Archive Gallery

Galleries: ISS Long Exposures


The only other kind of astrophotography I can do with my cameras is long exposures and combined with watching the International Space Station flying over at night, it makes fascinating photos. This involves finding out when the station is coming with websites like Heavens Above and then using the addon-firmware CHDK to persuade the camera to take exposures longer than 15 seconds. The Powershot S2 and S5 I used in 2012 and 2013 had quite a bit of sensor glow when I pushed them to 60 or even 120 seconds, but the SX1 has proven to be much better in that respect. I haven’t taken a lot of those photos over the last couple of years, but I’ve collected them all in the three galleries linked below. Click on the preview photo above to go to the 2015 gallery or the links below for the others – and for annotated photos, you can check out the single posts in the ISS & Co blog category. There’s also a G+ version with all images in one album over on my Google+ Profile or the Astrophotography Collection.

« ISS 2012 » | « ISS 2013 » | « ISS 2014/15 »

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Gallery: Moon 2015


After watching the skies for planes, let’s do some amateur astrophotography – the Moon 2015 album has all the Moon shots from last year, which turned out to be a lot. We often had clear skies and the Powershot SX1 proved to be quite good even though the combination of a 20x zoom and 10 megapixels still only allows a full moon size of about 550-600 pixels in diameter. But it’s a distinct improvement over the S5 and with some careful stacking of several images using Registax it’s possible to get a surprising amount of detail. Click on the preview photo above or the link below to go to the gallery, but you can also find a G+ version over on my Google+ Profile or the Astrophotography Gallery Collection – but the gallery on my own webspace has the advantage of having uncompressed PNG images.

« MOON 2015 »

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Gallery: Planespotting 2015


With all the nature-related galleries posted, it’s time to bring out one of the fun diversions with Planespotting 2015, which was surprisingly successful last year. It turned out the Powershot SX1’s bigger zoom is ideal for catching the planes that sometimes fly right above us after starting from the nearby Düsseldorf airport. The star of the flock was ANA’s Boeing 777 ‘Dreamliner’, which has only been flying here since last year, but there are also lots of other interesting planes plus some balloons and, of course, our famous local blimp, which was completely rebuilt after it had been destroyed by the huge storm of 2014. Click on the preview photo above or the link below to go to the gallery, but you can also find a G+ version over on my Google+ Profile or the Transport Collection.

« PLANESPOTTING 2015 »

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Gallery: Trees 2015


One more nature-related gallery, Trees 2015, which I actually abandoned in early Autumn to switch over to the Autumn gallery – but there are still a lot of great shots in there. This year there won’t be a Tree gallery, instead I’m going to group all the non-flower shots into seasons. Click on the preview photo above or the link below to go to the gallery, but you can also find an (incomplete) G+ version over on my Google+ Profile or the Seasons Collection.

« TREES 2015 »

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Gallery: Balcony Veggies 2015


I keep finding galleries to post… here are the Balcony Veggies of 2015, from the first little seedlings to the finished produce – there was a lot last year and there are more than a few photos in the album I actually never got around to post!  Click on the preview photo above or the link below to go to the gallery, but you can also find a G+ version over on my Google+ Profile or the Flowers, Veg & Fruit Gallery Collection (which I’ve renamed to include the contents of this gallery too!)

« BALCONY VEGGIES 2015 »

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Gallery: Snow 2015


No, we haven’t had much snow this year except from one brief bit that vanished overnight – this is the Snow Album of 2015 – which was actually just from one single day on January 24. I thought it might be a good moment to share this now, followed by the Autumn shots to create a new category for seasons which will be the home for all those tree and other nature shots except flowers I often take. Click on the preview photo above or the link below to go to the gallery, but you can also find a G+ version over on my Google+ Profile or the Seasons Gallery Collection.

« SNOW 2015 »

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Gallery: Kitchen Flowers 2015


I completely forgot that I actually had another flower album with photos taken inside early and late last year – I called them Kitchen Flowers of 2015 because that’s where we put the Amaryllis (also guest starring one tiny Hyacinth). Click on the preview photo above or the link below to go to the gallery, but you can also find a G+ version over on my Google+ Profile or the Flower Gallery Collection.

« KITCHEN FLOWERS 2015 »

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Gallery: Catspotting 2015


Only two more animal-related albums from last year to go, one of them is the Catspotting Gallery of 2015 with all the cool and cute cats I found last year in the neighbourhood. I didn’t even remember that I took so many, but it was at least enough for a nice small collection of fifteen photos – including one unposted shot! Click on the preview photo above or on the link below to go to the gallery itself and you can also visit my Google+ Profile or the Animal Gallery Collection to find the parallel G+ version.

CATSPOTTING 2015

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Gallery: Bugspotting 2015


Next in the gallery posts from last year is the Bugspotting Gallery of 2015 with all the spiders, bumblebees flies and other six-to-eight legged creatures – so be advised that there are more than a few creepy-crawlies in there! Although the new camera proved to be exceptionally good with macro photography, I didn’t get too many chances to try this out, but I had a resident garden cross spider for some time on the balcony and also managed some very nice bumblebee shots. Click on the preview photo above or on the link below to go to the gallery itself and you can also visit my Google+ Profile or the Animal Gallery Collection to find the parallel G+ version for easier viewing.

BUGSPOTTING 2015

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Gallery: Birdspotting 2015


The Birdspotting Gallery of 2015 continues the complete gallery posts and this one contains some of my favourite photos from last year, including a few birds I’ve never photographed before among all the regular feathered visitors. There are also a few photos in there I never posted before and only uploaded to the gallery, so this post actually contains some new photos! Click on the preview photo above or on the link below to go to the gallery itself – or you can visit my Google+ Profile or the Animal Gallery Collection to find the G+ version, although the locally hosted versions have a slightly better quality.

BIRDSPOTTING 2015

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