Another Shuttle Launch

I’m so excited to be going back for the final launch of the Atlantis! It’s all so awesome… and, even be there, it will be during my 40th birthday. Even though my happenstance revolutions around the sun at 1 AU are a completely arbitrary measurement of age, it’s the one we all use, so there ya go.

Gordon’s Launch Experience

My friend Gordon Laing from CameraLabs.com made his own video when we were out there together, which he recently entered into the Queenstown Film Festival. It’s pretty cool – because he’s a friend, we stayed in the same hotel, and so on… the only difference is that I flew back for the actual launch while he watched from New Zealand. See his video here.

Daily Photo – The Shuttle Prepares

On the day before the launch, I was ushered out a few football fields away from the shuttle. It was surreal being so close, even though I wanted to be closer…closer…closer…. but the 28-300 (See the Nikon 28-300 Review) was plenty lens enough to get in tight so you can see all the details of the shuttle and the launch facility skunkworks…

See all my NASA shots here…

The Google +1 Button

This is Google’s new thing…. if you trust this site and like it, go ahead and click the +1. It’s like the Facebook Like, except it will help with search results! (or something)

Daily Photo – The Mighty Rocket Rests

I had some time during the day while at NASA to visit the Kennedy Space Center. Inside was the insanely huge Saturn V rocket. It’s one of those things that would hurt like hell if you dropped it on your toe.

The shuttle only has one more launch before it is forever mothballed, like this… The final launch of the Atlantis is on July 8, the first day of my 40th revolution around the sun. That’s kinda cool I think…

New Video Interview – While at NASA…

I did this video interview with Jesse from Aputure. I did this one while waiting around for the shuttle to go off last week… and you can see some other behind-the-scenes stuff I suppose. BTW, I am the worst at doing interviews in a timely manner. Jesse sent me this in November of 2010, and I am just now getting used to it… I have many other interviews queued up in my inbox… and I’ll get to them eventually. Sorry it’s just a busy time.

Daily Photo(s) – A collection from Cape Canaveral

I still have many unreleased shuttle photos, but I thought you might enjoy some of the other bits and pieces that I have posted below. I’ll put captions under each one for you.

Some Tweetup celebrities…

The Tweetup had a few people there that maybe you’ve heard of… First is Seth Green, who I first started watching on Buffy and Greg the Bunny (of which, I have seen every episode, I’m happy to say – see the Tardy the Turtle compilation for an idea of the show). Second there is his wife Clare Grant, who you might just enjoy in Geek and Gamer Girls video. The third photo is Abraham Benrubi, who you might remember from ER and Parker Lewis… also, don’t you think Abe should play one of the roles in Game of Thrones on HBO? I think so! Plus, like me, he’s memorized most of the book! Also, Abe is a regular visitor here to the site, which was a nice surprise to find out after meeting him.

Seth Green runs up the stairs at the Tweetup after some lame photographer tried to get a photo of him while inside the port-o-potty.

Clare Grant tweets away on her computer while sitting by Seth inside the Tweetup tent.

Abe Benrubi makes a face at his wife Nicole Solomon while she musses his hair to show how unruly it's become ever since he started growing it out.

More NASA & Space Shuttle Photos

I have many more NASA shots that I have posted and many more in the future…. to see them all, just visit the NASA category here on the site!

New and Free eBooks Available

We have some new eBooks over at FlatBooks.com. There’s also a free one you get just for signing up for the newsletter, which we only send out about every two months or so. Enjoy!

Daily Photo: The Beautiful Space Shuttle Blooms Inside a Cloud

(Edit: Welcome NPR, Today Show, Gizmodo, MSNBC and others for enjoying the shuttle photos and visiting – enjoy your stay!)

Staying awake for two days before getting this shot made my nerves a little frayed. As the countdown got inside the final two hours, I could feel myself in a strange mix of extreme fatigue and excitement. It’s a very strange feeling! And since this is the first launch I had ever seen, all my spidey-senses were tingling. This was also the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavor, so there was an extra layer of meaning on top of everything else.

I arrived right at 3 AM to set up my tripod (which, surprisingly, I did not use for this shot, but I’ll get to that in a minute). I then went into the press room to get everything organized for the upcoming event. I was also still spending time editing together the video for the webinar, since I know a lot of people miss the live version and like to download it after the event. So by the time the actual event rolled around, I was really starting to feel tired.

Even though I had my Nikon D3X set up on a tripod with my 28-300 lens, I actually shot this picture with my 50mm prime lens on my Nikon D3S! Everything did go according to plan, and I had run through the routine a few times before the launch. The plan was to fire away on my main body during the first 15 seconds or so. At that point, the D3X starts to have bufferring problems, so I switched to my Chewbacca-bandolier D3S. I pulled it up into a vertical orientation and rapid-fired just as the shuttle tore into the clouds.

As soon as the Endeavour worm-holed into the cloud layer, the strange staccato-bass of torn air came skipping across the water into the press area. The sound was not at all what I expected, but it was awesome dot com.

A Super Long Day!

I woke up and jumped in the car immediately to head to NASA. I spent most of that on the little adventure I describe below, then came back to the hotel to run the webinar. After that, I worked on the photo below before editing together the video (which is still going on). And then I’ll begin a long upload before leaving just after 2 AM to get to NASA at 3AM. I gotta get my tripod set up in the perfect place for the launch that will happen a few hours later. No sleep… just rockets and photo-editing… a marathon of fun! But I’m doing it for Stu, Gordon, Abe, Scott, Cliff, and all my other friends like you guys that couldn’t be here with me.

Daily Photo – The Mighty Rocket Awaits

Today I had a great day at NASA. I’ve come back to the space coast in Florida to see the space shuttle Endeavor blast off, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Around noon, I was invited out with a group of other Twitter peeps to see the RRS Rollback event. This is the slow-motion but exciting time when they peel away to the Rotating Service Structure to reveal the shuttle. It was so awesome that I almost forgot to send a tweet.

And, below, you can see a zoom in I took at 300mm. It shows one of the workers on the scaffolding making some final preparations for the launch.

This lens has quickly become one of my favorites. Some people complain that it is not very fast, but I don’t notice these things since I’m usually on a tripod. You can see more at the Nikon 28-300 Review.

Great Prize Bundle – Thanks Photomatix!

Here’s a fun prize! This is open to all that have registered for the Photography Webinar. It starts tonight, but you can still join even up to a week late and just download the classes you missed!

• Grand Prize: All Expenses Paid Trip to Austin to shoot an abandoned power plant with me – Thanks Photomatix for this prize
  • Plane, +Hotel (2 nights), +Car, +$100 in meals!
    • Note: Plane allotment covers anything below $750.  If you are overseas and want to make up the difference, then feel free to enter below!
• Bonus Prize: Photoshop CS5 – I have another new copy I’ll give you when you arrive here in Austin.
• To Enter: Leave a comment below!  People with more than one comment are disqualified.
• Eligible: You must be registered for the Photography Webinar
• Contest Ends May 15th at midnight CST. I’ll select a random winner and announce on May 16.
• Questions? Contact [email protected]

And, of course there are many other prizes as well, such as a New Drobo every class. Pop over to the Webinar page to see them all listed out.

Daily Photo – The Megahangar at NASA

Imagine a giant skyscraper, but hollow and filled with people making rockets.  That’s what the VAB is.  To really get a sense of the size of this thing, look at the outline of the man standing in the distance, his body backlit by the door.

The VAB, or Vehicle Assembly Building, is the worlds largest single-story building, and it’s where NASA assembles many of the rockets, including the mighty Saturn V.  It’s also the tallest building in the US that’s not in a downtown area.   It’s situated at Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, and it’s awesome dot com.

The thing is so big that it even has its own weather system.  In fact, on humid days it can even rain inside the building!  In my photo below, you are really only seeing part of it.  Off to the right, they are fueling up the Atlantis for its upcoming mission.  Staring through the girders from another angle, you can easily see the giant orange tank going through its pre-launch ordeal.

Getting into this place was very difficult.  I felt privileged to even get through the various security screenings and get the governmental approval to go inside.  They let in little groups of us from the Tweetup, and I have to thank Stephanie Schierholz for making it all happen.  It’s one of the mysterious places on earth I’ve always wanted to visit, so I was very excited to be inside.  My next goal is to get back inside and get up higher… perhaps even get in while they are prepping the next rocket.

I have many more shots of this building that I’ll be sharing in coming weeks and months… you guys know how I like to keep these threads and stories open for a long time!

http://stuckincustoms.smugmug.com/Portfolio-The-Best/your-favorites/10668747_AuyBk#1281

A Long Day on the Cape

I’ll talk all about my day at NASA in a later post… I’m super-duper tired… but I wanted to share this photo I just took of a massive storm sweeping over the complex on the evening before the launch.

I was supposed to be going over to the actual launch pad as night was falling to get a shot, but this storm started to roll in, upsetting those plans. The big structure you see on the other side of the flag is the Vehicle Assembly Building, and that blue structure you see to the left is the famous countdown-clock you always see in front of the press area before the launch.

Right as I was taking this, an official lady from NASA ran into the field warning me that this was now a “Level 2 lightning alert!” I happen to be standing by another NASA Tweetup invitee, Lavar Burton. He asked, “Is that like a Level 3 diagnostic?” Greatness. He was a really cool guy, btw… I put up a photo of us together over on my Facebook Page.

100 Cameras in 1 – Try it Free

We have a new free version! (iTunes Link) It comes with well over a dozen effects for free. You will have fun using this app and giving it a whirl. There are some options inside the app if you want to unlock more effects too.

Also, you’ll see we added a new camera interface that is very cool… I think you’ll like it. We have an iPad version too, of course. (4.5 stars with over 200 reviews – thanks!)