Photography

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39-A inside Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday morning with 53 Starlink satellites for their Starlink network.

This was Booster 1069’s fifth mission overall.

Photo was taken aside the aptly named Mosquito Lagoon, and on a relatively warm winter’s night, the flying insects were out in force.

They were not the only bite-y things about — as the sound of the rocket’s engines washed over the water, a bull alligator perhaps 10-15 meters away roared his disapproval. It is said that the sub-sonic tremors that accompany any nearby rocket launch are similar to those issued by males competing with one another for territory. Undoubtedly the gator would have been foul-tempered if it had been encountered. Fortunately, that was not the case and no photographers were harmed in viewing the launch.

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A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, 2023 at 5:56 p.m. EST (2255 GMT). The rocket was carrying a classified U.S. Space Force communications satellite and five additional military payloads as a rideshare. The Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters returned to land at SpaceX’s landing zones a few miles away at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station about eight minutes after launch. 

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SpaceX launched 54 Starlink satellites this morning from Cape Canaveral, closing out the 2022 launch schedule for Florida. It was yet another picture-perfect launch.

Skies were clear enough this morning to where we could see the second stage for six-ish minutes. There’s a small gap between the end of the first stage’s powered ascent and the ignition of the second stage. My aim in this photo was to capture as much as possible of the second stage, and it succeeded from that perspective.

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In its sixth mission for July and it’s thirty-third mission of the year, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink this morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida occurred at 9:38 a.m. EDT (1338 GMT).

This was the eight flight of booster B1062.

A crowd gathered on Playalinda Beach on the Cape Canaveral National Seashore to watch Falcon 9 lift off on July 24, 2022.
(Click to enlarge ©2022 Charles Boyer)
Falcon 9 pierces the sky on its way to orbit, July 24, 2022
(Click to enlarge ©2022 Charles Boyer)
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Through the years, I have photographed a lot of landscape, fashion, decaying architecture and sports professionally, and have enjoyed some decent success in each realm. No, I don’t view myself as any kind of Richard Avedon or Ansel Adams, but I do think a handful of my photos could be fairly termed “good.” I’ve enjoyed that journey and the experiences that went with it, and perhaps that is the most important thing.

Rocket launch photography is a whole other animal. To make a great launch shot, you need access (the closer the better), and the ability to deal with some very mixed conditions: the fire and flame is incredibly bright while the rest of the photo is either in normal light or at night. In the early days of digital cameras the available dynamic range was lacking, and film has its own personality — chrome (slide) film has maybe a +/- 2 stop latitude, and negative film perhaps as many as +/- 5 stops. That’s helpful, but color darkroom is a bear in its own right. That said, dodging and burning in is really hard for color.

Anyway, for the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-123 launch in 2008, I set up with negative film and essentially ran a whole roll of film through in the first few seconds of launch. The initial shots were kind of…okay…but the third to last one was a real keeper.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

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To celebrate our twentieth anniversary, my wife and I took a trip to Yosemite National Park in California. This is where we got married all those years ago, just her and I in the Yosemite Chapel. We’d both had the big church hoo-ha in the past, and neither of us were interested in having another day of pomp and circumstance again…the point was to celebrate our relationship, to forge a new union and to enjoy the whole experience.

It worked out. Rather well, in fact. For two decades, we’ve managed to ride the highs and the lows, and have stayed committed to each other. Yay us. It’s a lifelong commitment and I think it will last until we’re gone.

Here are some photos that I took while we were out west:

Bridalveil Falls, Merced River, Yosemite National Park, May 31, 2022

Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer
Click to Enlarge

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Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:54 p.m. ET today in a picture perfect launch.

Atlas V, Boeing Starliner OFT-2 launch, May 19, 2022.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:54 p.m. ET today in a picture perfect launch.
photo ©2022 Charles Boyer.
(click to enlarge)
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