Brenda, thanks yet again! All these years with PhotoPills in my shirt pocket and I’ve never opened the Meteor Showers pill, until this morning, following your excellent tutorial.
Putting the pill to work planning multi-night campaign in the hopes of catching enough “falling stars” before moonrises for a respectable radiant composite.
So much for plans, weather was uncooperative the first two nights. Wednesday conditions were good, I had a detailed plan for the night with two cameras, but at 5pm a text message alert of a wildfire breakout a couple miles away “moving fast” set me moving fast, quickly loading cameras and other gear into the truck, closing up the house and racing off to a viewpoint where I could see what was happening; a towering wall of smoke billowing up 2 miles to the south and drifting east with the west wind. Friends invited me to spend the night at their place in town. I returned home to pick up a few items I had forgotten in my hasty departure. Aircraft attacking the fire, after reloading with water from the Columbia River to the north passed at treetop level over our house, one right after another. It was unnerving, but the attack was effective, by morning the fire was reduced to hundreds of acres of countless little spot fires, their smokes drifting up lazily. So, I have no meteor photos, instead hundreds of photos of the Mosier Creek Fire and the ensuing aerial attack. By Friday morning ground crews were able to start the tedious, sweaty, smoky work of establishing fire lines, removing hazard trees, and discovering and extinguishing every last hot spot. A friend has the training and credentials to enter the fire zone and document that work.
@@michaelmckeag960 Wow - just catching up to this comment - sounds harrowing! I'm glad you were able to stay safe. We had ash even here in VT a week or so ago from the wildfires out west.
Outdoor Photography School Yes, OR came to visit VT. Our Mosier Cr Fire was subsequently dwarfed by the huge fires that broke out on the west slopes of the Cascade Mountains. When the wind finally reversed from east to west, thankfully stopping further advance of the fires, the smoke came east and enveloped us. We sealed ourselves up indoors for a week, donning KN95 masks for brief forays outdoors. The day the smoke arrived I photographed the views from several popular viewpoints. I returned the other morning to repeat the shots in crisp, clear fall air.
Brenda, thank you sincerely for all the resources that you provide. I’ve been telling myself to watch you series on Photo Pills more closely & simply hadn’t done. After watching this episode as I plan a Perseids meteor photo shoot, I’m kicking myself for not having watched sooner & much more intently. Extremely well done & immensely helpful. There is so much to the app, but you lay it out nicely. Thanks again for all the help.
Brenda, awesome tutorial again. This tool is so powerful. It is clear to me that one needs to practice, practice, and practice to fully understand how this tool works. Given how much free time that you have (Hahaha) what I think would be awesome would be to provide a Part 2 of this series where you would actually provide an example of a photo shoot using this tools. For example, in PhotoPills Friday Ep 14 - provide an example where you used the tool and went out to take photos in your area. What do you think? You know the saying, "Give an inch and they will take a mile?" I think that is what I have done here. Anyway, thank you for the tutorials. You have shown me the power of this tool and provided the instruction on how to do various tasks or projects using this too. Just a side note, I really like your introduction video. Did you do that yourself? Nyall
Thanks, Nyall! I appreciate the feedback. I actually did post a tutorial on scouting out a meteor shower location and showed how I used the PhotoPills app to do this - here's the link: ruclips.net/video/EnIoI2WDrl8/видео.html. I hope that's sort of what you had in mind :). I'm glad you liked the intro video too! I did make it myself.
@@outdoorphotographyschool7366 Hi Brenda. I think your intro is awesome. You certainly are talented. I am hoping to go out to the mountains this winter and take photos. I first came across your RUclips videos from your winter trips. Take care.
@@nrlondon7959 Thanks! You and me both. I've had injuries these last two winters, so my fingers are crossed for lots of snowshoeing and photography this winter.
Wow, I would never been able to work all this out with your tutorial. Looks like I'll have to wait til the end of the year to get a good meteor shower here in the Southern Hemisphere but all good
Very informative Brenda. In episode 13 you show us how to calibrate for the sun. Am i right in thinking this has to be done on each occasion. If so how can this be done on a grey day with no sun visible. We have plenty of days like this in Ireland.
Hi Jim - glad you liked the episode! Yes, you are right that it is best to calibrate each time before use for the most accurate results. Unless you can see where the sun (or moon) is through the clouds, then it's not worth doing the calibration, unfortunately. I sometimes skip the calibration if I'm just trying to get a sense of where the sun, moon, Milky Way, or meteor radiant may be in the sky, if I don't need the precise location and am scouting. Accuracy is more important for the day (or night) of the actual shoot to make sure you are setting up your camera in the right place, and in that case, hopefully you do have clear skies :).
You continue to educate us in straight forward manner. I feel much more confidant at this point to capture the upcoming meteor shower and ones in the future. I assume camera settings would be similar to shooting multiple images for stacking star trails in which I use approx. 2 minutes, is my assumption correct? Thanks for the info.
Hi Nick - so glad you enjoyed the video! The shutter speed you chose depends on what you want the final image to look like and what focal length you are using. I go into the recommended settings in this video: ruclips.net/video/EnIoI2WDrl8/видео.html. Basically, the shorter the focal length (wide angle lens) the longer the shutter can be open (and vice versa). However, if you want the stars to appear as pinpoints, then 2min would be too long. Usually, you want to be around 20-30sec (again, depends on your focal length and also your sensor size) for sharper stars. This shutter speed will still be long enough to capture the tails of the meteors.
@@outdoorphotographyschool7366 Thanks Brenda, after I asked you the question I thought about it and around 20 seconds make more sense since I want my stars sharp. Thanks for responding!
Thanks again Brenda for another informative video. Very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
I’m not a PhotoPills beginner and I’ve learned some things from your instructions. You are as good a teacher as I’ve run across. Thank you.
That's great to hear! Thank you!
Brenda, thanks yet again! All these years with PhotoPills in my shirt pocket and I’ve never opened the Meteor Showers pill, until this morning, following your excellent tutorial.
Awesome! I hope you get to use it soon!
Putting the pill to work planning multi-night campaign in the hopes of catching enough “falling stars” before moonrises for a respectable radiant composite.
So much for plans, weather was uncooperative the first two nights. Wednesday conditions were good, I had a detailed plan for the night with two cameras, but at 5pm a text message alert of a wildfire breakout a couple miles away “moving fast” set me moving fast, quickly loading cameras and other gear into the truck, closing up the house and racing off to a viewpoint where I could see what was happening; a towering wall of smoke billowing up 2 miles to the south and drifting east with the west wind. Friends invited me to spend the night at their place in town. I returned home to pick up a few items I had forgotten in my hasty departure. Aircraft attacking the fire, after reloading with water from the Columbia River to the north passed at treetop level over our house, one right after another. It was unnerving, but the attack was effective, by morning the fire was reduced to hundreds of acres of countless little spot fires, their smokes drifting up lazily. So, I have no meteor photos, instead hundreds of photos of the Mosier Creek Fire and the ensuing aerial attack. By Friday morning ground crews were able to start the tedious, sweaty, smoky work of establishing fire lines, removing hazard trees, and discovering and extinguishing every last hot spot. A friend has the training and credentials to enter the fire zone and document that work.
@@michaelmckeag960 Wow - just catching up to this comment - sounds harrowing! I'm glad you were able to stay safe. We had ash even here in VT a week or so ago from the wildfires out west.
Outdoor Photography School Yes, OR came to visit VT. Our Mosier Cr Fire was subsequently dwarfed by the huge fires that broke out on the west slopes of the Cascade Mountains. When the wind finally reversed from east to west, thankfully stopping further advance of the fires, the smoke came east and enveloped us. We sealed ourselves up indoors for a week, donning KN95 masks for brief forays outdoors. The day the smoke arrived I photographed the views from several popular viewpoints. I returned the other morning to repeat the shots in crisp, clear fall air.
Impressive teacher, Thank you so much for helping people.... you are a good person 👍🇨🇦
Thank you Brenda
Brenda, great video. Love your photopills classes.
So glad!
Another great video tutorial 👍. Thanks again!
My pleasure! Thanks!
Thank you. Very timely!
Wonderful!
Good job Brenda!
Thanks, Ryan!
I so appreciate your teaching style! Clear, concise, with no detail assumed. Again, thank you!
Thanks again! :)
Thanks Brenda. Just what I was asking for. Great info as usual and well explained.
Perfect! Glad that the info was helpful.
Brenda, thank you sincerely for all the resources that you provide. I’ve been telling myself to watch you series on Photo Pills more closely & simply hadn’t done. After watching this episode as I plan a Perseids meteor photo shoot, I’m kicking myself for not having watched sooner & much more intently. Extremely well done & immensely helpful. There is so much to the app, but you lay it out nicely. Thanks again for all the help.
Thanks so much, William! That means a lot. I hope that you have time to put it all together and that you have clear skies for the meteors!
Nice explanation thank you so much!!
Glad it was helpful!
Very well explained! Tnx for sharing. Fingers crossed for no clouds ☁️
Thanks! Finally got a night here with no clouds and was able to shoot this timelapse: ruclips.net/video/JwB5iQeDs-I/видео.html
Brenda, awesome tutorial again. This tool is so powerful. It is clear to me that one needs to practice, practice, and practice to fully understand how this tool works. Given how much free time that you have (Hahaha) what I think would be awesome would be to provide a Part 2 of this series where you would actually provide an example of a photo shoot using this tools. For example, in PhotoPills Friday Ep 14 - provide an example where you used the tool and went out to take photos in your area. What do you think? You know the saying, "Give an inch and they will take a mile?" I think that is what I have done here. Anyway, thank you for the tutorials. You have shown me the power of this tool and provided the instruction on how to do various tasks or projects using this too. Just a side note, I really like your introduction video. Did you do that yourself? Nyall
Thanks, Nyall! I appreciate the feedback. I actually did post a tutorial on scouting out a meteor shower location and showed how I used the PhotoPills app to do this - here's the link: ruclips.net/video/EnIoI2WDrl8/видео.html. I hope that's sort of what you had in mind :).
I'm glad you liked the intro video too! I did make it myself.
@@outdoorphotographyschool7366 Hi Brenda. I think your intro is awesome. You certainly are talented. I am hoping to go out to the mountains this winter and take photos. I first came across your RUclips videos from your winter trips. Take care.
@@nrlondon7959 Thanks! You and me both. I've had injuries these last two winters, so my fingers are crossed for lots of snowshoeing and photography this winter.
This is great - looking forward to the upcoming Perseids now that I have watched the video. Great content!
Awesome! I hope you get some good shots!
Muito obrigado Brenda!!! Vc é demais! 👏👏👏
Oba, obrigado!
Wow, I would never been able to work all this out with your tutorial. Looks like I'll have to wait til the end of the year to get a good meteor shower here in the Southern Hemisphere but all good
Just more time to plan! ;)
Very informative Brenda. In episode 13 you show us how to calibrate for the sun. Am i right in thinking this has to be done on each occasion. If so how can this be done on a grey day with no sun visible. We have plenty of days like this in Ireland.
Hi Jim - glad you liked the episode! Yes, you are right that it is best to calibrate each time before use for the most accurate results. Unless you can see where the sun (or moon) is through the clouds, then it's not worth doing the calibration, unfortunately. I sometimes skip the calibration if I'm just trying to get a sense of where the sun, moon, Milky Way, or meteor radiant may be in the sky, if I don't need the precise location and am scouting. Accuracy is more important for the day (or night) of the actual shoot to make sure you are setting up your camera in the right place, and in that case, hopefully you do have clear skies :).
@@outdoorphotographyschool7366 Thanks Brenda appreciated
You continue to educate us in straight forward manner. I feel much more confidant at this point to capture the upcoming meteor shower and ones in the future. I assume camera settings would be similar to shooting multiple images for stacking star trails in which I use approx. 2 minutes, is my assumption correct? Thanks for the info.
Hi Nick - so glad you enjoyed the video! The shutter speed you chose depends on what you want the final image to look like and what focal length you are using. I go into the recommended settings in this video: ruclips.net/video/EnIoI2WDrl8/видео.html. Basically, the shorter the focal length (wide angle lens) the longer the shutter can be open (and vice versa). However, if you want the stars to appear as pinpoints, then 2min would be too long. Usually, you want to be around 20-30sec (again, depends on your focal length and also your sensor size) for sharper stars. This shutter speed will still be long enough to capture the tails of the meteors.
@@outdoorphotographyschool7366 Thanks Brenda, after I asked you the question I thought about it and around 20 seconds make more sense since I want my stars sharp. Thanks for responding!