Thanks Jack!
On 12/16/2011 7:25 AM, Jack Davis wrote:
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.
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