Bill Curry's

After several issues with using a certain platform that rhymes with “wordmess” (from a hacking attempt at my ISP to a change at WordPress that made the theme I was using "not supported"), I am biting the bullet and going back to what I know will work, and have made a hand coded blog website using HTML5 and an HTML editor. We had a “failure to launch” you might say, but we’re good to go now!
The idea of a photography blog that would incorporate my images and some explanations about them struck me a couple of years ago when we came back from Europe and a tour of Italy, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. The frustration in losing that work (I lost the writing, I always have triple backups of my images!) is what convinced me to switch to this new method, as I have a backup right here on my own computer and don’t have to rely on anyone else. It’s what I tell my photography students as well – backing up your work is simply something that has to be done. The launch of this today is the culmination of a lot of hard work, and I hope that people find it worthwhile. My intention is to update the blog regularly, and so we begin, appropriately with a launch today.
About the image-
Artists must suffer for their art, it is said, and boy, did I suffer. We went to Florida to stay at my folk’s place in Sebastian, Florida, just north of Vero Beach, about half way between Miami and Cape Canaveral on the east coast. A couple of days after we arrived, there was a nighttime launch of a SpaceX rocket carrying a satellite up. A small group of us gathered along the shores of the Indian River at the dock right in front of my parent’s place and awaited the launch. Unfortunately, among the group were mosquitoes, black flies and some other weird biting insects, and as I made this image with a total of 9 images, 4 of which were 30 seconds long, my left hand was on the tripod to help steady it, and apparently was a very good landing pad for said insects. By Monday, I had to go to the Doctor who gave me two prescriptions and cut my wedding ring off, my hand was so swollen. I’m now OK, but it made me much more respectful of the , as the Doctor described it, “non-venomous insect bites” one can get in the Sunshine State!
The image is almost worth it – it’s 4 thirty second images of the launch itself, overlaid on the image of the Indian River taken at the same time, and the stars are another 20 second image all taken with my Nikon d800e and a 24mm f1.4 lens. I did some smoothing in Photoshop as I combined the images, but otherwise this is a pretty straightforward nighttime scene. I was pleased with the rocket’s trajectory, and the light and sound over the river was amazing to witness. Next time – with lots of bug dope applied beforehand!
Anyway, we’re off to the start of the blog and I’ll be doing a couple more Florida posts in the next couple of weeks and then three or so more about the Turks and Caicos. Fun stuff, and I hope you enjoy my work! Bill