Keegan’s best photos of 2014

2014 was a great year for my photography. My short trip to Colorado opened up new opportunities in scenic photography and I got some great time lapses. The spiders were abundant, and I even worked on my portraits a bit.

To start off I have to post time lapse I took near Stonewall, Colorado. I think it’s one of the coolest things I’ve done. Make sure to see it in HD, or click here to see it on YouTube.

[youtube width=”780″ height=”438″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pRcul75xZg[/youtube]

I got some great stills from Colorado, too:

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And of course, some Milky Way Shots

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The spiders were out in force the year, and I spent a few weekends hunting for Salticids

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I also saw a few Crab Spiders

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I worked a bit on my Astrophotography

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And i took a self portrait using just Moonlight

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Big-eyed salticid

I saw this one earlier this year at the Chesapeake Arboretum. She was a very friendly subject and let me take quite a few photos. Taken with my Canon 5dII, mp-e 65mm, and mt-24 ex.

 

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East Coast Star Party Oct 2014 – Spiders

The spiders are always out later in the year down in North Carolina. Saw a few great jumpers on a fence. I’ve had great luck with that fence over the years. All photos taken with my Canon 5dII and Mp-e 65mm lens.

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East Coast Star Party Oct 2014 – Deep Sky Objects

Had a wonderful time at the East Coast Star party last weekend. I spent a lot of time searching for new objects, my favorite of which was NGC 891. I took a lot of photos, and got frustrated at the wobbliness of my astrophotography telescope a few times. But, I did manage to get a few good shots. I saw some spiders, too, I’ll post those shortly.

All of these photos were taken with my Canon 5dII mounted on my newt, and guided with a Celestron g5sct. I was mostly testing the ISO limits of my camera, so I didn’t go for image quality. Still trying to figure out the best settings for my gear.

First, the Andromeda Galaxy. A big improvement over my first attempt. 6 light, 2 dark, ISO 5000, 60s exposure.

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The Orion Nebula turned out quite well.
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A noisy pinwheel. This was only two frames, my gear was getting too damp to use. Still turned out neat.

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Day two of photography. This is my new favorite object, NGC 891.

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 Taken through a Thomas M. Back refractor. A stunning scope, incredibly sharp. This is the sun, with a massive sun spot, larger in diameter than Jupiter.

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Colorado 2014 Part 4: Stonewall

This is the final set of photos from my trip to Colorado in September, 2014.  I took over 6000 photos, many of those HDR and time lapses. I learned a lot about scenic photography, something I am new to, and a whole lot more about exposing properly for the milky way. This was the best vacation I’ve taken, and I can’t wait to go back.

First, another time lapse. This was taken by North Lake, a few miles north of Stonewall. The same lake, actually, where my Milky Way Time lapse was taken. I love the clouds in the distance, if you look closely you can see rain falling. Make sure you’re viewing it in HD. This spans 3 hours of photos.

[youtube width=”780″ height=”438″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggANA8Zu1I&list=UUFzMkXbq8V1__fHwOS4IMcg[/youtube]

This is a 6 shot HDR stack, taken from the top of Stonewall. The hike was precarious and rather dangerous, but worth it!

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A few shots from North Lake, near Stonewall. Same place as the above time lapse.

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During the day Sunday, I drove around quite a bit, and met this friendly horse. See the nose in the top left? Not so friendly, protective parent.

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