Bonnie Rannald's Photo-Explorations in focus with nature. : 35mm

Monday, August 23, 2010

AUGUST MOONS

The Full Moon at Walker Lake, Nevada

The month of August has proven to be a good time for me to photograph full moons. Since we are due for one on the 24th, I thought I’d provide some information on how I took one of my favorite full moon photos, the “August Moon” at Walker Lake, Nevada. On an August night in 1999, I was driving on the highway from Twenty Mile Beach after taking twilight photos of the full moon, when I noticed the glow on the water from the moon. I immediately pulled over to a level area, and set my Nikon back up on the tripod. At this time, I was still shooting film, long before I made the transition to digital.

During the film days, many of my full moon landscape photos were taken by creating a multiple exposure in my Nikon 8008s camera. The reason for multiple exposures on full moon photography is two-fold: the moon is much brighter than the night landscape and very far away. A multiple exposure allows the moon to show up life size in the photo and not be overexposed due to the difference in lighting. To photograph a multiple exposure, the film is not advanced to the next frame, which allows more than one exposure to be taken on that frame.

On the “August Moon” photograph, I positioned my Nikon 35-70mm 2.8 lens to include only the lake with the moon glow on the water, and a portion of the sky over head without the moon. I metered the landscape at f/5.6 with a 4 second exposure. After taking this first exposure, I changed to a Nikon 500mm 4.0 lens, and metered the moon at f/5.6 for a 1/250 second shutter speed. Here comes the tricky part, which is to carefully position the moon in the correct area of the sky, over the moon glow! Once the moon has been positioned in the frame, a final click of the shutter is made and the frame is advanced. If my estimations are correct, I’ll have a beautiful “August Moon” photograph.

In conclusion, I’ll let you in on an insight: I always take more than one photograph during a full moon multiple exposure just to make sure that the moon’s in the right place. Through experience, I’ve had my moon show up in some pretty strange places, over clouds, on top of buildings and in front of mountains. At this point, you might be wondering how it’s done with digital, well that’s a future post. So come back often for a visit!

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.

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"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

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Saturday, February 28, 2009

Kodak's Newest Film

Ektar 100

Kodak’s newest film, Ektar 100 is becoming a favorite among traditional photographers and in some opinions it exceeds all expectations. Made for 35mm cameras, Kodak promotes the Ektar 100 as the finest grain color negative film available, and through implementation of the Kodak Vision Motion Picture Film Technology, it produces ultra vivid, highly saturated colors. The only criticism I have found is that the film tends to give off a blue color cast when under exposed areas are in shade.

By emphasizing its enlargement capabilities when scanning and printing, Kodak is enticing the digital enthusiasts back to film. When I was shooting film, I was a fan of the Kodak Ektar 25 that was around in 1990’s. It was also fine grain and had great color saturation. Since it was a slow speed film, tripods were usually a must. This film did not make the cut, and was soon taken off the market. The biggest problem that I encountered with Ektar 25 was that most labs had difficulties with the color reproduction. I then changed over to AGFA 50, which became my film of choice for both 35mm and medium format. In my opinion, AGFA 50 was by far the best color film on the market. At 50 ISO, it was very fine grain, and had superior color reproduction with warm saturated colors. As proof of this statement, I had a 35mm negative enlarged to 30x40 inches. When comparing the larger print to the smaller size prints, the colors and resolution are equal. “Joshua Blooms at Red Rock” was taken on cloudy June afternoon, around 3:30pm. The camera was a Nikon 8008s with a Nikon 24mm 2.8 lens set at f/11 on a sturdy tripod, and the shutter speed was 1/15 a second.

Joshua Bloom at Red Rock, NV

Unfortunately, AGFA also discontinued production of AGFA 50 and their Optima II100 was promoted as the closest replacement to AGFA 50—which in my field testing did not even come close.

The question is, will I dust off my film cameras and give Kodak’s Ektar 100 a chance? Well, only if it is developed for medium format, because other than shooting with my Hassleblad and some of the AGFA 50 that I have on ice, I do not intend to return to negative film. The 35mm digital format more than satisfies my needs as a landscape/nature photographer, when I shoot in the RAW mode. The color accuracy, resolution and enlargement capabilities are more than adequate to reproduce my photographic images. Furthermore, there are no negatives with the potential for getting scratched or fragile with age. And, a big reason for not returning to film cameras is that I do not have to open the back of my camera after 36 exposures to change film. This has always been a worry to me, considering where I do most of my photography: outdoors, in the desert, around sand dunes, along creek beds, by waterfalls, often during rain, thunder and snow storms.

It is unfortunate that Kodak has only designed the Ektar 100 for 35mm cameras. Maybe if it is successful on the market, Kodak will make it available for medium format and then I will give it serious consideration.