for looking!

Frozen Over [Explore Dec 13th 2012]

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:47:07 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

This is another shot from my trip to Iceland. The lake is called Meðalfellsvatn lake just off a road called Meðalfellsvegur, I don't even know where to start with trying to pronounce that!

Thanks for looking!

Ich bin ein Münchener [Explore Dec 12th 2012]

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:17:58 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Here’s something slightly different for my photostream. I recently went to Munich 'to do some Christmas shopping with the boys'. I saw this person and thought that getting a shot of a German in traditional attire had to be done. The great thing about my new Sony RX100 is because it’s a compact less people in the street notice you taking a photo of them, so candid shots like this are made easier.

Munich is a great place full of history, people that put up with my broken attempt at the German language and the beer is great too!

Danke fürs Schauen!
Thanks for looking!

New Goals...

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:19:37 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

I'm still going through a lot of my Iceland shots, picking out which ones I am happy with and I still can't believe that I was actually there taking these. Shooting the Northern Lights was on my wish list for a long time and now it's complete I think it's time to get a new goal...

So my question to the people of flickr is what photographic goals do you have? Shooting a solar eclipse? Going on Safari? or simply shooting a long exposure of a waterfall?

Blue Ice Walking

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:49:56 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Another shot from Iceland, this time in the day. This was taken during a tour of the Solheimajokull Glacier in Southern Iceland. A fantastic day out that included a bit of ice climbing and glacier walking.

Thanks for looking!

Bunch of Bankers

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:46:43 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

This is a shot of the famous Canary Wharf, the heart of London's financial centres and home to where thousands of 'bankers' get paid far too much for what they do!

According to a reliable source (Wikipedia...) it contains 14,000,000 square feet of office/retail space.

Thanks for looking.

Research... [Explore 21.10.2012 #1]

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 10:48:46 -0700

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Clifton Suspension Bridge Bristol

One of the things I have learnt from my landscape days is that research is key to getting a good shot. Obviously skill, timing and luck take a huge part too, but good research as to where you are going can make a massive difference. This is something I am still trying to do even though I am in a city where the weather conditions don't matter as much and in the mountains.

I have been rather busy lately with the moving, no internet and to top it off my computer has just decided to throw a hissy fit! I will be catching up with all the comments very soon, sorry it hasnt been sooner!

Welsh Sunset in Style

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:55:29 -0700

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Sunset over Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain from Crib Goch...

Probably on of my favourite walks in Snowdonia is that on Crib Goch. It is a relatively easy (although not for everyone) scramble to get up to it, but when you are at the top you have a sudden realisation that you are currently alive and that you would like to keep it that way, so the next few foot steps had better be accurate ones!

This shot was one raw image, processed in Adobe Camera Raw only, then lens corrected in DXO Optics Pro. The latter part was necessary as this image was taken with an 8mm Fish Eye lens. The lens has become one of my favourite to shoot with because it is so damn sharp at relatively wide apertures and it captures a massive landscape with ease. De-fish-eyeing works to a certain extent, but I left a certain amount of "curvature" to try and add to the height and depth of this shot.

As always thanks for looking!

|| Canon 7D || Samyang 8mm || f5.6 || 8mm || 1/250s || ISO 200 ||

Crib Goch Sunset

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:44:05 -0700

Adam BStar posted a photo:

I fear this may divide a few people whether they like this shot or not. I have not used any HDR software for this, however it is a blend of 2 images, one for the immediate foreground and then one for the background and mid-ground.

Anyway... after sitting in the office all day looking outside at the unusual good weather, I decided that after work I would have a quick power walk up Crib Goch to try and get some colourful sunset shots. For my one hour power walk from Pen Y Pass I was rewarded with this. I am certainly pleased with this as it will probably be one of the last times I go up Crib Goch for a while.

Thanks for looking, comments are always welcome

|| Canon 7D || Samyang 8mm || f8 || 8mm || ISO 640 ||

Tryfan waterfall

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 02:13:59 -0700

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Not so much of a waterfall, more of a stream falling over a couple of rocks. But still, this long exposure shot was taken at the foot of Tryfan in the Ogwen Valley.

|| Canon 7D || Sigma 10-20mm || f14 || 12mm || 30s || ISO 100 || HiTech ND4 Grad || B+W ND110 ||

Thanks for looking!

Highlight of the year...

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:53:43 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Yes this is yet another Aurora shot from my trip to Iceland in November 2012. I might be milking it now as I have already uploaded 11 shots of this subject but it was one of my 'photo highlights' of the year. I took around 400 images of the Aurora, I tried to get a varying landscape/foreground/composition so they didn't all look the same, and if they did look the same, well the Aurora would have changed from one frame to the next anyway.

I would be interested to know what your photographic highlights of the year were?
Feel free to put a link or embed your favourite photo from the year so I can take a look :)

How to photograph the Northern Lights - Part 2 of 5

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:10:30 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

In the first installation of this 'How to' guide I discussed what the Aurora is and where you are likely to see it. This leads nicely on to my next section...

Forecasts

When you get to your destination of choice, whether it be Iceland, Norway, Alaska or many of the other places around the world, you will want to know day by day what your chances of seeing the lights are.
As I said previously, the solar winds can come day or night however it is only possible to see them when it is dark. Before leaving for Iceland I checked what time the sun rises and sets each day, I then found that the sky was dark enough around 4 hours after and before the set and rise. This will vary depending on the time of year and location but for Iceland in November, we saw the Northern Lights as early as 8pm and we heard from our reception (we were tucked away in bed at this point) that they could see them outside the hotel in the city quite clearly at 4am.

So that tells you when the sky is dark enough, but what about the actual solar activity?

The Aurora Forecast for Joe Public is measured in Kp on a scale of 0 to 9. Within the auroral zone it is possible to see the lights on an activity of Kp 2. This image was taken on a night forecast as Kp 2 and I have more to come from this night that are even stronger.

Solar activity can be predicted both long term and more accurately in the short term. The long term predictions are based on historical data from the previous month. The surface of the sun is liquid like and flows like an ocean. It takes approximately 28 days for it to complete one revolution in reference to the earth, which means that any sun spots which cause solar winds may still be active 28 days later. This can be a good indication as to when you may see lights in a given week. Solar winds take 2 to 3 days to reach our planet, so 3 day short term predictions come from observations of the Sun. Even more accurate ‘next hour’ forecasts are also available which I found to be very accurate. This useful website I found invaluable for long term trending (also known as getting my hopes up), short term predictions and hour by hour forecast.

The other forecast that I used a lot was a satellite image of the clouds. Knowing where the clouds will be can really help with the hunt. It is impossible to see the lights through thick cloud so finding a clear location can be make or break your trip. For Iceland I used this website which combine the aurora forecast and cloud cover.

How to photograph the Northern Lights - Part 1 of 5

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:26:57 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Over the next few shots that I upload I aim to pass on a few hints and tips as to how to shoot the Aurora Borealis. I am going to start right from the beginning with the planning stage, if you check back for my shots that I put on after this I will go into more detail about a variety of things that I took into account to see and successfully photograph them, hopefully this may help someone one day!

Background Information

This might seem obvious, but it all begins with a plan, and to form a plan you need to understand how the Northern Lights work... The Northern Lights are caused by the collision of energetic charged partials (known as solar winds) given out from the sun with particles that surround our planet. The charged particles are directed by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmosphere, when the particles collide energy is transferred into the particle in our atmosphere causing visible light to be given off. The light can be seen around the world in what is known as the ‘Auroral Zone’, this is a band that is typically between 10° and 20° from the magnetic pole, this covers places such as Reykjavik, Iceland, Tromso, Norway, parts of Finland, Greenland, Siberia, Alaska, Fairbanks and many more.

The solar winds can happen at any time of day or night, summer or winter, however to see them with the naked eye you have to be in a geographical location where the Auroral Zone is known to cover AND it need to be dark. Light pollution will make it very difficult to see the Aurora, so if you are planning on trying to see them you need to get out of the cities away from the lights! Locations close to the pole have long hours of daylight in the summer which again makes it near impossible to see the light, this is why late autumn, winter and early spring are ideal times of the year for viewing.

The Northern Lights over Reykjavik, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (Adam BStar) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 03:04:02 -0800

Adam BStar posted a photo:

Well I'm back from my holiday in the cold climate of Iceland and as you can see from my picture I managed to capture the Aurora Borealis while there. I did a huge amount of research into the best way to capture the these dancing displays which I will be sharing with you over the next few shots in a bit of a 'How to shoot the Northern Lights' style of writing. I want to share this because I have found some tips useful, added some of my own and really I want to collate all of these ideas.

Check back this weekend for more shots and tips on how to shoot the lights!

Thanks for looking!