Tag Archives: people photography

Shadow on the Sun: Crescents on Earth

It happened once more, as predicted by Pythagoras and Galileo’s Music of the Spheres. Our Moon passed in front of our Sun, just far enough this time that it didn’t quite hide it all the way to its borders. The Sun’s Corona was not revealed but created what has been called a ring of fire.

I have had the pleasure to watch several solar eclipses in my life, including total ones and believe me: nothing matches a total solar eclipse! Next best to me are annular eclipses like the one we just saw across the American continent. I got to see one as a child and I remember very well watching it with a solar filter on my telescope.

Costa Rica, where I live, was not quite in the best place to see the ring. We just got a more darkened than usual partial eclipse. What to do? I decided to photograph the light spots formed by tree leaves that are actually a pinhole-camera like projection of the Sun. Instead of being round they look like crescent moons during a partial solar eclipse.

Yes, I also got a photo of the Sun when clouds were moving in and I was able to make a photo without filters.

Have you seen the little crescents on the ground before?

A view of a partial solar eclipse and trees.
Partial solar eclipse in Costa Rica, near noon, just as clouds moved in.
A couple that was watching the crescent-like images on the sidewalk.
A couple that was watching the crescent-like solar eclipse projected images on the sidewalk.
Crescent-like solar-eclipse images formed by the trees. Photo by Eduardo Libby
Crescent-like solar-eclipse images formed by the trees on a pedestrian bridge at the University of Costa Rica
Solar eclipse images formed by diffraction by the openings among the leaves of the trees. Photo by Eduardo Libby
A detail of the solar eclipse images formed by diffraction from the openings amongst the leaves of the trees.

Musical!

Last week I had the pleasure to hear a concert by the Orquesta de Costa Rica with vocals by La Colmena Performance Arts Center. They chose to sing pieces from well-known Musicals and did so remarkably well.


That day I was carrying my Olympus Pen-F and a couple of fast primes and, even though we were seated towards the back of the theater, I decided to do some viewer’s perspective photos. When I have this camera in my hands and am shooting people I always end up doing black and whites: it must be the looks of the camera body…


What you see here are not the in-camera black and whites as I had to do a little processing and cropping. If I’d had a chance to frame better the photos by moving around I’d probably be using the superb Pen-F originals.


I feel my approach gives the performer’s photos a nice classical look, but… what do you think?

Selected pieces from Musicals performed by Centro de Artes Escénicas La Colmena and the Orquesta de Costa Rica

Body Paint Photo Session: 5 min

 

Some times five minutes is all you get! A brief rest during a body-paint parade gave me a chance of photographing two of the models. Brick wall by a sidewalk, shooting with my phone, their phone, my camera, dodging passersby… you get the idea. Continue reading Body Paint Photo Session: 5 min

Santorini Album

Can you imagine a volcanic explosion so violent that creates a crater nearly 7 miles wide, a 700 ft. high tsunami that obliterates the Bronze Age Minoan Empire, and its remaining Caldera eventually becomes the most spectacular tourist destination of the Greek Islands? Continue reading Santorini Album

The Greek Island of Ios

It seems like each Greek Island has its own personality: a trip to the Aegean Sea in which one chooses to visit any of the Islands will always be a memorable and different experience. Continue reading The Greek Island of Ios