Next time, bring a real camera, stupid!

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
(also posted at M43)

If there exists, someplace, a list of bona fide sky freaks, you would probably find me on it. The sky is the greatest show off earth, and I got addicted to watching it over 40 years ago.

Fifteen years ago, I started taking pictures of the doings overhead with a digital camera. The sky is dynamic; things come and go, and you never know what might happen next. So I usually have a camera on me whenever I am out and about.

Except Tuesday. The better half and I needed to run a short errand, and I was feeling a little beat-up from a tumble I had taken the previous day. So, camera-less, we ran the errand. Stepping out of the store, the better half (aka Spotter-in-Chief) says, "Look at that! Can you get a picture of it?" She points to a break in the clouds where rainbow light is shimmering.

There isn't much of the rainbow visible, but it looks so flat that I am guessing that it is not a regular arc-type rainbow but rather the kind of rainbow that is produced when sunlight shines through ice crystals waaaaaay up high.

No camera, I stammer. She looks at me in disbelief. No wait, I say. There's a camera on the cell phone. I flip the phone open and press the button to activate the 1.3 megapixel camera. It is impossible to compose the shot with any precision using the postage-stamp display. Aiming in the general direction of the rainbow, I press the button a couple of times.

Here's the original:

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Here it is with the color cranked up:

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It is a sad and hard-earned lesson: take a camera everywhere and see what happens.

Cheers, Jock
 
Or upgrade your cell phone. :th_salute:
I have to confess that since I got my Note 8 I sometimes go out without a camera. It was pretty much unthinkable until then. Even in Laos I was lazy and sometimes pulled out my cell phone for a quick snap instead of the camera,like those below. By the way, I lugged that genuine Stetson in the second picture all the way from Albuquerque to Phonsavan in Laos. The guy, who worked with cattle before a scare with cancer two years ago, loved it.
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. Don't tell!
 
The best camera you have is the one with you. Good news is that even with small MP images from flip cell phones, software optimization is getting better every day. I'm surprised at what I can do with the camera on my phone and immediately editing it in SnapSeed. Never have to download it, it's sitting in Google Photos forever, and I can immediately share to Social Media.
 
The best camera you have is the one with you. Good news is that even with small MP images from flip cell phones, software optimization is getting better every day. I'm surprised at what I can do with the camera on my phone and immediately editing it in SnapSeed. Never have to download it, it's sitting in Google Photos forever, and I can immediately share to Social Media.

Snapseed is wonderful. Between it and Photoshop Express, the bases are covered. I should have learned long ago never to say never. :)
 
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