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Well, not a whole lot to type about this one. I played a bit of xbox at my parent's house today with my dad and my uncle, like we often do one of the weekend days. Well, I forget to bring my parent's laptop back out to them as they needed it for the next day. So before sunset I head home to get it, but I decide to eat first. A bit after dark I take it out there and while running into the house I couldn't help but notice the huge, bright halo around the moon! |
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I grabbed my camera and start firing away. To get the halo to show up right the moon really has to blow out...there is no other way to do it. Sure you could snap a couple exposures and blend them but I would get lost trying to merge them and make it look right at all. It was easier to let it be what it be and just stick something infront of it to help tone the image down. The flag sort of worked. The sky in these isn't out of focus at all, but the long exposures leave you with star trails, which at this size really make the sky look blurry. I put a full sized crop futher down to show what I'm talking about in that regard. |
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This took a few tries before I even got my head in the shot. It was rather cold out(lower 20s) and I could not hold still at all...impossible. As you can see by the "hole in my head" jumping into and out of the shot and wasn't working. |
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Finally I get the bright idea that hey, maybe the cable release will reach my right hand. The only battery I had out there with me runs out after this shot. So, back home I went. |
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A shot with nothing in the way of the moon. The moon was 3/4 full. For a brief while the cirrus got a bit thicker and blocked it out a bit. |
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I grabbed another battery and tried to think of objects I could put infront of the moon so the blow out would be less of a distraction. This ol cross did the trick. |
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Oh yes, I almost chickened out on this. This is up at the water tower on the edge of town(water "tower" is actually mostly in the ground"). One has to walk a ways to this from the parking area and it is quite dark. I actually chicken out once as I knew my mind would mess with me, lol. I got back in my car and looked over to where this was and was dying to go get the shot, but sooo did not really care to(I'm a wuss when I can't see anything and there isn't a soul around). Well, I wanted it bad enough I said screw it and went up there. I kept an eye on each bush on each side of it. I looked at the LCD screen after the first one and for some reason my fears went bye bye(I was impressed...I figured it'd be a cool shot but really liked it when I first saw the results). You can click on this one to see it a bit larger. |
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I took several while freezing my but off. I can't stand noise so I was leaving the ISO down at 100(with a couple at 200 and 400). The star trails really make this look more blurry than it is. I had it focused well on the moon before taking them so I knew it was focused and was on a tripod with a cable release. There isn't a light source close to where I'm at at all either. The ones way down in the parking lot are a bit green and that is why the cross has a green tinge to it. |
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I saw the Dana college clock on the way up and thought it'd be cool to put over the moon. Well the clock is lit up and you can even see the halo it blew things out so fast....so, its not on here. I scoot over a bit from it and shoot the rest of the building. |
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It was hard getting a decent perspective for the building while keeping the halo in the shot. Man what I would have given for a 10mm or a Canon 5D with a larger wide angle. I shot all these with my digital rebel and my Canon 17-40L at 40mm(most all at F4). |
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I leave and drive around town looking for more areas. I end up back at my parents and shoot the flag again. |
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Very bad taste I know. That is a scarecrow thingy from fall still in the driveway. I should have used a follow up flash or a flash light on it. |
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Trees. Below is an example of what I'm talking about as far as the sky looking blurry. The sky in this one, like the others, looks soft. |
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Here is a full sized crop. Full sized and at F4 I don't expect it to be much sharper than that. It is just amazing what that does to the images at smaller versions. I should have done another at 1600 ISO to see which is worse, longer star trails or a boatload of noise....I'll take the trails. This image had a 1 minute and 47 second shutter...really no noise. |
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