Andrea Martinez's TOP Google+ Photos for Dec 22 - Jan 5

January 1, 2012 - 1/366
Having fun with +Gemma Costa and sparklers to celebrate the new year and the start of the #creative366project.

A foggy sunset
For #SunsetSaturday (+TJ Kelly)

Guitar and balloons
For #SilhouettesOnThursday (+Siddharth Pandit)

My top 11 of 2011 for #2011top11 (+Younes Bounhar)

Another try for +Darryl Van Gaal's #Astrophotography101.
Yesterday I came home from work and saw a very nice moon almost setting. This time I made some quick shots using a Sigma 120-400 and a funny, old, unsharp, full manual Vivitar 600-1000 f/9-16.

This one is from the Vivitar @1000mm: the colors are real, no eclipse involved for this orange/reddish tones, I don't know if due to weather conditions or simply a very polluted air. Camera settings were 1/160s f/16 12800 ISO handheld.

Shame on me, I was too hungry so I didn't take the time to set up the tripod and a better exposure...

Winter sunset
#RuralSaturday (+Mario Cerroni)
#SunsetSaturday (+TJ Kelly)

Tipula maxima
For #WildlifeWednesday (+Mike Spinak)

Shooting in the snow
In this photo, +Gemma Costa taking pictures in the snow, some years ago.

#SnowySaturday (+John Fujimagari)
#SaturdayNightLight (+Dirk Heindoerfer)

A clear night at last, particularly cold but with a clean air, so I tried again the moon for +Darryl Van Gaal's #Astrophotography101.

I gave a new chance to the Vivitar 600-1000 and I took enough time to arrange a better setup than the previous one. This time I used a tripod. But if you don't know the Vivitar lens, well.. it's veeery long. So the best solution should be using two tripods (one for the camera, one for the lens). But I had no time to go out to shot from a wide space and I took the shots from my room, where I don't have enough space for two tripods, so I used a tripod for the camera and the window for the lens- and it somewhat worked.

I manually focused through Live view, and even there was quite a lot of turbulence due to the heat going out of the window, and given the very low quality of the lens I'm quite satisfied with the result. 1/160s f/10 ISO800.

The seeing was so beautiful tonight that I tried also some other "impossible shots" (as I don't have any special equipment or tracking devices) like the Orion nebula and Pleiades.. but that's a completely new story.. :) let's stick with the moon tonight.

Week 1: New Years Eve/Day
My first entry for +Giuseppe Basile's +GPLUS::P52::2012.
#2012project52