sebastian's projects

switzerland

my first shots using my canon p, taken in rigi, switzerland

a small countryside path, b/w image, winding down an alpine meadow with pine trees fading into a dense fog.

tall pine trees partially obscured by a dense misty fog. b/w and slightly grainy image. some scratches on the film on the right side of the image.

a foggy train platform with a cogwheel train labeled 'Rigi'. the fog is so thick, visibility of the train drops off after about the first car.

the interior of a cogwheel train car. it's raining outside. the driver is wearing a hat while two other passengers are visible at the front of the car.

the lines of the gondola heading up the mountain from Weggis (Luftseilbahn) to Rigi Kaltbad. below them, a dense pine forest and mist visible through the trees.

a cow with cowbell stares straight at the camera. other cows visible in the distance. b/w image.

scattered cows grazing on a sloped alpine pasture in the fog. b/w image. a handful of mountain chalets visible.

canon p
kodak 400tx

the view towards Lake Lucerne (only barely in view) looking downwards from Rigi. it's expansive with valleys in various shades of green. steep cliffs and a couple of chalets visible. in the distance, tall snowcapped mountains.

four brown cows rest beside a weathered wooden alpine barn. it's an overcast August day.

like the first picture, but without the lake in view. more farmland is visible. sharper jagged snowy alpine peaks in the distance.

a lone paraglier against a cloudy gray sky.

canon p
cinestill 400d

norway

a unique road shot on portra 400. friisvegen

an empty winding road with normal-length dashed outer lines. the road cuts through barren moorland. it's overcast.

rocky tundra landscape. some lichen on the rocks. not a sign of human civilization in sight.

lichen-covered plateau. a stone cairn in the distance. bluish hues in the faraway mountains in the background.

a lichen-streaked weathered (yet fairly recent--1900s-looking, not viking age) runestone stands alone in a rocky plain. black and rust-colored splotches cover the stone. soft overcast lighting.

astrophotography – the essentials

A b/w image (Hydrogen Alpha only) of the Horsehead Nebula

astrophotography – ngc7000 – WIP

NGC7000 - The North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula

the grand plan for ngc7000 is to shoot a 4-frame mosaic, like this:

the goal: 10 hour exposures on each filter = 40 hours Ha, 40 hours SII, and 40 hours OIII data. this 120 hour integration will be my largest project to date by about 10x.

so far, H alpha is the closest to being complete →

from the missing bits (the boring parts) you can tell this is now just a test of willpower. since there is almost zero interesting Sulfur data to collect, I may just finish up this HOO palette image instead.

here's where we are so far! →

gear:
Chroma 5nm H-alpha filter Chroma 5nm SII filter Chroma 5nm OIII filter
ZWO ASI1600GT cooled mono camera ASIAIR
EQ6-R Pro mount
ZWO EAF focuser
ZWO OAG + helical focuser
Deep Sky Dad FlapFlat FP2
WO Zenithstar Z61 + field flattener

astrophotography – andromeda over the years

the andromeda galaxy makes for a great benchmark to track my progress shooting and editing. this series begins with my earliest attempts to shoot the galaxy and ends with a shot from 2020, so I'm due to add another soon!

an improvement in skill and exposure time weren't the only factors, though! here's a look at how my gear evolved over the same timespan →

Canon 60D, a Canon telephoto zoom lens, and a struggling ioptron skyguider

added an EQ6-r mount, red dot sight, and guide scope

digital

when I got into macro photography in high school, a fun realization was that water droplets can individually reflect brightly lit objects near them.

this led to the following two experiments, with some funky results →

a water droplet shot from above with a tomato below it, reflected into the drop itself

drops of water on a leaf, each reflecting an eyeball

around that time I also messed around with lightpainting. this composite image was shot partially in my pool--camera in a ziplock bag--and partially in a dark studio with a pocket LED flashlight pointed at the camera.

A boy curled up in a ball underwater, silhouetted against a bright beam of light and surrounded by wisps of glowing lightpainted tracers

on the topic of composites, the next photo is not one. this was fun to try to shoot in-camera.

the rest are other digital photos from around 2008 →

Landscape photo of Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, NV

A blue wisp of smoke, mirrored and overlaid on itself

A drop of water suspended in air above its ripples