Wide Angle - Blog Posts

My new Kia Forte5

This is my new ride, a 2016 Kia Forte5 SX. I wanted a new five door hatchback with a backup camera, Bluetooth audio, and a nice interior for road trips. When I walked up to the car with the key and the mirrors folded out, I knew this was the one. When I went to Shumatsucon this weekend, I parked in the craziest parking spot I know and took some pictures.

With this, the hardware upgrades are complete. This car is so good, I feel like I need to improve myself to be worthy of it. More on that later.

It's about time I took my own wide angle picture like this. I had to wait a week for a nice day, and I happened to be at an event near this parking garage. I even got a helicopter in the shot!

I probably won't drive up there again. It's really tight climbing to the 8th floor of Fifth Third Center with a car. It's only good for pictures. I haven't tried panorama before. The car looks kinda warped, but I got all of Columbus Commons. It's too cool not to include.

Source: my phone camera on the 8th floor of Fifth Third Center

Girls and Space!! – pixiv Spotlight

These girls should be very dead. If I could survive without heat, air, atmospheric pressure, and radiation protection, then I’d wish I could float around in space too. Maybe they can do it because it’s cool, or maybe they’re robots? pixiv Spotlight posts twice a day in English, and this one’s about girls in space.

In a far off place not yet known to us… the cosmos!! Humans have long before wanted to travel through the universe… a very romantic idea! Ever looked up at the sky and just wondered about the Milky Way? Today’s Spotlight is about the fantastically magical cosmos… with girls! Mysterious and awesome, all at the same time. Check them out.

I wondered how I should reblog a pixiv Spotlight. For now, I'll copy the behavior of pixiv Spotlight's RSS feed, with one image that you can click to get to their full post. I hope this is OK. I mean, technically I should be spelling pixiv with a lowercase p and Nanahime as NaNa_HI_ME.

NaNa_HI_ME – Yume no Hoshi

Source: Girls and Space!! and ななひめ – ゆめのほし via pixiv Spotlight‘s English RSS feed

Kawayoo

Kawayoo is a busy artist, and not just in drawing illustrations for art books and Pokémon cards. His electronic music puts me in the mood to write code. I’ve been working on adding a key config menu to Skeleton Hunter, and when it’s finished, I’ll tell you all about it.

It's been too long since this type of post. pixiv is just a fire hose of cool art. I could start browsing tags and artists and lose my entire afternoon there, so I don't check it like I used to.

Source: kawa/yoo found somewhere on pixiv last year

Amemura

It’s about time I did another pixiv post with mouseover text, right? Amemura keeps showing up in my recommendations with these eye-catching beautiful skies and vertical locations. The artist has recently started posting their new work on Tumblr and Twitter, so they’re easier to follow now.

Lake of Twilight (黄昏の湖)

This is Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia, the largest salt flat in the world. When it rains, the entire salt flat turns into a mirror. Trippy! Artists and photographers love this place.

You and I (きみとぼく)

If I could see this clearly underwater, I'd go scuba diving all the time. Having things above and below you and swimming up and down to meet them must be a lot of fun.

At the End of Summer (夏の果て)

Here's another place that looks like it probably exists. This girl must be a globe-trotter.

Dive

Here's a place that does NOT exist. Are we skydiving or scuba diving? Or both? Whatever it is, it's cool! The artist also has one of scuba diving in space.

Dream

Sweet dreams! Unless you're seeing this post in the morning. In that case, sorry I just made you forget whatever dreams you had.

Source: http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?id=47488 via pixiv Spotlight

John Hathway – Magic Rocket Station (another)

Time for another dual-monitor desktop wallpaper with a lot going on. pixiv artist John Hathway puts on some Susumu Hirasawa music and draws Mahocho, a vertical city of magic users that use flying brooms, rockets, and jetpacks to get around. The scale is so big you need a fisheye lens to see it all.

Oh, speaking of witches and brooms, this Wednesday on my weekly Instagib stream I’ll be playing the super rare Magical Chase, emulated of course.

This was actually my wallpaper back in August but I saved this post until Halloween time. Is that bad?

Source: 「MagicRocketStation(another)」/「JH科学 コミケ3日目マ24a」のイラスト [pixiv] via Udon’s Pixiv Almanac; also Bullet Heaven

Vadim Makhorov – Hong Kong Rooftopping at Night

No, this isn’t from a video game! This is a photo from a rooftop in Hong Kong’s Wanchai neighborhood overlooking Causeway Bay and Happy Valley. Rooftoppers Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov took several trips to Hong Kong scaling skyscrapers, taking pictures, and even hacking a huge billboard.

Source: 55.jpg via Hong Kong | ontheroofs and What's up Hong Kong? – YouTube via ontheroofs, both via TwistedSifter’s outstanding Picture of the Day feed, and information from comments on Vadim Makhorov’s Facebook

Yatsude – Country of a Thousand Nights and Ten Billion Mornings

That’s my best guess on the translation of the actual title “Sen no Yoru to Hyaku Oku no Asa no Kuni”. Anyway, this is my new desktop wallpaper, and it really is shockingly good. It’s the kind of fantasy town I want to live in, but it’s almost realistic, too. I highly recommend logging into pixiv to see this in its full 1800×750 glory. I’ve been mildly addicted to pixiv lately, and I plan to post plenty more of this stuff one image at a time.

Oh Yatsude, your scene splits my dual monitors perfectly so.

Source: 「千の夜と百億の朝の国」/「ヤツデ」のイラスト [pixiv] via 「ヤツデ」 's Works – Illustration [pixiv] via the recommendations page that came up when I bookmarked Yukihiro Nakamura via One Morning Train

hpknight – Saturday

pixiv is basically the Japanese DeviantArt, full of talented artists I’d never have heard of otherwise. I picked up Udon’s Pixiv Almanac last year at PAX East and I craved more. I’m now subscribed to pixiv Top Weekly – Top 20 which gives a good balance of quality and quantity. Other pixiv feeds are available at PixivRss. If people like this post, I may do some more like this in the future.

You can click each image below to visit its posting on pixiv. If you register an account there, you can download the full resolution image. Also, this is a good time to remind you that I write mouseover text for almost every image on this blog, which you can see whether you’re on my site or reading my RSS feed.

(This post and the four before it were all one post over on my old blog. Tumblr doesn’t support mouseover text, so I’ve copied those over as plain text for each image’s post.)

That sky is pretty! I use this as the wallpaper for my Grub menu to choose which OS to boot into. I think I was actually linked to this one by a Tumblr blog I followed, but I forget which one. Sorry.

UPDATE: Added Google Translate-based guesses for all titles and usernames to bring this more in line with my other pixiv posts

Source: 「土曜日」/「嗨P」のイラスト [pixiv]

Asano – Taisho 103: Battleship Island

This reminds me of the Imperial Boy background art I posted here several months ago. So much detail! I'd make this my wallpaper but I can't crop it to 16:9 without losing lots of details.

Source: 「大正一〇三年・軍艦島」/「浅野」のイラスト [pixiv] via pixiv每周排行 – 前50

大正一〇三年　軍艦島

TBS様「WADAIの王国」 という番組で別ver.をセット背景に使って頂きました。

Foothills Of Passage

Dead End Thrills brings out the best in video game environments. This community goes beyond simple screenshots by making modifications to the game engines to render super high resolution images so professional you'd think they're marketing assets. My dual-monitor desktop just got taken over by this one from the new Shadow Warrior.

The old WordPress blog had the 'large' 2221x945 version and a broken link to a ‘full’ 3755x1598 version. Never mind those, I found this 8192x3486 monster on Flickr. Enjoy!

Source: Flickr and foothillsofpassage.png via Dead End Thrills

Imperial Boy - Vegetable Garden

Imperial Boy's detailed, colorful background art makes for some great desktop wallpapers. He's always got this sense of vertical scale that I've always tried to work into my level designs.

(Starting with this post, every image on my old WordPress blog had unique mouseover text. Tumblr does not support mouseover text for the featured image in an image post, so I’ll have to copy those over as plain text captions as demonstrated below. Mouseover text doesn’t work well on mobile, anyway. As far as I know, the mouseover text on images is the only feature I lose in the transition to Tumblr. I could theoretically fix this in the theme, but it wouldn’t affect Tumblr’s dashboard or the mobile app since those ignore themes.)

Hmm, I think I'll add alt text to images. It's a nice little easter egg in XKCD and Dr. McNinja, and hopefully Feedly supports Wordpress's method of doing this too. I just have to remember to change the tag from alt= to title= each time.

Source: 霊雨さん設定資料集 - Ms.ReiuSetMaterialCollection (with Google Translate)

Horseshoe Bend of the Little Colorado River by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Horseshoe Bend of the Little Colorado River. There are 4-5 horseshoe bends in the Little Colorado River within the Grand Canyon, and this is one of them. Different bends line up with the Milky Way at different times. This is in the Navajo Nation so you need a permit to go there. The Grand Canyon is not as deep here as it is more west, but is still really impressive, and the river views are excellent. That is the real color of the water. I have not changed it at all, only mildly increased contrast. The sky is a stack processed in Starry Landscape Stacker. This is one frame at 14 mm. Foreground was a long exposure of 5 min, f/2.0, ISO 1600. Sky was a stack of 20 images at f/2.0, 20 sec, ISO 6400. Images blended in PS. There was a LOT of airglow which I find appealing. Cheers, Wayne

Hoodoos and Bones by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Oh, if the land could only speak, what a tale it could tell... For tours to this area contact Kialo Winters at Navajo Tours USA. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

To Walk a Pale Land by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook To Walk A Pale Land. Part of a series from the New Mexico Badlands. This is a panorama of 9 vertical shots taken at 14 mm with a 14-24 mm lens, f/2.8, ISO 12,800. I was about 6-8 feet from the larger hoodoos on the sides, very close. There was considerable distortion in the individual photos from being so close, but the combined photos in the panorama eliminated the distortion remarkably well. People frequently ask me about nodal rails and parallax. The current versions of Lightroom and Photoshop do remarkably well at eliminating parallax error in the photos. I do have a nodal rail and take as many panoramas as I can manage, but I do not bother with the nodal rail. I do not use it, and have never had an issue with parallax preventing stitching or distorting the image. In this image I was trying it o catch the rising MW between the hoodoos. Taken in May 2018. There are no paths in the New Mexico Badlands, and multiple places you can visit. If you want guidance consider contacting Kialo Winters @chacorunner, at Navajo Tours USA, highly recommend! Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Small Canyon in Nevada by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Small Canyon in Nevada. 7 images stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker. 12 mm fisheye lens, f 2.8, ISO 8000, 25 sec. Why 7 images? Who knows, probably lost count, lol. Love that “red” Navajo Sandstone! Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Whispers of the Past by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook An old house in New Mexico. Lighting with Low Level Lighting with a Gaol Zero Micro Lantern. There are 2 exposures for focus stacking, one for the foreground and one for the sky, both at 14 mm. Sky shot at 15 sec., f 4.5, 15 sec., and ISO 10,000, foreground shot at 25 sec., f 4.5, and ISO 10,000. I shot the foreground at f 4.5 to get more depth of field and forgot to change it for the sky. Oops... Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Heart Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Stacked Image Foreground 9 images 17 mm, 30 sec., f 4.0, ISO 12,800 Sky 9 images 17 mm, 15 sec., ISO 12,800 Heart Arch or Window. Once upon a time on a small Mesa far, far away. 😊 I do not know if there is a real name for this small arch (I suspect not), but I’m going to call it Heart Arch. I saw a photo of this small arch on the internet which led me to see out the location, and fortunately I found it on my second day of searching. The Arch is located on the very edge of a cliff with a drop off of an estimated 100-150 feet, 30-50 m. Fortunately it could be lined up with the MW from the safe side of the arch, but unfortunately there was a lot of light pollution in this direction from a city about 100 miles, 160 km away. Still worked out ok though. There is focus stacking with a 9 image stack for the sky and an 9 image stack for the foreground, processed in Starry Landscape Stacker. Low Level Lighting done with a single Goal Zero Micro Lantern. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Eggshells and Cracked Eggs by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Blend (Focus Stack) Nikon 810A, f 2.8, 20 sec., 17 mm, Nikon 14-24 mm lens Cracked Eggs and Eggshells. This is taken in the Bisti Badlands in an area know as the "Cracked Eggs" or the "Alien Egg Factory". This was done in a workshop during the May New Moon. It is about a 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot. The badlands are a mesmerizing place at night with a very otherworldly feel. In this photo I was trying to capture a close view of a "cracked" egg along with the Milky Way. There is a close focus on the "eggshell" and a far focus on the sky. I am giving a Landscape Astrophotography Workshop in the New Mexico Badlands in July, two 3 day workshops, July 8-10 and July 11-13. If interested please contact me through my website. We will cover Landscape Astrophotography with classic night landscapes and then add people/figures into the compositions. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

The Totem Pole, Monument Valley by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook The Totem Pole in Monument Valley. You need a local guide to visit Monument Valley at night. I can recommend Majestic Monument Valley tours if you are interested. I am planning something different and new that I hope will be a lot of fun. I am planning Fantasy Nightscape Workshops during the July new moon. There will be 2 three day workshops, in July 2018, July 8 through 10, and July 11 through 13. Photographer Eric Gail will also be an instructor. The workshop will be in the New Mexico Badlands. This area has multiple “Otherworldly” locations. This area gives us multiple sites that will be suitable for photographing fantasy scenes. This workshop will be different in that we will compose the photos with Fantasy Figures. It will be like Comic Com under the Milky Way. We will first capture the composition in a standard fashion without a person and then with one or more fantasy figures in the photo. We will provide costumes including an Astronaut (full spacesuit), Alien, Predator, Lord of the Rings (Aragorn-Strider), Conquistador, Star Wars (including Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kanobee, Jango Fett), Witches, and Wizards, Steampunk, and Medeival figures, Conquistador, etc. If that is not imaginative enough you can bring your own fantasy outfit! We will be shooting in an Otherworldly setting so costumes or figures that fit the setting would be best. Suggestions are welcomed! There will be lectures in the late afternoons for about 2 hours depending on group interest. We will cover and practice Landscape Astrophotography, Low Level Lighting, and Composition, in addition to planning, and scouting for Astrophotography. Additionally we will cover using smartphone apps such as TPE, Photopills, True DoF (Depth of Field) and Gaia GPS, and Google Earth, etc. These are instrumental in my planning and scouting. If you are interested please mail me here at Flickr. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Monument Valley Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Panorama of The Mittens in Monument Valley at night. 12 images, 24 mm, f 1.6, 13 seconds, ISO 10,000. Monument Valley Landscape Astrophotography Workshop! There are 3 remaining spots open in the workshop I will be leading in MV June 6 to 9, 2018. Details can be found here: waynepinkstonphoto.com/Workshops If you are interested please contact me here or through my website, waynepinkstonphoto.com This is a 4 day workshop with an extra "optional" 5th day on June 10 if anyone wants to stick around and shoot nightcapes with me in the area. This day can also be used as a make-up day if needed. Three days will be scheduled shooting in Monument Valley and one day outside of Monument Valley. That day will be used to practice and learn Low Level Lighting while shooting hoodoos in the area. Landscape Astrophotography will be the focus of the workshop. There will be lectures on 3 days, and a group dinner on one day. I have also been asked frequently about guiding and workshops in the New Mexico Badlands. So here is a general question - Is anyone out there interested in attending a Landscape Astrophotography Workshop in the New Mexico Badlands May 14 - 17, 2018? There is no obligation, I'm just trying to judge interest. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here.

Nankoweap Overlook, East Rim of the Grand Canyon by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Faceb ook Nankoweap Overlook on the East Rim of the Grand Canyon. This is an remote undeveloped area along the western margin of the Navajo Nation and along the East Rim of the Grand Canyon. There are many miles/km of dirt roads and tracks to reach this site, but most of them are flat and in good condition. In 3 days of scouting and 3 nights of shooting I encountered 0 people. You do need a Navajo permit to travel in this area. This is a blend of 2 images taken back to back from the same spot, a 240 sec. image of the foreground at 14 mm, f 2.0, and ISO 2500 with long exposure noise reduction (LENR), and a sky image taken at 20 sec., 14mm, f 2.0, and ISO 12,800 and blended in PS. In my opinion the river views along this part of the canyon are much better than on the South or North Rims. The light pollution is from the South Rim and tourist area many miles away. One perplexing note - the area is on the edge of the Navajo Nation which uses Daylight Savings Time, and Arizona which does not use DST. If you are using your smartphone for planning Milky Way shots (example TPE, Photopillls, PlanIt) and you leave your phone on "Auto Time Zone", strange things will happen. You can walk 10 ft., 3 m, and your time zone will change, and sometimes the time and time zone will change back in forth standing in one place. You start wondering "what time is it really?", and "just what time zone did I plan for?". I marked times to be in certain spots and then had no idea what time it really was, lol. Advice: pick a time zone and take your phone off auto before you ever get there! Cheers, Wayne For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here.

Canyon de Chelly Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Faceb ook Panorama of Canyon de Chelly in Chinle, Arizona, taken from one of the viewpoints on the Southern Rim. I had never seen a night photo from the rim of the canyon so I wanted to give it a try. There was so much light pollution that I did not expect this to be successful, and left disappointed after trying panoramas from several viewpoints. When I processed it, the image was more successful than expected, and the light pollution actually adds more color to the photo. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here.

The Sand Worm by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Single Exposure, Nikon 810A, 14-24 lens, 22 mm, f 2.8, 25 sec., ISO 12,800 The Sand Worm, New Mexico Badlands. For all the sci-fi fans out there, this was Inspired by the novel DUNE by Frank Herbert, cited in 2003 as the best selling sci-fi book of all time. Wandering the desert at night a pale apparition rose from the desert floor, and in the dim light I immediately I recalled the giant Sand Worms of the book Dune. In the dark it's one of those times when chills go down your spine (or maybe it was just the cold. lol). The Sand Worms were mysterious giants that lived beneath the sands on the desert planet Dune (Arrakis), and produced the spice Melange, the most valuable substance in the universe. If you like sci-fi at all, this is one of the best reads ever, highly recommend! From the Book: " I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne

Target Ruins by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Ancestral Puebloan (also called Anasazi or the Cliff Dwellers) Ruins called Target Ruins in an alcove in Butler Wash in SW USA. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne

Kiss the Sky by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Bristlecone Pine in the Ancient Bristlecone Pone Forest, California. Single exposure. Nikon 810A camera, 14-24 mm lens, 20 mm, f 2.8, 20 sec., ISO 12,800. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL), lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne

Cedar Breaks Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This is a panorama made of 2 sets of 13 vertical images from the Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. This is less well known as compared to the "Big 5" National Parks in Utah, but is a remarkably beautiful place. It resembles a huge eroded bowl or huge geode cracked open exposing innumerable red to orange hoodoos. Breathtaking! It is very close to Cedar City and Zion National Park. This is a blend of 2 panoramas, taken back to back and with the tripod unchanged in position. The sky images were taken at 18 mm, 20 sec., f 2.8 and ISO 12,800. The foreground was taken at 18 mm, ISO 3200, 300 seconds and f 2.8. The images were blended in photoshop. For anyone counting, lol, the foreground images took a little over an hour at 5 minutes apiece. Sitting around and quietly staring at the sky for an hour can be very pleasant. :-) For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne

Starlight Tufas by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Starlight Tufas at Mono Lake. Single Exposure. Nikon D810A Camera, 14-24 mm lens, 17 mm, 20 sec., ISO 12,800. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne

The Two Legged Hoodoo by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Valley of Dreams, New Mexico. Nikon D810A camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens, at f 2.8, 14 mm, 25 sec., and ISO 6400. There is lighting with Low Level Lighting. For a tutorial please look here: www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne