Aaagogo
24th of March 2009 (Tue), 18:14
Had a rare opportunity to shot this launch as press, all thanks to my mentor, Ben Cooper (http://launchphotography.com)
This is the 2nd last Delta II rocket to be launched from 17A launch pad, and it's sending up a new GPS satellite to replace one of the old ones. It's the 48th Global Positioning System satellite that's up there.
There are more than 10 total images in this thread, I hope the mods don't mind. I just can't choose 8, cause they're all different, so to speak. I hope that's ok.
Gear used, 30D's, 20D's, 10D's, 5D, lens used - 70-200, 10-22, 10-20, 24-70, 300, two 2X extenders, 17-55, 50.
One interesting thing is that I stacked a canon 2X on the 300, and then a Kenko 2x to that, and then on my 30D, and the data/settings still read 300 with a 2X @ 5.6, it seems that the 2nd extender didn't register or something.
I will try to add a little captioning in each of the images, so you guys can have like a better idea.
The past Delta II rocket launch that I shot was at a public viewing site, distance is about 2.9 miles away from the launch pad. This time, I was at the 2nd press site, called the "Trident bluff". There was the 1st press site, but we were not able to be there because of the wind direction. The wind was blowing the toxic fumes into the direction of the 1st press site, so we had to use the 2nd press site. I thought the 2nd press site was better, because it was angled perpendicular to the launch trajectory, while the 1st site is angled almost parallel to the launch trajectory.
Here we go with the images,
1.) This is the image, as shot, with the 300mm 2.8 and two 2X stacked with my 30D. the wind was howling and it was next to impossible to get a crisp sharp shot. This was the best from the 50 over shots that I took.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/150/img5034v.jpg
2.) I think I shall dub this my trademark shot, with the streak going out of frame... LOL. This was with a 30D and 17-55. One day, I will get the hang of managing 5 cameras at once, one day. This was the only shot out of 5 cameras that didn't come out the way I wanted it.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7652/img5043.jpg
3.) Vertical orientation of the launch, 5D and 24-70. I did a rough calculation of exposure time based on my previous attempt with my previous attempt and got this one with the rocket about to leave the frame. I think that keeping the rocket in the frame makes for a better image, vs the one above.
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5822/img9172.jpg
4.) This is with a 30D with the 10-22, low full streak, this was a stitch/star trail attempt version of the full streak shot, I wanted to see how it turned out vs a single 1 exposure shot of the streak I did the previous time.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/514/img6131.jpg
5.) This was with a 20D on a sigma 10-20, it's 4 images, 3 stacked star trails and 1 single rocket launch trail image. 1st attempts at doing star trails and stacking and all that, pretty happy the way it turned out, though the star trails have like a little break in them...
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6435/stacked.jpg
This is the 2nd last Delta II rocket to be launched from 17A launch pad, and it's sending up a new GPS satellite to replace one of the old ones. It's the 48th Global Positioning System satellite that's up there.
There are more than 10 total images in this thread, I hope the mods don't mind. I just can't choose 8, cause they're all different, so to speak. I hope that's ok.
Gear used, 30D's, 20D's, 10D's, 5D, lens used - 70-200, 10-22, 10-20, 24-70, 300, two 2X extenders, 17-55, 50.
One interesting thing is that I stacked a canon 2X on the 300, and then a Kenko 2x to that, and then on my 30D, and the data/settings still read 300 with a 2X @ 5.6, it seems that the 2nd extender didn't register or something.
I will try to add a little captioning in each of the images, so you guys can have like a better idea.
The past Delta II rocket launch that I shot was at a public viewing site, distance is about 2.9 miles away from the launch pad. This time, I was at the 2nd press site, called the "Trident bluff". There was the 1st press site, but we were not able to be there because of the wind direction. The wind was blowing the toxic fumes into the direction of the 1st press site, so we had to use the 2nd press site. I thought the 2nd press site was better, because it was angled perpendicular to the launch trajectory, while the 1st site is angled almost parallel to the launch trajectory.
Here we go with the images,
1.) This is the image, as shot, with the 300mm 2.8 and two 2X stacked with my 30D. the wind was howling and it was next to impossible to get a crisp sharp shot. This was the best from the 50 over shots that I took.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/150/img5034v.jpg
2.) I think I shall dub this my trademark shot, with the streak going out of frame... LOL. This was with a 30D and 17-55. One day, I will get the hang of managing 5 cameras at once, one day. This was the only shot out of 5 cameras that didn't come out the way I wanted it.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7652/img5043.jpg
3.) Vertical orientation of the launch, 5D and 24-70. I did a rough calculation of exposure time based on my previous attempt with my previous attempt and got this one with the rocket about to leave the frame. I think that keeping the rocket in the frame makes for a better image, vs the one above.
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5822/img9172.jpg
4.) This is with a 30D with the 10-22, low full streak, this was a stitch/star trail attempt version of the full streak shot, I wanted to see how it turned out vs a single 1 exposure shot of the streak I did the previous time.
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/514/img6131.jpg
5.) This was with a 20D on a sigma 10-20, it's 4 images, 3 stacked star trails and 1 single rocket launch trail image. 1st attempts at doing star trails and stacking and all that, pretty happy the way it turned out, though the star trails have like a little break in them...
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6435/stacked.jpg