Kelson's Photos @kelsonv@photog.social

#introductions #reintroductions

I'm a hobbyist photographer in the Los Angeles area. I mostly go for scenic #photography, nature or architecture. I also look for funny/odd sights, and cosplay photos at comic conventions.

My main Mastodon account is @KelsonV, and I also talk about books & comics at @KelsonReads

Blog: https://hyperborea.org/journal/

Other photo sharing sites:
https://flickr.com/kelsonv
https://instagram.com/kelsonv
https://pixelfed.social/KelsonV

It does still turn, though!

A windmill in suburbia. Apparently it was built by one of Hermosa Beach's city founders around 1900 and later moved to its present location, a small triangle of grass and trees in the corner of a grocery store lot next to Pacific Coast Highway. It's no longer functional as far as I know, except as a historical landmark.

#photography #windmill

Tonight's waxing crescent moon. It's passing in front of the Hyades star cluster right now, which I'd love to get a photo of, but the moon's just waaay too bright to capture the background stars!

#photography #moon #night #stargazing

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsonv/47365374661/

In the time it took me to get a light meter reading and swap lenses on the old film camera, the light went from perfectly highlighting the flowers to leaving some of them in shadow.

Fortunately I took a shot with my phone before I started fumbling with equipment and the shadows moved, but the fake depth of field just isn't the same.

#photography

Lemons after the rain (digital). And the same lemons ~2 months earlier (film).

The potted lemon tree is still small, but it's mature enough to produce lemons. Of course, at two feet tall, it's only producing a crop of maybe five lemons a year.

One of the photos I took when we dragged out the old film camera was of this tree, so I keep coming back to it. It's joined the moon and the distant LA skyline as a standard test subject!

#photography #lemons #tree

And another one today!

A circumzenith arc. Like an upside-down rainbow high above the sun, wrapping around the top of the sky. I think this is the second I've seen, but the first was only a fragment.

Taken with my phone through polarized sunglasses. Color and contrast enhanced.

#halo #photography

Thanks to everyone who gave advice on mirrorless/DSLR cameras! I decided to go with the Sony a6000.

Here's a shot of a coral tree flower, from my first photo-walk with it, at a local botanical garden. (It's winter, but here that means we actually got rain recently.)

#photography #flower #CoralTree

Waning #moon, taken with the settings I *should* have used for the eclipse on Sunday.

I like taking photos of the moon when it's between phases (rather than full) because you get to see the most texture in it at those times.

#photography

Some recent sun #halo displays I've seen in the last 2 weeks: An upper tangent arc (my first!), the top edges of a circumscribed and 22° circular halo, and most of a 22° circular halo (with bonus contrail shadow on the cloud layer!)

All shot on my Pixel 2 with levels adjusted.

These are all formed by reflection and refraction of light in ice crystals. (A great reference: https://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm )

Also, all seen from Los Angeles, which isn't freezing...at ground level.

#Photography #sky

I went back out about an hour later to check out the view as the moon left the earth's shadow, and caught these two photos, taken about the same time with different exposures so that you can see either the lit portion of the moon, or the part that's still in the earth's shadow.

#LunarEclipse #BloodMoon #Photography #moon #eclipse

The evening was hectic, and I almost forgot about the #LunarEclipse. I had literally just put my son to bed when I remembered, "The #eclipse!" We went out to see if the sky was clear.

Clouds were rushing across the sky, but for the most part, it was clear, and we had a perfect view of the #moon looking like a dark brown chunk of rock in the sky.

(Then I spent 10 minutes fighting with camera settings while he went back to bed.)

#Photography #BloodMoon

I caught a glimpse of the trail from today's Delta 4 launch out of Vandenberg while driving, and made a beeline for the coast for a better look. I did manage to catch a clear view of the trail, though winds had already started blowing it out of shape, and stayed briefly to look at the boats on the ocean and the scenery.

#Photography #ocean #RocketTrail #cliff

Raindrops on sage, spotted while walking around in the rain today.

There were two major cloudbursts, one overnight and one mid-morning. At this point the second one had faded to a little more than a drizzle, something a bit more comfortable to walk in.

#Photography #leaves #rain

I'm a hobbyist, not a pro, &shoot with compact cameras & my phone. Digging out the old film SLR has got me thinking about a DSLR or mirrorless.

I'm looking for something a step up from entry-level, maybe like the Nikon D5600 or Fujifilm X-T20. Has anyone had experience with these, or recommendations for something else?

Looking for decent quality & auto, plus ability to do manual settings when I want to.

Thanks!

#photography #cameras #advice

Flowers in and out of their depth (of field).

#Photography #flowers

Taken with the old Sears TLS.

I went back to the same marsh I'd visited in early December, after a few more rainstorms. The ponds had spread, covering trails I'd walked along just a few weeks earlier. Ducks and geese had arrived in force.

I could also swear I heard a frog, but I couldn't see it, and even with the weird southern California seasons, I don't think it's the right time for frogs to be out. I should've asked at the visitor center.

#photography, #nature #geese #marsh #pond

More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kelsonv/albums/72157674970431217