Adam in Florida: Space Shuttle Discovery Launches Into Space

Hey everyone

As some of you know, I've recently (well.. not so recent!) been to Florida. The purpose? To watch one of the last five shuttle launches before the shuttle fleet is retired this year. Luckily, it was also the LAST planned night shuttle launch EVER. Yep. ever.

I could go on and on about the trip: about the launch itself, about the amount of friendly and warm people I met, and the chance to photograph Burrowing Owls (credit to Richard Peters for providing the inspiration and letting me know they were there), but I thought instead to share one picture from the trip that summed it all up for me. This is an early stage rough edit.

Space Shuttle Discovery launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mission STS-130

There are two great points to this blog post.

Firstly, the shuttle just happened to launch on my birthday which wasn't planned! I wanted to show that off :)

Secondly, and for the first time on this blog, I am offering this picture for sale. Prices and details to come shortly, as will the final edit, but expect some news much sooner than it's taken me to blog this, now that I'm finally finding time to.. do stuff!
This is hugely exciting for me. This is my first active promotion for my work, and hopefully the start of good things to come. Feel free to tell your friends if you like the image! The more the merrier :)
And just to re-iterate, this is the last ever night launch by any of the shuttle fleet. Own a piece of history!

To the many people from North America who I've met and who have emailed, the reason for this very late blog update is because I've been spending a LOT of time trying to find somewhere to live and trying to get a job here in Sydney. Well, one down for now!

PS, and for the benefit of the Google Bot I've seen around, here's a tip to anyone who gets a chance to shoot a night launch:
ISO 400, 1/500, f/6.3 and bracket 2/3 either way. Job done. I promise you, those settings will work..

Cheers all, I hope you are well!
Adam