Venus Transit photographed from 38.000 feet

[Delicate]

Hi

By pure chance I was flying back home from a business trip at the same time as the Venus Transit happened on the 6'th of June 2012.

With my standard camera equipment, I did do my best to capture this rarely but unique event.

I waited until the Sun was close to the horizon of clouds, and could utilize the thick layer of air as an additional optical filter. It was demanding to take pictures good enough because of the shaking airplane, handheld shooting, airplane window and other optical distortion like the air distortion when shooting an object close to the horizon.

Equipment: Canon EOS 7D, Tokina 400mm lens, ND8 grayfilter, Polarized filter, a thick layer of air

Settings : 1/8000sec, f/22, ISO 100

Please download at:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dlbt4s1baa7r5cr (fullHD 1920x1080p MP4-format, 89MB)

or watch at:

https://vimeo.com/44991866 (HD 1280x720p)

"Making of":

- I took picture sequences with totally over 1050 raw images.

The image conversion process from raw- into png-format was made the same way with all the pictures.

Of the converted images I used more than 500 images and made a mp4-timelapse movie with PTE

- I made another mp4-timelapse detailed movie of the "black drop effect" with PTE

- then I inserted these movies in a slideshow. I let the main timelapse sequense movie move in a circle to simulate the Sun's movement on the sky close to the horizon.

- the timelapse sequence of the view over the Labrador bay I made directly in the slideshow.

Because all my pictures were handheld shooted (also the Sun images),

I reoriented every single image using one common reference point (with a help of the grid in Objects and Animation)

- the "shaking text" was made using sequences of 3 to 4 text images that were individually deformed in Photoshop with the "Liquefy" tool

Regards,

Jan

[Ken Cox]

JAN

GREAT JOB

You should plan all your trips around these once in a lifetime experiences

i did the mediafire download

ken

[coopernatural]

The transit of Jan Frojdman,capturing the transit of Venus at 38,000 feet.

Thinking outside the box again and a fair bit of thought and work to produce a very unique AV.

Excellent.

Hope you didn’t scare the passengers.

Davy

[Lin Evans]

Incredible job, Jan!! I can't imagine hand holding a 400mm lens for that long in normal conditions, let alone in a bouncing aircraft and shooting through the window. Bravo!!! Great job with the show too - a wonderful experience for the viewer.

Best regards,

Lin

[Delicate]

Thank you Ken, Davy and Lin for your encouraging respons.

All the coincidences on that flight were actually quite funny.

I and my colleague had tickets to the middle row in the tourist class, but the plane was overbooked so we were happy to get seats in the business class on the upper deck. Up there we were able to change seats to the left side of the plane by a kind steward. Then, when the Sun was close enough to the horizon and I wanted to start shooting with my camera, the Sun unfortunately was behind the tip of the wing. So new negotiations did follow, and I was directed to a toilet with a window in the front part of the aircraft. There I sat for 1,5 hours and did shoot my pictures (more than 1050 pics), while most of the other passengers were sleeping. Actually I was bend down on my knees over the toilet when shooting the pics, a symbolic action with respect to the unique event...

Jan