You catch rare and unique natural shapes and patterns. The effort and technical ability applied is considerable. All very well done, Mark. Thanks!
Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: Mark C <[email protected]> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> Cc: Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 6:31 PM Subject: Re: GESO - Classified Snow Crystals Hi Jack - I just catch the crystals on a cold piece of glass. I do it all outside in my unheated / detached garage. As long as the glass is a few degrees below freezing it works fine. I've lost many crystals by holding the glass too close and breathing on them - another Homer Simpson DOH! moment... I don't mind disclosing all the info about taking the shots. A couple of years ago I put together a little presentation about the evolution of the process. In the early days it was quite difficult - I used a Spotmatic and stacked lenses with extension, manual flash, and used a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet (DOS version) on a 486 laptop to calculate the subject to flash distance, taking into account the exposure increase factor that the extension called for. With film, the technical aspects of getting a good exposure was difficult. With digital, you take your best guess, do a test shot, adjust once or twice and you are there. These days, anyone who is smart enough to tie their shoe can be a technically competent photographer. That puts the emphasis on composition and other factors, which is where it should be. At my little workshops I have shown dozens of people exactly how to take the snow crystal shots. The real chllenge with snow crystals is just being there. In my experience, it's rare to have a storm where good crystals fall for a significant period of time. You get waves where nice crystals fall for a while - maybe 15 to 30 minutes- and then you get crap for a long while, then a little window with nice crystals. Unless you have a 6th sense for these things, you just have to stand outside in the cold for hours on end and see what is falling. That's what I do. I think that managing to "be there" is the biggest hurdle to good photography. I'd a helluva photographer if I could get up early and catch the morning light. Mark C. On 12/15/2011 9:45 AM, Jack Davis wrote: > This (these) shots are wonders to me, Mark. Considering their short fragile > lives, I'm very > impressed by your ability to overcome what must present numerous problems > You needn't provide your method in detail, but I do have one persistent > question please: Are the flakes caught on a freezing surface? > Thanks, > > Jack > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Mark C<[email protected]> > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List<[email protected]> > Cc: > Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 4:47 AM > Subject: Re: GESO - Classified Snow Crystals > > Thanks, Ann - it's an amazing 56F this morning, but hopefully I can get > some new shots in the next few weeks! > > On 12/14/2011 11:41 PM, Ann Sanfedele wrote: >> That's just amazing stuff, Mark >> >> Thanks for showing it - the differences are fascinating - >> science is beautiful :-) >> >> ann >> >> On 12/14/2011 23:32, Mark C wrote: >>> I usually try to post only new stuff, which means I may not post much at >>> times, but my blog's lead post was an announcement for a gallery opening >>> and book signing that have both passed so I had to put something new up >>> there. So - I reposted an article that appeared on my book's blog in >>> February, 2010, but never made it over to my main blog. 10 snow crystal >>> images, 8 of which never appeared in my main blog. It's here: >>> >>> http://www.markcassino.com/b2evolution/index.php >>> >>> or here: >>> >>> http://www.markcassino.com/b2evolution/index.php/snow-crystals-with-classifications >>> >>> >>> >>> We have some nice snow crystal photos, a scientific classification >>> scheme, comments relating Nietzsche's observations about the science of >>> history to the science of snow crystal classification, and links to the >>> original posts... >>> >>> Mark C. >>> >>> > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
