Comet Neowise and More Map Making

Comet Neowise

This past week, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get a picture of Comet Neowise because of the tropical weather we have been dealing with here in southern Louisiana. On Tuesday, when the comet was supposed to be closest to the Earth, I went out to see if I could capture the comet because the skies cleared up to see stars. I drove to one of my favorite storm spotting area and got some shots. Sure enough, I got it.

I did a long exposure shot when I got my camera setup so I could find it in the sky. Once I found it, I started zooming in so I could get a close up shot. I’m pretty stoked I was able to get it. I’ve never captured a comet before.

Map Making

After creating a map in GIMP, I started looking around for creating maps. I found a tutorial on how to create maps using a picture from space. Here is what I started with and ended up with.

This process was so cool and fun to create. If you are interested in learning how to create maps like this, let me know in the comments and I will provide links to start creating.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week. I will talk to you later. Peace.

Free Resources for Editing and Drawing

Today I am going to share with you two free resources for photo editing and drawing. If you are a Photoshop user and are tired of paying for their subscription and getting constant updates, these may work for you. I will provide links to the software and YouTube channels for tutorials on each piece of software. The two resources are GIMP and Krita (pronounced like Cheetah).

GIMP

GIMP is available for Linux, Windows and MacOS. According to the GIMP website -

“The Free & Open Source Image Editor

This is the official website of the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes.
Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP thanks to many customization options and 3rd party plugins.”

A couple of experts on YouTube in GIMP are Logos by Nick and Davies Media Design. Check them out.

Krita

I recently stumbled upon this software so I am not too familiar with it. I watched a couple of tutorials to see what it is about.

According to the Krita website -

Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.

concept art
texture and matte painters
illustrations and comics

I’m not familiar with any YouTube channels for this resource yet. When I find some, I will post them on my blog.

I hope you find these two free resources helpful in future creative processes. Let me know in the comments if you have used these or if there are any other good ones.

Thanks and have a good one. Peace.

More Inkscape work

Here is some more work I did in Inkscape. I am having fun creating new work. I hope you like them.

Logo idea

I am going to work on the logo a bit more. It was suggested to try a different style font and not to bite into the other letters. I got the idea following a tutorial on the Logos By Nick YouTube channel. I liked the idea and tried it out.

I hope you enjoyed the work. Please like, comment, and subscribe if you haven’t. I am going to cut down on my social media footprint in the next few weeks. I am not sure what I am going to delete but I know Facebook is for sure going to be deactivated. Instagram will be the last to be deleted. I am going to focus on this medium and YouTube. Once I decide to make the call on deleting everything, I will let everyone know.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the content. I will talk to you later. Peace.

Day 15 of my 365 Project

John here.

Here is Day 15 of my 365 Project.

First attempt at fireworks...

John here.

Last night, my family and I went into to town to see the fireworks. I wanted to attempt to get fireworks shots because I have never tried to get them. I set up my Canon 50D for still shots, my phone for video using the Filmic Pro app, and my Samsung Gear 360 camera for tiny planet fireworks. My still shots came out pretty good for a first timer. I had to make some adjustments on the fly after the first ones. The Samsung 360 tiny planet video came out really neat. I have not been able to go through my phone footage yet. I plan to go through that footage this weekend.

Here are a couple of shots.

I will have photos and videos posted on my Instagram page, and videos posted on my YouTube page. (Click on the links to subscribe and stay updated).

Thanks for taking the time and joining me here. Please like, comment, and subscribe (if you haven’t yet). It would be greatly appreciated.

I’m outta here.

John

Photography Challenge

John here.

I was looking to jump start my photography because I have been in bit of a funk lately. I went looking on the internet for photography challenges. I found one on the Creative Live (link provided) website. They provide different subjects to spark creativity with video instruction for each one. The best part is that it is free. I did my first challenge today - Motion Blur.

I grabbed my camera and went out to the road and took 170 shots before I got the one I liked.

I am going to post the rest of the challenges as I do them. There are 13 of them to accomplish. In your field of interest, what do you do to get yourself out of a funk? I’m curious. Please leave a comment below. Like, share, and subscribe if you haven’t. I will talk to you later.

I’m outta here.

John