POTM [12/07] Pete Conrad

After a lot of patient waiting, I finally got the shot I wanted for this month's theme.



Yes, one tree has red lights. No, I did not color those lights. While the image may stand on its own, there actually is an interesting story behind the lights, and why one tree stands out.

This is the astronaut memorial grove at the Johnson Space Center. Every astronaut that dies (regardless of cause) has a tree planted in his or her honor. The project was created in 1996 with the original dedication honoring the astronauts killed in the Challenger accident of 1986. Since that time, a new tree has been planted for each astronaut that has died.

When Pete Conrad died, his close friend and colleague, Buzz Aldrin, gave the dedication at the ceremony. In his speech, Aldrin, speaking on behalf of Conrad, related that while Pete was one of the shortest astronauts, he didn't want his tree to be the shortest. He wanted his tree to stand out, to be the most colorful. Pete's motto was: "When you can’t be good, be colorful." Aldrin charged then-JSC Director George Abbey to light the trees each Christmas season, and to make Conrad's tree stand out. They have fulfilled his wish each year since then.

The original article can be found in the JSC newsletter.

In order to preserve the colors and tones throughout the image, I used 4 separate exposures - two for the sky, one for the actual lights, and one for the glow on the trees and ground. The sky consists of two layers, with the lighter of the two on top. I applied the "Multiply" blending mode to it to make the resulting sky pop. No further enhancement was done to the sky. The glow received a very slight levels tweak and the lights received a very slight red color boost, with any resulting red color abberations in painted out of the white lights using a layer mask.

The whole thing was assembled by hand in Photoshop, and layer masks were used to bring out each individual piece.

Hope you enjoy it.

-monkey

 

I request that as a wallpaper, borderless is best... Stunning in a way that i cant describe. But then again, I'm not a photographer, not even hobby.

 

we have a winner?

 

I really like this. But one opinion: I seem to notice sort of an outer glow around the base of the trees. This makes them stand out in a very artificial manner IMHO.
Love the sky.

 

Whoa! VERY beautiful snap there! Well done mate!

 

Fantastic - wallpaper plz kthx

 

That's an cracker of a pic, great stuff, winner possibly.

 

this is an awesome pic, I'm going to jump on the band wagon and ask for a wallpaper as this is top notch stuff!

 

I am curious what lens and camera you used. Thanks.

Oh and BTW, awesome photo.

Nick

 

Great shot mate, love it.

 

Thank you all for the kind words.

bubsterboo: The glow around the base of the trees is mostly intentional, though I ended up reworking it several times to get the right gradation into the darker areas. I plan on revisiting this photo in a week or so to see if I still like the result. I have a feeling I may work on it a little more. I call it "George Lucas Syndrome."

NzC: I used a Canon 40D with the 28-135mm kit lens all the way out at 28mm.

For those of you requesting desktops, I'll remove the border and resize the original later tonight.

-monkey

 

I'll have one in 2560 x 1600 please.

/deletes this month's entry with a sigh...

 

haha lol, 1440x900 for me please

 

Incredible! Wallpaper plz!

 

Here are links to the various wallpapers. I have one at 2560 x 1600 (as requested by Nexxo), one at 1440 x 900 (as requested by DaveVader), and one at 1280 x 1024 (since it's fairly standard). The 1280 x 1024 had to be cropped significantly to fit the ratio, but the image still works pretty well. Since the other resolutions are wider, all I had to do was trim a little bit from the top and bottom.

Link to 2560 x 1600

Link to 1440 x 900

Link to 1280 x 1024

Again, thank you for all the kind comments.

Edit: Oops, looks like Photobucket has file size limits. Let me try this again. If anyone has any problems with the resolution, just let me know.

-monkey

 

thats awesome. thanks a lot for that! I needed a new wallpaper anyway, I was bored of the generic "windows view of some crappy field" and this definitely does it justice

 

Awesome, and most importantly, full of meaning.

 

Pheonominal shot, as has been said, we have a winner already I think. This is truly brilliant, and I think the story behind it adds even more power to the shot.

Is there any chance we could have a picture of the year contest where the 12 monthly winners are put against each other? (no prizes but just the kudos)

Anyway, 1920*1200 or I could probably scale the 2560*1600 I think?

 

its a really great shot!! defiantly got my vote this month.

I really like the under glow from the tree's

 

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3