Yesterday evening in between Tequila shots for cinco de Mayo - still not recovered yet

Went out to Colusa NWR looking for the owl and chicks that I had seen the day before but did not have proper camera with me, did not find owl but did get to watch the moon rise. Really windy day with a lot of haze in the atomsphere.

White dot under moon is a great Egret


Up a little higher and brighter

Got in a nice night hike and came home with a whole pile o' junk. This is the best of a very mediocre batch.

Don't forget - it's coming up again tonight...
Hour after sunset so comps will be tougher to get a nice foreground element but still worth a try...here's hoping for a fog free night

Originally Posted by kdog Shooting through a horrible smog layer in SF this evening, this was probably as good as I got.

Nice! Can you move the moon to the right a smidge so it is directly above the Transamerica pyramid?

Didn't get to go anywhere very scenic, just shot from a park near the house...

Tonight's Supermoon (and the back story)



Twenty-four hours later, the chase is over.

I started my attempt to capture this year's supermoon (otherwise known as the perigee of the moon) on Saturday night. The moon was at its nearest point to Earth in its yearly orbit and that should have resulted in a larger and brighter full moon. Conditions seemed perfect as the clouds finally burned off at 6pm and I drove out to Fort Sewall around 7. As I neared my destination, I had to rub my eyes in disbelief...a thick band of fog had descended around the harbor. This was pea soup type fog and at points I could not see any boats in front of me or Gerry island nearby. I set about taking advantage of the foggy conditions and laying plans for the next morning.

I woke Sunday at 4:45am and found the moon bright and low in the sky. I quickly got into the car and started the chase again. My destination this time was Devereux beach. However, as I got closer, I noticed the cloud bank near the horizon and, sure enough the moon disappeared beneath it as soon as I got to the parking lot. I made the best of that dawn and made plans for one last attempt.

Tonight at around 8, I headed back out to Fort Sewall with few hopes for the moonrise. Conditions were excellent but the moon was slated to appear 1 hour after sunset making for poor conditions with which to capture any foreground elements. I had hoped to include the lighthouse in the image but wasn't sure if the moon and light would cooperate. As the moon rose and appeared brighter than I had anticipated, an idea formed in my mind and I slowly moved along the walkway. I kept repositioning as the moon rose hoping to get it as it crossed the very top of the lighthouse. As it did, I fired off three exposures aimed at getting one for the moon and another for the lighthouse. I blended two of those images by hand to get the moon detail and a smile finally crept onto my face...I had captured the famed 'supermoon'

*Can anyone tell me why there is so much banding showing up on this image? It is not present on the file in Lightroom. I exported it via Jfriedl's plugin at 90% quality

Some nice stuff in here! Eyal, that one hits home for me.

My best from tonight...

Originally Posted by LightMagic Didn't get to go anywhere very scenic, just shot from a park near the house...

Lots of really great shots in this thread. But this one....

I wasn't in the right location for the rise, so had to settle for a snap over some trees with cars.

Last night:

Originally Posted by kdog Lots of really great shots in this thread. But this one....

Thanks Joel. Appreciate your comments and feedback.

Really great shots, everybody!!

Well technically the day after but thick cloud cover thwarted May 5 so I had to dodge clouds last night. Never got a great clearing but It was an amazing sight, looking more like a sunrise than the moon.

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