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Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

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Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#51

Post by schiffern »

dylan604 wrote: post #48
GMoromisato wrote: post #20

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

> Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! There are examples of planes silhouetting the sun or moon. There are examples of the ISS. There are examples of planets (Mercury/Venus) crossing the sun, not the moon (obviously). I think someone else mentioned rockets being captured too. People have also done similar with the moons of other planets. And of course that's how exoplanets have been discovered by…

FYI some of those amazing shots were also taken by Andrew McCarthy.

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1611128761776492544/

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1479541092693381120/

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1837219848478412935/

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1968658340679921925/

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#52

Post by dylan604 »

schiffern wrote: post #51
dylan604 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! There are examples of planes silhouetting the sun or moon. There are examples of the ISS. There are examples of planets (Mercury/Venus) crossing the sun, not the moon (obviously). I think someone else mentioned rockets being captured too. People have also done similar with the moons of other planets. And of course that's how exoplanets have been discovered by…

FYI some of those amazing shots were also taken by Andrew McCarthy. https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1611128761776492544/ https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1479541092693381120/ https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1837219848478412935/ https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/1968658340679921925/

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/the-iss-and-the-moon

https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Statio...

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/spectacular-image-sho...

Just so we don't all think one person is the only one to do this

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#53

Post by dahart »

markdown wrote: post #38
dahart wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> making his photos limited edition is a fantastic weay to put the pressure on to actually buy FWIW, limited edition printing is absolutely standard practice for working artists who use media that can be easily or mechanically replicated, including photographers, printers, and digital artists. The feeling of FOMO that it instills is indeed one reason, that benefits the artist, but the main reason limited editions are…

> You can spread the profit across a run and give a group of people something for a low price instead of giving one person a high price. Why not somewhere in between those options: For example (made up numbers), sell 100 units at $100 after which the price goes up by $10 for each additional sale. So the 100th unit would be $100, the 101st unit $110, the 200th unit $1100, and so on.

That’s an interesting concept. Can you talk more about how you imagine that affecting the market? My first reaction is that it wouldn’t solve the value problem at all. Yes you can charge more over time, and in practice it would actually limit how many you sell, but the problem is that the first buyer has no guarantee that the thing they buy is collectible, and thus a reduced incentive to buy. Every new sale devalues the original sale, even despite the low initial price. That might be offset by having lower prices for earlier buyers, but not limiting the edition size might also quietly eliminate the market for collectors.

Your idea reminded me of something I’ve thought about trying. It’s not the same concept exactly, but I do digital art sometimes and I was thinking of selling it with copyrights and the generator program included, and allowing the buyer to do whatever they want with it, including sell copies. The thing I was thinking is that I’d start with a low price per piece, and increase the price slightly every time I sell one, so the prices of my pieces would ramp up over time, rather than the prices of prints in a single edition.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#54

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

GMoromisato wrote: post #20

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

> a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did

My personal definition of "genius," is someone who sees things from a different angle, and can express it in terms we can implement.

It's not doing well on IQ tests; It's that ability to think "outside the box," and, crucially, to express that vision in terms that us normies can use.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#55

Post by ecoled_ame »

GMoromisato wrote: post #20

This is a classic example of a simple idea that no one had ever done before. The execution was complex, of course, and Andrew McCarthy is one of the most skilled astrophotographers. But once you get the idea, a number of people could have done it--but no one ever did. Makes you wonder what other similar ideas are out there! You can bet McCarthy is already thinking some. p.s.: My brush with celebrity is that I saw an…

indeed!

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#56

Post by dahart »

LargeWu wrote: post #18
dahart wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> making his photos limited edition is a fantastic weay to put the pressure on to actually buy FWIW, limited edition printing is absolutely standard practice for working artists who use media that can be easily or mechanically replicated, including photographers, printers, and digital artists. The feeling of FOMO that it instills is indeed one reason, that benefits the artist, but the main reason limited editions are…

If there's any difference between printmaking and photography, it's that printmaking requires one to physically print each item. There's a non-trivial amount of manual setup to do, and the process can take days. Photography can be printed basically on-demand owing to the nature of the medium. It doesn't mean that limited runs in photography are less valid, though. Once that print is editioned no reputable artist will…

Oh definitely, I agree, woodcut and digital art and photos, for example, are all wildly different media. I’d expect a woodcut to cost more than a photo, all else being equal, because it’s more physical - both making the plate, and setting up the print run - and generally closer to fine art.

The economics of the limited edition part is still the same for printmaking though, right? The printmaker could choose to make a single print and then sell the plate, or destroy the plate, and it would be closer to sculpture - a one of a kind piece of art. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are one or two printmakers that do this and can sell a single print at a time for enough money to make a living. But I think it’s more common to do a limited edition run and sell multiple copies, same as photographers, no?

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#57

Post by Springtime »

cletusw wrote: post #26
dahart wrote: post #13

Is the full-sun photo edited to remove the paramotor? I just realized it was in the video shot - the head-down dive “tracking” position of the skydiver in the video happens only a few frames after jumping, only for a few frames, and after that he’s tumbling a bit against the sun, with the paramotor still visible. I’m guessing even if the video and still were two different cameras, they wouldn’t have been far enough a…

In the behind the scenes video the photographer makes an offhand comment that yes, he was going to take the silhouette of the skydiver (and maybe some of the immediate surroundings) and composite it with a mosaic of sun images taken around the same time (but without the paramotor present).

I recall one of their earlier composites of the sun which was comprised of 90k (!) images and feel that's an acceptable approach to represent the detail and scope desired, yet with this skydiver shot I feel differently in that there is an original shot of the event that is an actual through-the-lens capture but it's not being used and instead the foreground element (the silhouette) is being masked and composited onto a much more detailed composite sun. It's effectively artwork now.

Like if a photo of Philippe Petit's WTC wire walking were instead masked and replaced with separately shot towers—it'd represent the event but technically not the actual snapshot in time it occurred, which kind of reduces the connection with the interesting concept at least for me.

Re: Astrophotographer snaps skydiver falling in front of the sun

#58

Post by 1gn15 »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #2

> The silhouette of Brown is neatly demarcated against the bubbling surface of the Sun. His downward trajectory is perfectly framed between sunspots, active regions on the surface of the Sun that are slightly cooler than their surrounding areas. This is not just a pretty picture; it is truly a masterpiece Excuse me while I go wash off the stench of AI-generated descriptions. The picture is very nice, though.

Who cares?
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