We've had nothing but rain until today and there's a huge storm coming in a few hours tonight, but I got lucky with a clear sky and crescent moon. I took about 40 shots on the beach of different areas of the sky and learned a lot. None of the ones in the moon's direction worked out very well as the lighting is SO different where the moon is and the rest of the sky. There's probably a way to make it all balance, but I couldn't figure it out. This is looking north, away from the moon between the tree-line and shore, with my wide angle opened as wide as I could (14 mm) and high ISO so that I wouldn't need a really long shutter opening and end up getting trails. The big dipper is to the far left and that little line of red dots is a jet that was high in the sky and moving across with blinking lights. Thanks @gazbadger for your advice!
@gazbadger -- thank you so much for your directions. I only had to use an ISO of 1600 because it was so moonlit, but I was able to keep shutter speed under 15 seconds for almost all the shots. I have a long way to go, and can't get much in the way of color here, but it's an improvement from last time.
Absolutely gorgeous! I was going to ask if this was Chicago because you mentioned the crescent moon we presently have, but I couldn't make out where you might have been to take this, This is stunning! I saw a similar sky just days before we left Lunenburg, but I wasn't prepared to photograph it. I'll try to learn from your settings...and hope we don't get rain!
Gorgeous shot Taffy, love the light trail from the plane as well. It is a real balance to get these shots right. I am going to my in-laws place in the mountains of Victoria in a few weeks, I will be praying for clear skies for a shot like this.
A big fave from me.
What a beautiful shot, Taffy. It is hard to get away from our comfort zone and so nice to see what you were able to accomplish. I love the silhouettes of the trees too. Very cool title, love that song. FAV
@taffy Brilliant... I am really pleased I could share some of what I have picked up along the way. And a fantastic job you have done too, thid is a great shot. If anything, the only thing I would suggest for next time is not to be afraid to overexpose slightly and pull back the highlights and shadows in your raw editor. If you do then your sensor will have a little more data to work with. I love this though... fantastic definition in that mw ribbon. Fav
Could you cheat and pull the moon off the shot you have and put it on one with stars or replace the sky in the moon with the stars in another. Not authentic but I think of you as more artistic. If its rainy you could play. LOL but must be back to Chicago.
So incredibly celestial and a fav - and I am glad you did not manipulate this shot by inserting the moon where it doesn't belong. That is cheating, Joan..
@joansmor Haha! Yep, just pull the moon from one and plop it in the other -- I'm guessing the astronomer hobbyists would recognize the processing right away! Actually no clue how to do it anyway...Thanks for the visit and kind comments, as always!
@kathiecb LOL! I'm finding sometimes a 1 to 40 ratio is a good one for me! Especially for stuff like this where I have no clue what I have til later. It's sort of like a surprise party when I download!
@maggiemae Thanks so much, Maggiemae! My photos are only rarely on PP these days. I think when followers get factored in, even if not active (since I've been on awhile, I think a lot of them are no longer participating), it pretty much means I need about 50 favs or more to get on PP. So, very very very rare! Oh well...it's taught me to post what I like and not think about what might become popular, which was a good lesson for me!
A big fave from me.
Thank you so much for taking the time to stop to say congrats. It means a lot, especially coming from such wonderful fellow photographers!