Asteroid 2012 DA14: How to See It in the UK

image from www.sky-watching.co.uk

This Friday night sees the closest passing of an asteroid for a long time. Scientists are even saying that it has the potential to impact us in the future. But for now, we can enjoy this spectacle from the comfort of our gardens in the UK. 

As you can see from the map above, the asteroid will be visible to us, starting at 8pm. By visible, I mean with a small telescope or a pair of binoculars. The magnitude of the asteroid will be 8. Which means it'll be incredibly faint to the human eye, unless you're in a dark sky site & then there's a small chance you may be able to see it with the naked eye.

A few people have asked how I will be capturing this. If all goes well & we have clear skies (pleasepleaseplease!) then I'll be out at around 9pm. I'm going for the star trails approach, where the end result will (hopefully!) show the path of the asteroid as a small streak. I'm going to start my camera off on 30 second exposures & do this for an hour. I'll stack all the shots using Photoshop.

As this is the first time I ever attempted something like this, the results could either be absolutely amazing, or a downright disaster. 

Any questions, please leave a comment below or you can contact me via twitter @_purpleface :) Please share any images you get on Friday night! :)

Photo pendants - finished product

A small update about my new pendants. They're now available on my Etsy store :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/purpleface?ref=si_shop

Best of 2012

It's my best of 2012 post! I do like to review my years gone by, it's nice to see what you've been up to. 

Last year was really awesome. Many things happened including a trip to Amsterdam, reaching my fourth year of being with my lovely other half, a new job, getting some more images in magazines & newspapers & I think I took some of the best photos I've ever taken which makes me happy. I'm far from perfect in my approach to photography in general but I think I'm getting there. I won't ever be perfect (which is fine, I love learning new things) but I think I'm going in the right direction & learning valuable skills that can be put forward into my career. 

I always feel a new hope when a new year arrives. It's like a fresh start. This year, however, I've decided to leave the stupid resolutions & just have a few goals I'd like to reach. Some are personal, which I won't post here, but most are regarding my work & happiness. 

Mainly I would like to be published in some different magazines. I've been published in Outdoor Photography, Amateur Photographer & Practical Photography magazines so far which is really amazing as I never thought anyone would want my work! So I would like to get some more magazines in my portfolio as it all counts.

Some goals not regarding my work involve travelling back to Amsterdam, seeing an A380 aircraft fly over me (planned for my birthday on Friday the 4th Jan!), travelling to London for the first time, reaching 100 sales on Etsy plus lots more! 

So that's me, what about you guys? Let me know in the comments :) Happy new year & have a good 2013!

Photo Pendants - the beginning

Hello everyone! I really hope you had a lovely Christmas!

So new year is fast approaching & my attention has turned to my photo pendants. I've been meaning to make them but haven't got round to getting the glue. I was a bit confused about which one to get but it's now on order thanks to Emily on twitter. I expect it'll be after new year when it arrives though!
 Here's a small preview of the pendants, this one was made with an inkjet print although I'm going to be getting the images printed professionally.

I'll start making them as soon as I get the prints & the glue. Below are some of the images I'll be making initially.

I'll make a new post once the pendants are made & on Etsy.

Let me know what you think :) Have a great new year!

Orion & Meteor 9/12/2012

Orion & Meteor 9/12/2012, originally uploaded by purpleface.

I am not very good with words so I wanted to use photography to say thank you to Patrick for inspiring so many people to look up at the stars.

He'll never be forgotten!

Rest in Peace, Sir Patrick Moore.

Winter!

Oh I do love winter. Frost, snow, Christmas & my birthday. It's just awesome.

Here are some of my favourite images from my flickr favourites by people who I follow. Drop by & give them a comment/fave!

Guide to nighttime photography

Autumn is well & truly here & as nights draw in, I've made a little guide blog post to the settings you may need to use for evening/night photography. Please note that these settings are a GUIDE and you may need to adjust for your own set of circumstances.

Aerial fireworks
          - 20 secs @ f/11 ISO100
Fairground rides
          - 15 secs @ f/16 ISO100
Traffic
          - 30 secs @ f/22 ISO100
Lightning strike
          - bulb @ f/11 ISO100
Concert/gig
          - 1/125 sec @ f/4 ISO800
Floodlit cathedral
          - 4 secs @ f/16 ISO100
Full moon
          - 1/250 sec @ f/8 ISO100
Moonlit landscape
          - 4 mins @ f/5.6 ISO100
Skyline at dusk
          - 1/30 sec @ f/5.6 ISO100
Skyline at night
          - 15 sec @ f/5.6 ISO100

Remember, for long exposures you require a tripod/remote/timer.

Let me know how you get on & whether there are any other night-time scenarios you'd like settings for.

Autumn/Winter doesn't have to mean hiding your camera away!

Treasuries on Etsy

I enjoy making treasuries on Etsy. It allows me to see what other local people are doing with their products & inspires me to try harder when I see something that makes me gasp with excitement.

My Etsy shop is just at it's beginning but I have high hopes for it. I just need people to support me along my journey & I've already got LOTS of support via facebook & Etsy.

Treasuries are a way for other members to share other people's work with the world & I love doing it so I can help a little bit :)

Here's a list of tresuries I've done so far. Have a look & if you have an Etsy account, leave a comment, like a few items & share with your friends :) Every little helps!

Newspaper Print Nail Tutorial

I haven't done a nail tutorial before but seeing as though I paint my nails on a regular basis, I thought I'd show you one of my techniques.

This is a new technique that I've only done once before. And it's pretty tricky!

This is a tutorial for newspaper print nails.

You will need:-

• Your choice of colours (the lighter the better!)
• rubbing alcohol (you can use just any regular hand sanitiser!)
• 10 cuttings of text from your newspaper

Step 1 - Choose your colours (click for bigger photos)

Step 2 - Collect your materials!

Step 3 - Paint your nails (remember your base colour so you don't stain your nails)

Step 4 - Cover your nails in the alcohol rub & press a piece of the newspaper over it 

Step 5 - Press a piece of cotton wool with some more alcohol rub over the paper & wait 30 seconds 

Step 6 - Peel carefully & inspect your work!

 Step 7 - Do the rest of your nails, either with the same font or experiment!

You could also try barcodes! I may do this if I can collect enough.

Have fun & leave a few photos here if you try it!

Autumn 2012 so far

As most of you know, I adore Autumn! So here's a few images I've taken so far this season. I'm a big fan of leaves on benches, I'm not sure why though! They just look very pretty.

Etsy

I've recently started to sell my items on Etsy again. I'd tried it before but didn't try hard enough! So I'm back again with new images & a new look & I'm going to give it my everything. So far I've been on Etsy 10 days & I'm slowly creeping up to my first 1000 views. So I'm getting views, just not sales, but I hope this will happen soon.

So my products are mainly framed prints but I also have a wall calendar & Christmas cards for sale. I also have a winter themed print set available too!

Click the photo below to visit my shop :)