Why take pictures? An answer.

[itchy]

I can see the fascination with imaging.

However I've worked with PCs for a number of years now and spend a great deal of my time waiting for the damn things to finish number-crunching and so-on, before spending another great deal of time collating the results into something usable.

What i don't want to do in my spare time is spend a large number of hours doing what seems to be a very similar procedure but with images!

So it's purely observational for me.

[Macavity]

I spent many years being pilloried by an art-loving girlfriend re. my Philistine-like indifference to paintings etc. But, these days (and independently) I'm quite the "art buff" (Relatively!). Sadly astro-pictures now suggest "measurement" to me. But, therein, seem to be some interesting possibilities... Once a Philistine, I guess?

[simon84]

Funnily enough I tend not to dwell on past pictures. My obsession is with the ones I'm working on in the present. It's the 'doing' that I love the most.

Olly

I'm with you on the doing part Olly. There is nothing quite like planning a shot and then taking it through to completion.

I guess what I said before really covers my general love of photography and not just astrophotography. When it comes to astro it is all about the doing and the technical goings on and making sure its all exactly how it should be. When I look back at some of my older astro images I think more about how I can improve on it and make it better.

[ollypenrice]

I spent many years being pilloried by an art-loving girlfriend re. my Philistine-like indifference to paintings etc. But, these days (and independently) I'm quite the "art buff" (Relatively!). Sadly astro-pictures now suggest "measurement" to me. But, therein, seem to be some interesting possibilities... Once a Philistine, I guess?

Interesting. My parents were both artists, as is Monique, so I have always been around the art world though not really of it. For me the kind of astro images that I take are really not at all scientific and are far from photometric. Like a naturalistic artist I am trying (I stress trying!!) to bring out colour and form, movement, the qualities that I see in the skyscapes of the night.

I often think that an abstract painter could find inspiration in objects like M42. 'Space art' as it is now leaves me cold: gothic planetary scenes and silvery Saturns derived from comic art and airbrush.

Olly

[MikeWilson]

The beauty of a photograph though is that that image is your moment, no one elses. You planned it and you brought it into the world. It belongs to you. You can share it with whoever you want but they will never get that feeling of excitement when you know its coming and the satisfaction of a job well done when you see it for the first time. I treasure every moment I have ever captured because they make up a part of my history.

Q.E.D.

I like both the visual and the imaging approach. However for me I'm not able to visually see a lot from my garden (I can make out some of the circumpolar constellations but star hopping is out of the question) so long, filtered exposures and a GOTO mount are crucial.

However I'll never forget how much I was able to see visually in such a short amount of time at Kelling Heath using this amazing new model of "Ant-GOTO" (Ant comes complete with fully automatic manual slew, a voice recognition system and only needs Jaffa cakes and coffee - no 12v supply needed!) with a 32mm eyepiece.

And for me the planets are the exact opposite experience. I've had a lot of pain imaging Jupiter and the moon whereas visually they have a lot more detail, no noise, impressive contrast and no frustration. Incidentally, I get better views and much more enjoyment of Jupiter watching it on the back of the DSLR Live Preview than I do actually taking pictures of it with DSLR or my modified Lifecam Cinema HD.

So, horses for courses. But I do wonder how much better the visual experience would be if I traded absolutely everything in and started from scratch with a dob. I wonder how many inches of dob my growing collection would buy!

Best,

Mike