December 10, 2011 Lunar Eclipse

Chasing the Moon

 In the early morning of Saturday, December 10, 2011 there was a total lunar eclipse that was visible from the west coast.  If you've been following my blogs, you know that I am effected by full moon madness and earned the title as "one who chases the moon".  After careful preparations, I set the alarm to be up at 4:30am and  brave the cold to go out and chase the lunar eclipse.  During this week, the temperatures had been getting very cold at night, dropping from 5° to 19°f  (-15° to -9.4°c) so I was prepared with my down jacket, ski pants and plenty of hot coffee.  I was somewhat relieved when I saw that it had only gotten as low as 20°f (-6.6°c) on my outdoor thermometer.

I decided to use my Nikon 80-200mm 2.8 lens for this lunar eclipse where I would normally use the longer 500mm 4.0 lens.  The reasons for going with the shorter lens are: the 80-200 is a faster lens, thus allowing for faster shutter speeds and it would give me the area to include more landscape in the scene if needed. 

On the night before the eclipse, I did a trial run with the moon to test for metering and found that it might be safest to bracket in the manual mode with the shutter speed at 1/800 seconds, f/8 aperture and ISO at 200.  Because the moon is so much brighter than the dark sky, I used spot metering.

I arose early in the morning and realized that the moon would be setting behind the tall mountain much sooner that I thought.  After taking the first exposure and checking for sharpness in the camera screen, I determined that my setting from the previous night was just right. 

As the eclipsing moon was just about to set behind the Wassuk Mountain, I wanted to get the mountain silhouetted against the setting moon.  I changed the metering from spot to matrix, opened my aperture to f/5.6 and began to bracket the shutter speed down to 1/400 seconds.

Just as a test, I changed from Manual  to Aperture mode and got an unusual result.  The image is overexposed, has lens flare but is interesting in an alien world effect. 

 

The last exposure, the eclipsed moon has dropped behind the Wassuk and the stars begin to shine, but the sky is still bright from the moon's glow.

Photographs Make Great Gifts

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What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been.  I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences. 

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Photography places me in the moment where I can share that moment in time. It becomes a life story as represented by my interaction with the scene. The happiness and beauty or the sorrow and strife; how I focus leaves a lasting impression that might touch the viewer on a spiritual level.

 "Reflecting Nature's Artistry" 

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