I’ve been trying to photograph an Iridium Flare for a while now, but it never seems to work out. Rain/clouds have been the biggest reason. With the end of the Iridium flares fast approaching, I gave it the old college try on Wednesday morning.

This fellow has been living in our back yard. We first spotted it when it was a wee little thing, no bigger than a kitten. Now it’s about the size of an average cat. I’ve been contacted by someone who runs an opossum sanctuary. I think they want to trap and rescue it as albinos are vulnerable as they stand out more.…

After Thanksgiving dinner, we went to a movie. Before the movie, I shot a movie. The International Space Station was going to be passing overhead while we were killing time between eating and the movie.

ISS! The International Space Station! And a not-so-secret secret spy satellite. And there is a plane in the header image. And there are probably some birds in those trees. But that’s beside the point.

I went to midnight mass on Saturday night. It was a glorious cathedral in which the eternal battle between light and dark raged on. Blessed be the Holy Trinity of Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO.

(DISCLAIMER: There are political things in some of these pictures, but this isn’t meant to be a political post. It’s just pictures of things that happen to be political.)

These two pictures were taken from the same spot, minutes and 180 degrees apart.

Went out to shoot some Orionids and star trails and got mostly clouds. Boo.

I hit the mean streets of St. Petersburg on Friday and Saturday. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I knew I’d know it when I saw it.

The setting waxing crescent moon dipping to the horizon just ahead of the galactic core of the Milky Way last Friday night.

I was taking pictures of the kittens the other night and used the 18-300mm lens. This shot was at 280mm and f/6.3 (1/200 and ISO 1000).

After two weeks of working on frames, getting mattes made, and a midnight repair session, these are done.

I was drilling a small guide hole for new handing hardware on a framed print that is getting dropped off at a gallery Monday. I didn’t realize how far over I was drilling. I drilled right through the front of the frame. I should have been a hair over, drilling behind the thick part, not the thin curved area. 

I haven’t been out taking pictures with the DSLR this week. I’ve been rehabbing frames for some stuff that got into a gallery show. I’ll post about that after I’ve got all five done. But I have taken a decent amount of pictures with my new phone.

Last Saturday night I drove back over to Cape Canaveral for yet another rocket launch. SpaceX was sending up the Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite. It was supposed to be cloudy but clearing up around the 11:28 pm launch time. That didn’t exactly happen, but it all worked out in the end.

After taking those dragonfly pictures last whenever, I realized that I was not using the 18-300mm lens to its full potential. As pointed out by Agrajag, it seems you can get awfully close to the subject with the lens at 300mm.

Ventured out to downtown for a thing on Sunday. I wasn’t going to bring my camera but a little voice in my head told me I probably should. I threw on my 50mm and headed out.

Caught this little dude hanging around in the backyard a few days ago. Thankfully it stayed put while I grabbed my camera.

A few days ago, there were three baby trash pandas chilling in the banyan tree in our backyard.

I attempted this shot back in June but got clouded in.