After a lot of procrastination I made up my mind and took my first photograph of a nebula with a real telescope. I’ve dabbled a little and taken some images with my EOS 5D but nothing like this before.

This is the first image I took and it’s from the Carinae nebula (NGC 3372). Look at all the stars and the nebulae surrounding them,

Image of Carinae nebula

The image consists of 2 x 5 minutes exposures combined in Photoshop (no binning)

Astrophotography and space is so fascinating…

What do you think about the image? Post a comment below and let me know what you think.e

So i made this 8 minute video to share with you one of the true wonders of the world.

Let me know what you think by making a comment below.

I quickly went home, fetched the camera and quickly walked back to the balloon. Of course i forgot take a memory card so i had to go home again (very, very annoying). Nearly running i got back in time to take this photo hand held at 70mm.

Hot Air Balloon Pictures

The balloon is reflected in Truc Back lake which is near central Hanoi.

When I backed off a little i felt something jumping on my back and pulling my hair. I jumped forward and turned around and that’s when i realized this monkey was the one guilty for misconduct. I completely forgot the cute little monkey and took some images of this little rascal instead.

So whatever you do, never turn your back towards this guy!

Monkey outside Siem Reap

Despite this “monkey experience” I had a great time in Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.

Let me know what you think about this story by making a comment to the post.

My mothers English Springer Spaniel likes to play in the snow as should be obvious from this image. I pressed the shutter when she looked up at me after rolling in the snow and it looks like she’s thinking “What the heck are you looking at?”

English Springer Spaniel Playing in the snow

The dog is black and white and the background contains only snow so it looks like the image is in Black and White. The image is taken in Piteå in northern Sweden, just 1.5 hours drive from the arctic circle.

The name of the “star” in this image is “Maja” and she is now 9 years old (4 years when i took the image).

Let me know what you think, just make a comment to this post.

I went out for some street photography and not far from my home i looked up and saw this window cleaner hanging on a thin rope and stretching all he could to reach the window.

If someone asked me to do it i would strongly object

Window Cleaner in Guangzhou, southern china

What do you think?

Give me your opinion about this image by making a comment to the post.

Here’s a condensed step-by-step guideline in written form:

• Go to Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharp Mask
• Set Amount to 20
• Radius to 50
• Threshold to 0
• Click OK and you’re done!

You can experiment with Amount from 5-20 and radius from 20-300 pixels.

Let me know your opinion by making a comment to this post.

Here’s a condensed checklist of the video.

Method 1:

• Select Analysis -> Ruler Tool
• Place the cross on the horizon, press left mouse button and place the line along the horizon. Release the mouse button
• Go to Image->Rotate Canvas->Arbitrary
• Press OK (rotation angle is already pre-set)
• Crop the white edges around the image
• You’re done

Method 2:

• Select View->Show->Grid
• Select Select->All
• Select Edit->Transform->Skew
• Grab one of the small rectangles and push it upwards to straighten the horizon
• No cropping required
• You’re done

Show me you’re alive! Give me your opinion about the post by making a comment below.

Here’s a condensed checklist of the video

• Set white balance either by selecting one of the pre-sets or by setting the color temperature and the tint manually. Alternatively use the White Balance tool in the upper tool bar (by selecting a neutral gray area)
• Set the white point with the Exposure slider (right tail of the histogram)
• Use the Recovery slider to recover lost highlights (if required)
• Use the Fill Light slider to open up and give details in dark shadows
• Use the Blacks slider to set the black point (left tail of the histogram)
• Use the Brightness slider to change the mid tones (overall brightness)
• Use the contrast slider to set contrast
• Use the Clarity slider to set mid tone contrast
• Use the saturation slider to increase/reduce saturation
• Use the Clarity slider to set saturation (smart saturation)

That’s it, you’ll see how incredibly easy it is to edit and even rescue badly exposed images using adobe camera RAW.

Here’s a condensed checklist to complement the video:

1. Open the image
2. Select Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels
3. Give the layer a unique name or accept the proposed name
4. Select the Red channel
5. Position the black triangle directly under the histogram (not the triangle in the “output levels” section) to the start of the curve
6. Position the white triangle directly under the histogram to the end of the curve.
7. Repeat step 6 for the green and blue channel
8. Click OK
9. You’re done