Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Marfa Lights

The Marfa Lights are named for their location near the town of Marfa, Texas. Marfa is a small ranching community on a Chihuahuan Desert plateau in the Trans-Pecos area of west Texas. Supported mostly by ranching, and more recently by tourism, it is surrounded by vast mountains and is Texas’ highest incorporated city. Marfa is known primarily for its famous Marfa Mystery Lights and as the location for the shooting of the classic movie “Giant,” with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Dennis Hopper and James Dean.


The Ghost lights of Marfa still shine as bright as ever, and are still as mysterious as they were when they were first seen by early settlers who drove their herds into the Marfa area in 1883.

Who can explain their source? Where are they actually located? How long have they been in existence? The mystery is no closer to being solved now than when they were first seen.

Robert Ellison came to Marfa in 1883 and off-loaded his cattle in Alpine. He then drove the herd west and on the second night out, while camped just outside Paisano Pass, he saw strange lights in the distance. At first, it was feared that they were Apache signal fires. Mr. Ellison searched the countryside by horseback. He finally realized that the lights were not man-made. Other early settlers assured him that they too had seen the lights and had never been able to identify them.


The Marfa Lights are reported to be from 1-10 feet in diameter. They are spherical and reddish-orange in color. They have been observed to vary their size and fly at high speeds. Numerous photographs and video footage have captured these lights in action. Marfa Lights are generally considered harmless. They are even rumored to have helped a lost man during a blizzard by providing warmth and guiding him home.


The ghost lights appear in many different ways to different people. Some swear they have seen them divide to form separate balls of light. Others claim that they have seen them move up and down. All agree that they glow as softly as a star at times, then brighten to the intensity of a stoplight. Sometimes they pop off and on. As they fade they seem to be receding. There are verifiable accounts of people being pursued by the lights.

Scientists have made numerous attempts to put the mystery to rest. In 1947, Fritz Kahl, a local war veteran and pilot, chased the Lights in an airplane, but came up empty. In 1975, Kahl made another attempt, this time with a team that included observers in Jeeps and planes. The “Marfa Ghost Light Hunt,” as it was called, featured “more than a hundred carloads of observers gathered between the two observation points, one at Paisano Pass and the other at the entrance to the old Presidio County Airport,” according to the Sul Ross “Skyline” newspaper. The searchers, “utilizing aircraft, survey instruments, multi-band radio equipment and about a half-dozen search teams,” were no more successful than Kahl had been in his solo search of ’47, and the legend grew.

Some believe that the lights are nothing more than high-powered lights from area ranches or the reflected headlights from nearby cars and trucks, but that doesn’t explain why the Lights have been reported since before electricity or vehicles ever reached the Big Bend area. Nor does it explain why there have been reports of observers hearing a high-pitched, “tuning fork” noise in only one ear while watching the Lights.

A Marfa lights viewing site has been provided for the public on Highway 90, by the Texas Highway department. It is located nine miles east of Marfa. Ghost light watchers can park in the area and scan the south-western horizon, looking toward Chinati Peak. Using a distant red tower light as a marker, one can be certain that any light to the right of the marker, which appears and disappears, is a Marfa ghost light. You will know them when you see them. There is no mistaking them.

The Marfa Lights Festival

The Marfa Lights Festival is celebrated every Labor Day Weekend around the Historic Presidio County Courthouse. Food and crafts vendors sell their ware while the Marfa community and guests are entertained by live music and dancing.

The Festival is kicked off on Friday night with the Marfa Lights Night Parade. Saturday morning, the more traditional parade begins late morning and travels through town with floats, the Marfa High School Band, fire and police trucks, equestrian entries and more. Each evening a special music event is offered with headliner groups making the end of a Marfa Summer a huge party. For more information, contact the Marfa Chamber of Commerce at (915) 729-4942.


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Enhance Your Photography Skills With Microscopic Photography


Micro photography can be an interesting hobby, creating pictures that reveal a world much too small for viewing with the naked eye. There are commercially available microscopes with integrated camera systems. However, a homemade attachment can be used to place a camera in the proper position to take pictures of the images created by the microscope.

Now you might think it's much of the scientists work. Well who saids that you have to take pictures of blood cells or germs ! you can take shots of the available things around you just like what you do with your DSLR everyday. But just in a different manner. Don't be a trend follower. Now it's your time to set a new trend of taking pictures you cannot see with the naked eyes.

Good results can be obtained using amateur or hobbyist microscopes and low-end digital or film cameras. The process involves mounting the camera above the eyepiece of the microscope in such a way that the camera can focus on the image while all other light is excluded from the image. The system utilizes the eyepiece of the microscope as part of the focusing process.

In its simplest form the microscope camera adapter is a tube that can be attached to the microscope eyepiece and to the camera lens. The camera's focusing mechanism is used to maintain the sharpness of the image. The tube gives some distance between the camera and the image, allowing the camera to focus. The tube also excludes outside light, creating a circular image of the item under the microscope set against a black background.

Select a camera with a lens housing similar in size to the physical size of the eyepiece of the microscope. This often makes lower-end digital cameras easier to use with a microscope than more expensive digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLRs). The adapter can be constructed from plumbing parts and even salvaged parts. The parts need to fit together closely to prevent light from entering the adapter.

By using a lens to enlarge the image before it reaches the camera, this type of system works better with larger cameras such as DSLRs. The mounting system and housing of this assembly will still need to exclude all external light from the lens.

Digital cameras have several advantages over film cameras in micro photography. The image can often be previewed in the electronic viewfinder before the shutter is tripped.

In some cases digital cameras can be directly connected to a computer and images displayed on the screen. Digital images can also be manipulated for brightness, contrast and sharpness.

 

Sunday, February 26, 2012

You Think You're A Photographer.........then what will you call them who took these shots !!


 A bizzare Mosquito head
A human head louse clinging to a hair
 Cut hairs and shaving foam between two razor blades.
Cigarette Dust 
The surface of a strawberry.Will you still love to eat strawberries after this?  Feel pukish?
 Bacteria on the surface of a human tongue
Household dust which includes long hairs such as cat fur, twisted synthetic and woolen fibers, serrated insect scales, a pollen grain, plant and insect remains