Sunday Nature Stills – 2/15/2015

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

These are Giant Clams that I photographed on the Great Barrier Reef. These Giant Clams live in warm shallow waters in the south pacific. They can grow quite large (several feet), but most of these are less than a foot across. They are filter feeders and are open most of the day. They close very quickly if startled or if a shadow moves over them.

One of the most interesting things about these clams is that each one is a different color and pattern. Some are bright colored, others have intricate patterns, and some are relatively plain.

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Sunday Nature Stills – 1/18/2015

Posted on by Michael Fuchs Photography

Just one photo this week.

This is a photograph I took of comet Lovejoy on Friday night.  It passed within about 43 million miles of Earth earlier this month.  Lovejoy is pretty dim and is very difficult to see by eye even with our minimal light pollution here.  The green/blue halo around the comet is ionized carbon monoxide.

I took this photograph with a normal telephoto lens on my SLR camera.  To minimize star blur during the long exposures, I used a homemade panning tripod mount.  This image is actually three 30 second long exposures stacked on top of each other to produce a 1.5 minute equivalent exposure.

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