I’ve been sorting through my nature photographs to choose the photographs I will use for the 2010 Edgar Cayce Calendar. There are so many lovely pictures, it’s been difficult to choose!
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I’m happy to say that the photographs that resulted from that part of my brain that wakes me up to take photographs are fantastic!
Both images of the Galactic Center sandwiched between Sagittarius and the circular tail of Scorpius with palm trees below and also the constellations – including all of Scorpius – turned out beautifully.
The digital photographs were taken at the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys.
I took the photographs to illustrate the location in the sky of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy because there will be an alignment of the sun and earth with the Giant Black Hole at the Galactic Center on December 21, 2012.
I am very happy. And, I thank that part of my brain that wakes me up to take photographs!
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These were the last two days of the Winter Star Party. Knowing how pragmatic my amateur astronomer friends are, I decided to wait until the last two days to interview people about 2012. That way, they would have had time to get to know me during the first part of the week and be comfortable with me. I surmised that if I started the week with questions about 2012, the end of the world, spiritual awakening, and a projected alignment of the earth and sun with the galactic center,they would have considered me to be pretty weird.
I was right. Even with my careful planning, I received numerous good natured reassessments of my character. They now know who I am. Nonetheless, a number of friends agreed to be interviewed on camera and have allowed me to include them in my 2012 movie.
After a number of hours of star gazing – it was a beautiful clear sky full of glowing nebulae, galaxies, and globular clusters – I went to bed content and satisfied that I had accomplished all that I had meant to do at the Winter Star Party.
As I drifted off to sleep, I instructed that part of my brain that wakes me up to take photographs that I already had two adequate images of Sagittarius and Scorpius with the Galactic Center sandwiched between them. And, I preferred that I NOT, I repeat NOT, want to be awakened at 5 AM (when these two constellations are enough above the horizon for picture taking) UNLESS, and I repeat UNLESS, the sky was absolutely perfect, and I mean PERFECT, which meant absolutely NO haze at the horizon where these two constellations sit this time of year.
Since a bank of clouds had begun to obscure the stars at around 11 PM because of a cold front descending into the Florida keys from the north, I felt pretty secure that I would be able to get a full night’s sleep for the first time since the beginning of the Winter Star Party. Days of clear skies have led to a serious lack of sleep.
However, you can imagine my consternation when my eyes popped open at 5 AM on the button! I argued with that part of me that wakes me up to take photographs that this was likely a mistake and the sky couldn’t possibly be that good. I listened for muted voices around the telescopes. If I can hear people talking outside my cabin, I know the sky is good enough that they are awake viewing. I heard nothing!
Content, I drifted off to sleep until I woke up abruptly at 5:27 AM. Still no voices! But, I could not drift back to sleep. So, just to prove to myself that there was no reason to wake up and take photographs, I felt around for my red flashlight, turned it on, located my socks and shoes, put them on, and stumbled out into the darkness.
Immediately, I saw a moving dark form – one of my friends. By the way the man moved, I surmised it to be Dan, the fellow who taught me where to find the Galactic Center.
“Is that you, Carol?” he asked in a hushed tone so as not to wake up our friends sleeping in cabins and tents around us.
“Hi Dan,” I said.
“Thank God you’re up,” he said, “Sagittarius and Scorpius are fantastic – the best they’ve been this week! No haze at the horizon either! They’re already over the treetops!”
I grabbed my gear, attached my camera to its tripod using the red light from my flashlight, and took 60 second exposures of one of the most magnificent areas of the sky – the warm glow that marks the magnificent Giant Black Hole at the center of the Milky Way.
I kept holding the shutter down until the rising sun lit the sky so bright that I could no longer see the stars.
How does that part of me that wakes me up to take photographs know these things!!!!
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After my great success making a digital photograph of the galactic center yesterday morning, I awoke this morning at 2:30 AM full of enthusiasm for making a videotape of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The galactic center is the place with which the earth will be lined up on the winter solstice, December 21, 2012. Many people believe this momentous event will herald great changes on earth.
Therefore, I wanted to photograph the galactic center which happens to be in the constellation of Sagittarius close to Scorpio. And I did.
However, when I woke up this morning and tried to take a videotape of the center of the Milky Way, I was not successful at all. As one of my amateur astronomer friends explained to me today, since the video camera shutter operates at 1/30th of a second, it is simply too fast to capture the night sky.
Yesterday, I had called my camera manufacturer and asked one of their technicians how to set the camcorder so it would videotape star constellations. The technician said it could NOT be done. I had to try anyway. I set the camcorder on “night” and gave it a try. As I said, it did not work. Now I know.
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I am so happy because last night – actually between 4 and 5 AM – I finally got a photograph of the galactic center. It is so cool!!!
You can see Sagittarius and the tail of Scorpio right beside it. And, there, glowing quietly, the galactic center.
The problem has been clouds and haze. I’ve woken up four mornings, crept around in the dark to the “berm” where you can see the whole sky . . . and have only seen haze covering the stars.
This morning, the big problem, even though the stars were visible to the horizon, was wind. I feared that with such long exposures – over 30 seconds – I would only get blurry light spots. However, I held tightly to my tripod so it would not quiver in the gusts. The result? I have at least one photograph that beautifully shows the constellations and the center of the Milky Way!
Yay!
On December 21, 2012, the earth and sun will line up with the galactic center. Some think this will create momentous events on earth. We shall see!
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Today I’m downloading digital photos from media cards and I’m pleased to say that I have some usable photographs of the flamingos feeding in a shallow salt marsh east of Progreso Mexico, close to the Xcambo Mayan ruins in the Uaymitun Reserve along the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
The flamingos were off in the distance. I feared they would be so far away that none of my photographs would turn out. But, they did! Yay!
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I’ve just been to Sequoia National Park in California where I saw and photographed the largest tree on earth. It was just amazing!!!
This tree is estimated to be 2,200 years old. That means it started two hundred years before the birth of Jesus! Imagine what it has seen!
It’s called the General Sherman and was named by a Civil War veteran who had served under the Union’s General Sherman.
The tree has outlived the man who named it.
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To create the photographs in the Edgar Cayce 2009 Calendar, I needed to use many photography techniques because I wanted to, as beautifully as possible, illustrate the inspirational quotes from America’s great psychic Edgar Cayce.
When I went to photography school, we were taught to “bracket the exposure,” meaning that we should vary the light intensity of the photograph from darker to lighter.
Bracketing the exposure is relatively easy with a film camera. You only have to change the exposure or the f-stop. With digital photography, it requires fooling the automatic exposure meter.
To do that, just center the screen of your digital camera on a dark area of the scene you are photographing to make a light photograph. For a dark photograph, center the screen of your digital camera on a light part of the scene you are photographing.
For example, to create the dynamic intense colors in the sunrise photograph used to illustrate the month of January in the 2009 Edgar Cayce Calendar, I centered the camera viewing screen on the rising sun. This made the photograph darker. Many other photographs I took that morning looked lighter because I centered the camera viewing screen on the dark trees.
Here’s the lovely inspirational quotation from Edgar Cayce that goes with that lovely photograph:
“For you may breathe it [nature] into thine own soul, as you would a sunset or a morning sun rising. And see that sometimes – it’s as pretty as the sunset!” Edgar Cayce Reading 3374-1*
Copyright (c) 2008 Carol Chapman All Rights Reserved
* Quote: Edgar Cayce Readings (c) 1971, 1993-2008 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation All Rights Reserved
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To tell you the truth, when I’m taking my photographs, I’m not the analytical type. It’s only after I look at the images I’ve photographed that I can analyze them.
On the other hand, at the time of taking the photographs, it’s all about feeling for me – whether it feels right.
Actually, the way I really take my photographs, feels more of an intuitive experience. Sometimes, it almost feels like I’m receiving spiritual guidance or having a psychic experience.
For example, when I took the photograph for the month of February in the 2008 Edgar Cayce Divine in Nature Calendar, I did not analyze the type of photograph I wanted by saying, “I need something in the foreground so the mountain does not look so flat.”
Au contraire, I had a feeling of what I wanted. I knew that in many photographs of mountains the mountains looked tiny and flat. It mystified me that a mountain can be huge but in many photographs it looks and feels tiny. Because of this, I knew what I did not want. However, I did not know how or where I was going to get what I wanted – a photograph of Mount Reiner that conveyed a powerful intense feeling.
Therefore, I drove around Mount Reiner National Park. As I drove, I kept looking for a place where the mountain had a looming feel to it. When I came to the place, I knew it was right. I felt it. That’s why it feels like a psychic or spiritual experience to me. The knowingness defies logic.
Copyright (c) 2008 Carol Chapman All Rights Reserved
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In a previous blogpost I talked about analyzing your photographs.
Look at your photographs of mountains. Do you have trees, branches, flowers, a totem pole, a flying bird, a couple arm-in-arm surveying the scene . . . something in the foreground . . . to create depth and make the photograph interesting?
Photography: Analyze Your Photographs — Carol Chapman
However, by saying the above, I don’t want you to think that I take my photographs in an analytical way. Actually, the way I really take my photographs, feels more of an intuitive experience. Sometimes, it almost feels like I’m receiving spiritual guidance or having a psychic experience.
Copyright (c) 2008 Carol Chapman All Rights Reserved
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