Christmas moon

It was a doubly rare event for me in Schenectady; a full moon on Christmas and a full halo.  Hand-held, so a little fuzzy, but it was too beautiful not to try.

Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
F Number	4.0
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	0.8
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	1600
Advanced Scene Mode	Off
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Harvest moon

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere.  The story is that farmers used to use this bright moonshine to help them gather the harvest.  Maybe.  All the farmers I know get up early, but it is quite bright; bright enough to cast a shadow and bright enough to walk on irregular fields without tripping every other step.

I took out the old Tamron zoom lens that I used to use on my 35mm Minolta film camera.  Mounted on a tripod, the combination of the Tamron and the Lumix G1 wasn't too bad.  I shot through the opened attic window, used Silkypix to develop the raw file into this jpeg.  I kind of like the abstract look.

Lens	Tamron Adaptall 2 80-210mm f/3.8
F Number	8
Focal Length	420.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/60
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Skywatch Friday

I took this photo because of those two scruffy birds.  Yes, they're pigeons.  Common, everyday pigeons.  When I was a lad (oh, here we go...) no, wait a minute.  When I was young, it seemed that every house had pigeons on the roof.  There were pigeons in the street, pigeons eating breadcrumbs on the sidewalk, pigeons everywhere.  But as an adult (who, me?) I don't see many of these birds.  In fact, I see more hawks here at my house than I see pigeons.  Apparently, whatever it is that eats pigeons has multiplied.  It's probably hawks.

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

 

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f/1.4
F Number	unrecorded
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/400
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Walking under the new moon

I saw the lovely crescent moon and thought I'd get a photo.  Hooked up the old Minolta lens, dug out the tripod and out I scurried.  It wasn't until I saw the enlargement on the computer that I noticed the family walking toward me.  Somehow, that made the so-so photo of the moon worth it.  The 'star' under the moon is an internal reflection.

Lens	Minolta MD 50mm f1.4
F Number	1.4
Focal Length	50.0 mm
Exposure Time	3.2
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Reach for the sky

I liked the way the moon way nestled into the tree limbs and thought I'd crop it to make the moon look nicer.  Of course once I started to manipulate it I just made a mess of things.  In the end, I settled on the original image.  One of these days I'm going to actually sit down and learn how to use the Gimp.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/320
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Skywatch Friday

This is from the night of the lunar eclipse.  The evening started with a high, thin overcast and got progressively thicker and more opaque.  I got up every half hour to see if it got any better, but it didn't.  This is the best of the lot, hours before the eclipse began.

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

Skywatch Friday

The Moon seems so far away.

When I was a boy, I was thrilled by the astronauts walking on the Moon, but I must confess that I always had the deepest respect for Michael Collins, the man who was all alone orbiting the Moon when Armstrong and Aldrin were down there. Most people remember the 12 who walked, but not the 15 who orbited...

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

Skywatch Friday

Last weekend, I was playing radio in the car, driving from hilltop to hilltop, trying to talk to as many people as possible (it was a contest.) The object in the foreground is one of the antennas sticking out over the hood of the car. The Moon was irresistible!

For other Skywatch Friday entries from round the world, visit the link!

Theme Day - Night

It's the first of the month, and another theme day for the City Daily Photo blogging community. This month's theme is Night. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

I think this might be the most difficult theme day I've participated in. I could not come up with an idea to save my life. I almost posted my shaky hand-held photo of the International Space Station going overhead, but figured that would be a speck of meaningless light to most everyone but me.

So I chose the Moon instead. It turned out to be an interesting job to get the exposure just so - I wanted to keep the trees but I didn't want the Moon completely washed out either. If I ever get my act together and learn to use the Gimp I'll be able to tweak photos like this one, but for now, this is what was captured by the camera.

Moonrise

Moonrise, through the trees. It's about 30F, which is warm for the past few weeks, and I saw the moon coming up behind those trees and decided to try the camera out under these conditions.

On a tripod, I liked this best of the two dozen I took. It's F4.0, 8 seconds exposure. The house is illuminated by the street lamp across the way. I notice some strange artifacts like the green flash, but I think it adds to the mystery of it all!

The moon

I had to work a bit with the camera settings to get this one. I never did find a setting where I could expose the Moon properly as well as the tree, but I like how this turned out. Sort of a Halloween-ish shot. Given the geometry of the street, I can't take this shot on the 31st because the Moon won't be here at a decent hour of the day.

Lesson from Babooshka: Don't hesitate to put the camera on manual and fiddle the controls. Electrons are cheap and it's fun to look at the intermediate results. What's really cool about digital cameras, even my old Nikon Coolpix 950, records the details about the shot. In my film days I kept a notebook filled with frame numbers, F-stops and shutter speeds. Don't get me wrong, it was worth it; I learnt a lot about how my camera and lenses worked. It's just a lot easier these days!

Taken 17.56 local time (half an hour before sunset) on the 9th.
F6.8, 1/125