zz wrote:
Must have been a fantastic time. Do a lot of people show up for that regularly?
I can imagine you might have had some questions showing up with a 600mm when it's usually people with camcorders there.
The NASA launch site on Wallops Island, Virginia is 170 miles from where I live, not that far. They have several launches every year, some are the small "sounding rockets". I had never watched a rocket launch before so it was fun despite of the cold and wind. Not knowing how crowded it would get, I left my house at 3:45 AM and arrived at the most popular viewing location at 7:00. I was the first one! There was plenty of space even for people who arrived at 11:00. The rocket blasted off at around 12:45. There was some concern that the strong wind might force the launch to be cancelled but I am glad it went up.
Where I was there were maybe a few hundred people, some didn't have cameras, the ones with cameras, mostly had the 150-600mm, 100-400mm, 70-200mm type of lenses. I did get asked about my lens by the people next to me, they would have been shocked if I had told them how much the lens cost, . I saw only one other big lens in the crowd. I think most people with serious big lens went to the lesser known location that is 3 miles from the launch pad and has open view to the launch pad. Where I was is 6 miles from the launch site and had no direct view to the launch pad. I should have gone to the other location instead. Next time...
This is the NASA video of the launch, the blastoffs at 37:00:
Beach at Erdeven, 25s exposure, shooting in almost opposite direction to sunset. It is very difficult for me to post-process these photographs in twilight when the histogram is just a thin band
Douglas L wrote:
I saw only one other big lens in the crowd. I think most people with serious big lens went to the lesser known location that is 3 miles from the launch pad and has open view to the launch pad. Where I was is 6 miles from the launch site and had no direct view to the launch pad. I should have gone to the other location instead.
See that's what I like, the story behind the picture and not just the photo alone
zz wrote:
. The rocket blasted off at around 12:45. There was some concern that the strong wind might force the launch to be cancelled but I am glad it went up.
. I saw only one other big lens in the crowd. I think most people with serious big lens went to the lesser known location that is 3 miles from the launch pad and has open view to the launch pad. Where I was is 6 miles from the launch site and had no direct view to the launch pad. I should have gone to the other location instead. Next time...
