Tag Archives: moon

Moonrise and Sunset

An evening flight out of SeaTac was my way home on a recent trip. We were due to take off after sunset so I hadn’t anticipated having the camera out. As we taxied out, the sunset looked pretty nice and I did get a couple of shots with the phone. However, there was a small moon also heading towards the horizon and I figured I should get out the real camera to make a better shot of it. The moon was just about to go down while the red of the sky still remained courtesy of the now-set sun. It was a bit of a dark shot and through the window of the 737 but it turned out pretty well.

Crescent Moon

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You see the moon more when you commute. Each morning and evening you make the trip to and from work and spend some time outside. Therefore, while your window on the outside world is relatively restricted, you are forced outside at given times and therefore see what is around you. Since the moon rises and falls at slightly different times each day, you will cross paths with it reasonably frequently. When I worked from home, the chance of looking outside at the right time was less so I didn’t pay the moon as much attention.

I get to see it setting while the morning sun is coming up on the hills (I will have to try and shoot that at some point) as well as seeing the different phases. One evening I was on my way home when I saw the thinnest sliver of moon. I could actually see the rest of it although it was very dark. Unfortunately, cameras are not able to handle such a range of light so a shot of the illuminated side means the rest is black. I didn’t bother with trying HDR, not least because the moon moves pretty quickly and long exposures end up very blurred. I made do with the simple shot. It made me happy.

Moon

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It only seems appropriate that I should follow a sun posting with one about the moon. Having lived for the last ten years in a place that faced east, I was used to seeing the moon appear and then progress across the sky. Now I live somewhere that faces west so, when I see the moon, it is already on its way down. Having the hills to the west of us means there is even less time to catch it.

I have shot the full moon (or very close to full) a few times before. One evening I was beginning to think about turning in when I saw the moon was dropping down and it was substantially in shadow. I thought it looked very interesting and, since the time of the movement is about an hour later each day, if I didn’t shoot it then, the following day would be a bit later, the moon would be a bit fuller and who knows whether the sky would be clear anyway. I headed downstairs to grab some gear and set up some shots from outside the garage.

The sky is not the clearest and least affected by distortion where we are but it isn’t too bad. I got a few shots and then ramped up the ISO a bit to make sure of getting something with a higher shutter speed. For those of you that haven’t tried shooting the moon, it moves surprisingly quickly and the use of a long lens emphasizes this even more. Therefore, you need quite a high shutter speed to make sure it isn’t blurred. Fortunately, although it is dark where you are, the moon is in full sunlight so there is a decent amount of illumination to help you out.

I got a few shots, and then headed back indoors to bed. Sometimes you just have to grab the moment. As a related item, I also got some daytime shots as the moon got closer to full recently.

The One That Got Away

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No photo to show here. This is about one that didn’t happen. I was driving back towards the city just after sunset. The Kennedy Expressway runs east towards the city away from O’Hare for a while and the line of the freeway is the same as the approach path for one of O’Hare’s runways. As I drove down it, there was a line of aircraft on approach, each showing up with their landing lights on and with the closest aircraft showing clearly against the remnants of the light in the sky.

Add to this the enormous full moon that was almost perfectly in line with the planes and you had the sort of shot that you see online every once in a while and think how cool it looks and maybe it was faked. This wasn’t faked. however, my cameras were in the trunk and I was driving on the expressway so there was no way to get the shot. You will have to take my word for it. It was that good!

Glorious Cheating!

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The moon was supposed to be at its biggest recently. I was all ready to head down to the lakefront and get some shots as it rose and the atmosphere magnified it to the greatest extent possible. However, as the afternoon started to wind down, the fog started to roll in. As the sun was setting, the fog banks were wafting between the buildings around us and you couldn’t see the harbor wall let alone the horizon. Oh well, what can you do?

As the evening rolled on, the fog finally cleared out but, by then, it was too late. The moon did appear amongst some of the buildings so, while it didn’t look significantly different to normal, I still decided to get a couple of shots. The problem with this is that the moon is effectively in sunlight while the city is in night. The top picture is the cheat that resulted. Below are the two shots I took next to each other. One was exposed for the buildings and the other was for the moon. A bit of layering and masking in Photoshop was necessary to get the result at the top. I am not a Photoshop wizard and I suspect those that know their stuff would tell me why it is not as well executed as it could be but this was hardly a client job! Just a bit of fun.

Shooting the Moon!

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While out at the lakefront with the guys earlier in the week, the moon had risen near the planetarium (appropriately enough!). I had been traveling light to that shoot so hadn’t taken any long lenses to get that shot. However, it had looked so good when it came up, I thought I really ought to take advantage of it before the phase changed too much. It had been full that night and I prefer it a little off full to show some depth anyway.

Consequently, I grabbed a long lens and a tripod and headed back a couple of nights later. We had a crystal clear night and storms were forecast for the coming days which made me think it was an opportunity to be taken. I got down just below moonrise and got set up. The sky was so clear I could see lots of stars. This might not sound like a big deal but when you live in the city, even a bit of haze or moisture in the air will reflect the city lights back at you and stars become invisible. It is one of the things I love when we are out in the countryside to be able to see lots of stars.

Sadly, what I hadn’t realized was that there was a lot of cloud on the horizon. We were in the clear but someone over in Michigan wasn’t and their clouds were blocking the moonrise for me. However, I could see the cloud layer was low so it would only be a matter of time before the moon popped above the cloud, even if I lost the magnification and color shifts you get when it is close to the horizon.

Sure enough it popped up. I could see it long before then as it was sometimes almost visible through the clouds. I watched it gradually come up, got a bunch of shots once it was clear of the clouds and then headed for home. It might have been warm for January but I was still pretty cold by then!

Making the new site work

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So, I have finally taken the plunge and moved the old version of the website offline and transferred to the new version. I immediately notice that my two trial posts when the site was in beta seem to be in reverse order. I have no idea why that might be so I will keep on posting and see whether everything shows up in the right place eventually.

The photo life has been a tad restricted recently. Other work commitments have had me on the road and basically without a camera for a while so I have been plotting my next ideas. One good opportunity was, of course, the moon coming so close to the earth. Saturday was a lovely day here in Chicago so I was hopeful of some good shots. However, when I made my way out to the planetarium (and I was not alone out there!!), the cloud cover drifted in. It started out on the horizon but with clear sky above. Patience my young Padawan. Of course, as the moon rose, the clouds spread out and covered the sky. Lots of disappointed people went home.

I actually tried the next night but the result was just as bad. Ho hum! The results you see here are not impressive although given the low light and the shutter speeds, they could have been worse, I assure you!