Some things just never line up quite the way you’d like, and in my case I think this event is one of them. I’d like to be able to get a distant shot of the capitol with the planets beside it while their alignment is as close as possible, but available vantages and prevailing sky conditions have conspired against me. Oh well, I think I got a couple of decent shots. It’s time to move on to another challenge.
To add to the fun, the auroras really turned it up a notch just as I set up to photograph this old windmill. I took advantage of the whole evening and morning. Trust me…I’ve still got plenty more where this came from. 🙂
Things REALLY got hopping, even enough to overcome the light of the full moon directly overhead. I had multiple cameras going to shoot the event, shooting stills and a time-lapse video I hope to work on over the weekend.
You can expect a lot more of these photos in the near future!
I had to chuckle when I spotted this sign in an extremely remote location. In fact, after two weeks my truck is still dropping mud from the section line road adjacent to this property. I don’t even recall whether or not there was some old dilapidated farmstead or other intriguing subject beyond this sign…I simply remember finding the annotation quite amusing. I don’t think I’d want to test the landowner’s resolve, either!
I love roaming the back roads and this past weekend’s trip was exceptional. I found a few nice photos, got to roam as a guy is wont to do, and even found a location I’d been seeking for quite some time. These bridge footings were a particularly pleasant surprise and, since the water surrounding them was completely frozen, I was able to try several angles over the course of a half hour until I found something that I liked. I was even able to position my flash and trigger it remotely to fill in some light where needed. After all, as my photographic mentor taught me, “lighting is simply controlling the shadows.”
The terminator is not Arnold “GIT TO DA CHOPPA” Schwarzenegger when we’re talking astronomy; rather, it’s the line between day and night, light and dark, the illuminated and non-illuminated part of a moon or planet. Notice the nice, gentle gradient of the terminator’s edge…and how it’s boldly interrupted by the rim of the crater. Cool, huh?
I took this photo in the late afternoon, some might say early evening. It’s the best time to photograph the moon because the sky behind it isn’t dark. While properly exposing for the detail in the moon, you still get some color in the sky surrounding it. At night all you get is a bold white or gold disk in a sea of black. I suppose that’s fine if that’s what you’re going for, but I prefer to show a little bit of blue.
The plan was for the capitol to actually vanish into the fog as I perched at the bottom. Interestingly, the fog didn’t work that way; while it was certainly thick enough looking horizontally through it, the fog wasn’t dense enough to totally obscure things while looking vertically while remaining as close to the building as I wanted. Standing far enough away to allow the building to be obscured by fog blew the perspective I wanted to achieve. In any case, it’s still a neat photo even if the effect is somewhat less than I’d anticipated. I didn’t freeze my fingers for nothing.
While I didn’t bump into him, it turns out I wasn’t the only other photographically inclined person poking around the capitol grounds at night. Check out a brief video of the weekend’s foggy festivities by Sam Sprynczynatyk by clicking here!
I have a strict rule about obeying posted NO TRESPASSING SIGNS (and the law) when out on these photo hunts. I’ve found that if I discover a place where I want to take my camera, locating that sign and calling the landowner listed thereon will result in an invitation to proceed. Only once have I reached some drunk jackhole who thought it’d be fun to be rude, swear, and insult me rather than simply say “No.”
If you are into photography, I suggest the same diligence when out with your cameras. It only takes one wandering uninvited photographer to tick off a landowner to the point of never allowing anyone on their property. Ask a hunter how that works out.
Favicon Plugin made by Alesis