Tayke 2 Photography

10/25/2024

03/16/2024

Here is the Orion Nebula!

I think I’m getting the hang of this stuff! Now all I need now is a bigger telescope 😆

(The first image is the result of stacking a few hundred photos, and the second is what one of those photos looks like on its own and unedited)

01/19/2024

I'm a bit rusty doing astrophotography and I was never that good to begin with, but through a lot of work and nearly 300 photos I was able to get this image of the boring side of the Milky Way!

01/11/2022

I’ve always wanted to try astrophotography, but I’ve never really had the right gear or known where to begin.

Last year I learned I needed a star tracker and then I could begin taking images with the camera and lens I already have!

With my new tracker in hand, last week I took it out for my first astrophotography attempt, and I got my camera lined up to Andromeda.

This image was taken over four nights with exposures ranging from 20-50 seconds. The individual images were exciting for me, but not very spectacular. The second image in this post is a picture I took of my camera’s lcd screen to show you the kind of thing I was seeing as the pictures came in.

I really wasn’t expecting much, but as I went through the process of stacking and processing the images I captured, Andromeda really started to shine and I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the result of my first attempt in astrophotography!

Next, my sights are set on the Whirlpool galaxy!… but so far it’s been…. Much more of a challenge. If I don’t return with an image, it probably means I failed 😆

01/23/2021

On my travels, found myself just a couple miles away from some awesome sand dunes (Glamis) and I had to go out and photograph some dune cruisers!

This was taken at the magic hour of sunset, and this particular cruiser was kind enough to hit the throttle and kick up some extra sand!

01/22/2021

It’s hard to show the grandeur of the Grand Canyon but I did my best (by borrowing some of the grandeur of the Milky Way!... you can also see andromeda in there for a bonus).

I was out the night before taking a timelapse which made me come back for seconds. I showed up around 3:30pm and started another timelapse that went until around 8:45pm.
Let me tell you, it’s cold at the Grand Canyon in the winter! And I had to babysit my camera so, needless to say, I was an icicle.
Finally I decided my timelapse had gone on for long enough, and I went to take this picture which I conceived of the night before. I started the exposure and then ran back to my vehicle where I cranked the heater, and you don’t know how happy I was to be doing photography AND to be warm at the same time. It’s a luxury when you’re comfortable and taking a photo, that’s all I know.

This is actually two pictures taken at the same time and place. It was nearly pitch black, and to show the landscape itself, I exposed for about 24 minutes (the camera was on a tripod and taking the same picture—letting light in—for 24 minutes). Long exposures have a way of capturing very vibrant colors. Without the sun illuminating all the haze and casting harsh shadows, a lot more color comes through.

Finally, for the stars, I tilted my camera up slightly to capture more of the Milky Way (which is why the photo is square and a total of 36 megapixels). This part of the picture was only a 15 second exposure.

I’m not totally sure, but the almost sunset-like horizon might be the lights of Las Vegas. It is in that general direction, and they can apparently be seen (by a camera) from the Grand Canyon. This would be crazy because Vegas is 250 miles away from where this photo was taken!

Hope you enjoy my night time angle on the Grand Canyon :)

12/23/2020

I don’t have a telescope but I wanted to photograph Jupiter and Saturn. I did my best with my telephoto lens!
I took over 800 pictures, deleted 720 and only kept the sharpest, then I stacked the remainder to essentially combine the sharpest parts of each photo.
This was a new technique for me and involved software I hadn’t used before, but I’m happy with what I managed to achieve!

(The moons were overlaid from a brighter image, because they’re significantly dimmer)

12/05/2020

The night sky in Death Valley is incredible!

02/24/2020

Had the opportunity to photograph my sister's wedding. And yes, it was back in September 14, 2019. Take it as a sign of the craziness of my life that these are 6 months late.
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Here are just a handful of the 3000+ photos I took. I hope you all like them!
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Coming up on the wedding, I didn't actually know if I was going to photograph it because it kept drawing near and I hadn't heard anything. They did find another photographer, but Rachelle eventually asked me specifically if I would help. I appreciated her asking because, as she is my dear sister, I felt both honored to be asked and appreciated for my photography.
This was my wedding gift for both of you, Rachelle and Jacob, and I hope you'll like them for years to come as much I know these are the best wedding photos I've yet taken.
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Weddings aren't my favorite thing to photograph because.of.all.the.people. And also all the work which doesn't even begin until I snap the last photo for the day. Still, being my sister, I was excited to photograph her wedding because my introversion wasn't so much of an obstacle for getting the kinds of shots I envisioned in my head. It was also just a lot more fun to be able to laugh along with her as I encouraged her to go crazy with her poses. Still, she didn't need any encouragement as she's just stellar in how she naturally goes from pose to pose. It was hard to take a bad photo of her, and this made it difficult for my work after the wedding of trying to delete pictures!
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And yes, I put Rachelle's name first because I have an antipathy for tradition and also, she's my sister and this is my photography so consider it creative license and brotherly love.

01/27/2019

"When the lights [come up] in the city..." Here's a shot of Hamilton from Baker Point!

01/17/2019

Here's my hometown/Bitterroot Valley for any fellow lovers of panoramas!

01/10/2019

Here's our Leopard Gecko :)