PrettyTiny Film Company Pic A Week *2019* (#.....52!! Dec. 24)

[dargosmydaddy]

Aw, she looks flirty but still a little shy. And those are awesome shoes!

[Elfy]

Very coquettish and like the others I adore the shoes!

[neon_jellyfish]

I love that dress! And the shoes, of course.

[werepuppy]

Petra: not a model, the camera just switched on by itself

Nah, she looks lovely!

[Alliecat]

Thanks, everybody!
Love those Mimiwoo shoes!  I haven't seen these on the site for a while, but, they have lots of really neat little shoes at great prices with free shipping

This week, more "issues" with our electricity...  the undersea cable crapped out in July; a new one is being laid but we've been on the community generator in the meantime, & some portable ones are currently being installed.  All of which adds up to several power outages including one major one.  There's not much light pollution here anyway, but when the power's off and there's no moon, the sky is glorious.
I've been wanting to do a dolls-stargazing shot for ever, but couldn't figure out how to make it work -- depth of field and distance is a challenge. I don't want to do a lot of photoshopping, which I think is a cheat  Then I had a brainstorm in that interesting place between sleep and wake, of how to do it.  So this was a first attempt.  DOF is still an issue, but not sure how to sharp it up with the camera I have.
Anyway... Stargazing Dolls, round 1!  

[dargosmydaddy]

Wow, gorgeous sky! And I love that your dolls have pjs!

[davidd]

Oh my gosh! This is wonderful!

I live a few miles from a so-called "Dark Sky" area, but it looks NOTHING like this! Even on the darkest, clearest nights, there is light and haze on the horizon from the towns 50 miles away.

I want to live on an island... YOUR island! It looks wonderful!

What was the length of this ex-posure? And what was the half-awake brainstorm idea you came up with to make this work?

[Elfy]

That is amazing! That deserves an award!

[neon_jellyfish]

So beautiful! How did you deal with ex³position? Did you take the photo in RAW format?

[werepuppy]

Oh, that is just such a beautiful shot. Like, seriously, all the applause to you.

[Cornflower Blue]

Wow, that's an awesome photo! And this is just the first attempt?

[Alliecat]

Wow, gorgeous sky! And I love that your dolls have pjs!

Hehehe....  I found them on eBay.  I have some similar purple ones so that was my first entry in "Dress Like Your Doll" at PUDDLE.  Yep, onstage in front of 160 people in my jammies  The story was that Dawn & I were both jetlagged after a long journey from Canada

That is amazing! That deserves an award!

Oh my  Thank you so much!

Oh, that is just such a beautiful shot. Like, seriously, all the applause to you.

Wow, that's an awesome photo!  And this is just the first attempt?

Thank you, everybody!  
Now I want to do some more... maybe stargazing at the beach....???

Oh my gosh! This is wonderful!
I live a few miles from a so-called "Dark Sky" area, but it looks NOTHING like this! Even on the darkest, clearest nights, there is light and haze on the horizon from the towns 50 miles away....
What was the length of this ex-posure? And what was the half-awake brainstorm idea you came up with to make this work?

So beautiful! How did you deal with ex³position? Did you take the photo in RAW format?

Euh....  [has to admit to having no clue about RAW]
Thank you guys!
davidd, keep in mind that on a long ex.posure, there is time for more stars to "burn in" than you can see with the naked eye.  And some of this unfortunately is noise and grain.  BUT we can see the Milky Way pretty well, any clear night, and wonderfully so with the power out.
It's actually brilliantly simple; just requires finesse with timing and lighting.
30 seconds at 3.5/1600 ISO, which is the best I can do with the K-x, without going to "bulb" which has its own issues...  I acutely miss the simplicity of night-sky photos on my wonderful ol' K1000.  I started with focus on the dolls (f 3.5 is why they're not both sharp); light-painted them with a mini mag-lite half covered in my hand, then zoomed focus to infinity for the rest of the ex.posure.  Dunno why I didn't think of that before.
( >sigh< Now imma have to kill you both )
Of course on the K1000 I could've changed the aperture during the ex.posure too and made the dolls sharper.  Without having to go through multiple "mode" screens; auwe!  
I'll have to try again with the dolls in the same plane so they're both in better focus, which requires a different alignment with the background.
Actually I'd like to see someone else try this, and see what you get.

[davidd]

Changing focus during the ex.posure! I would not have thought of trying that!
Thank you for sharing some of your 'secrets.'
(I'll be watching my back....)

[Alliecat]

I had an idea for who should be in the next night-sky pic, but, there's a moon, so will have to wait on that idea for a bit.
Super-early for pic-a-week this week!  With ridiculous timing for the "flowers" challenge, yesterday my butterfly-gardening neighbour brought me some caterpillars & a few chrysalises to babysit while she goes on a trip, along with her birthday flowers that she didn't want to throw out yet.  It's a lovely bouquet so I'm having fun with it.
Here's Rachel with the first hatchling of the year.  This was the only shot I got.  I jostled the box carrying it out & the butterfly started flapping.  I should've put her somewhere cool & dark to settle down before trying to take pictures, but, I had a lot else to do & was impatient.  So after one click, she was gone.

[davidd]

You are able to raise Monarchs where you live? I can't even get milkweed to grow here, and it's supposed to be a hardy perennial.

Speaking of stars, Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow night. Yeah, there's a pretty bright moon, but it's supposed to set... after 4am or so! Of course, in your time zone, that would only be 1 or 2 am!