Moonscape at St. Barth:

Film: Kodak Ektachrome 100 - Camera: Pentax LX, Lens:16mm Sigma Fisheye. On tripod. Exposure f:2.8@15min.(approx.).

-- Bahman Farzad (cpgbooks@mindspring.com), September 19, 1998

Answers

Seems to have a problem with contrast, possibly from scanning. However, it's an extremely successful minimalist composition, one of the few times I've seen a dead-center horizon that looked correct. I really like the way diagonal elements seem to raidate from a point on the horizon near the edge of the frame to the viewer's right.

Did the original slide have much less contrast? And was there more detail in the foreground?

-- Richard Shiell (rshiell@lightspeed.net), September 20, 1998.

Nice work Bahman. Almost like a "Dali" like. Only minor corrections, remove(crop out) the two stars on the top edge. These hightlights draw the eye out of the frame. I might also try to darken the light spots spots in the bottom left.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), September 22, 1998.

Just thought that I would add that I have been admiring this photo since it was posted, there is something about it that I really like, though the above improvements would make it much stronger.

-- Tait Stangl (taits@usa.net), September 24, 1998.

Thanks for your comments and e-mails. When photographing with a fisheye lens, unless the horizon is placed exactly at the center of the frame, it will bend and is no longer straight. As you mentioned, there is more detail in the original slide than the scanned one. like many other shots in my life, I was not prepared for this type of long exposure photography. The actual slide is more majestic and when projected on the screen with the stars drawing a circle around the pole star (top left), it looks pretty impressive. Thanks to you, I also learned that different versions of the photo can also look simpleer and more elegant. Thanks for your help. Bahman.

-- Bahman Farzad (cpgbooke@mindspring.com), September 27, 1998.

I agree this is a stunning image but I have problems with the star streaks (do to the earth's movement). I find these steraks very distracting from the overall mood, plus they look uneven, perhaps due to some tripod vibration. Since this is a potentially very great image, I would try to have this custom printed with the stars removed. It may be a bit expensive due to extensive retouching required but in my opinion very worthwhile to do so!

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), October 03, 1998.

I love this image the way it is.

To the stars showing their circular trace around the pole give the mind the hint that this is a night time shot. It carries the same kind of feeling as one of those time-lapse cloud sequences on TV. Only here you can see the earth spinning round (relative to the stars) and the frothy oceans too and the mood is great. The great perspective effect of the 15mm really makes you feel as if you are there with the clouds flying right over your head.

I suppose the foreground would all have more detail when projected...

-- Russell Edwards (redwards@mania.physics.swin.edu.au), December 30, 1998.