Friday, June 29, 2018

SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-15, 5:42am June 29, 2018


Fuji X-T20, Rokinon 10mm lens. 261seconds @ f/22. ISO 200
Taken at Exploration Tower in Port Canaveral, Florida.
My daughters and I got up, up, and away, way before sun up to see a night launch, more-or-less, of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this morning. The sky was just beginning to lighten before sunrise, and, on top of that, the 4min 21sec photo gathered light to make that awesome deep, blue sky. (This is actually MUCH better than the dull, black background of a dark night launch.)
The launch was SpaceX's 15th International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission. SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Launch Complex 40. This Dragon spacecraft will deliver supplies, equipment and science investigations to the ISS.
The engine noise hits fast when you are this close to the launch site.  We live about forty miles south of here, and when we watch from our front yard, the noise hits us down there about two minutes into the launch.
Rocket launches never, ever get old! If they ever do, I'll move, knowing I NEED a different place to live.
This was my first second stab at making this photo look good. I'll try again and upload that if I can improve it. I have removed the original photo from this post, and replaced it with this much better adjustment job.
Truth is, an exposure that long that includes a lit-up, white building WILL have the building's exposure blown out.
This is where shooting RAW files helps.  In Lightroom and Photoshop I was able to pull back most of Exploration Tower's building details from what initially appeared to be blown-out highlights. Sweet.

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