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At certain times of year the full moon passes directly behind the space needle. Last night and the night before were such nights. Unfortunately, it was cloudy both days, but last night literally hoards of earnest photographers waited it out and got lucky. A spectacular moon rose above the clouds. There must have been over 50 photographers with tripods elbow to elbow all along the rail at Kerry Park, all chatting away and checking equipment and settings. Then the moon peeked from between layers of clouds, and as it rose fully visible, a noticeable hush fell and all I heard was the clicking of shutters. It was really fun to meet other photo enthusiasts and hear their stories of places they've traveled to shoot. I'm hoping that by next year I will be better at correctly exposing a shot like this and maybe have Photoshop or Lightroom to help me out as well. Thanks to Frank Melchior, a photographer I much admire, for telling me about the specifics of this moonrise and for the inspiration of his shots which are always perfectly exposed.
35 comments:
Wow - this is a National Geographic shot!
Clever composition with room to maneuver.
Our Flower Pot
Fantastic, Kim. I envy this because I am not good at shots of the moon. Can you share your exposure settings with us?
So close and yet so far. Great photo!
Fantastic, Kim!!!!!
Spectacular! I've never thought of capturing that particular moment. Now, for sure, I will. Gotta get a tripod. . .
I woke up in the middle of the night and saw this moon. I'm glad you captured it so beautifully.
Kim, you say that "someday" you'll use Photoshop (or etc). What do you use when you "process" your photos? I looked at Frank M's photograph, which was a beauty, but I admire yours, as well.
Oh Kim, what an excellent shot. The moon was extra gorgeous last night. I got a shot too. MB
Mindblowing. This comes out of the portal and socks you right in the middle of your head! What a shot. How exciting it must have been to wait, along with all the other photographers, and then grab the moment.
photo magique, bravo
Incredible!
Fantastic photo! It was worth your wait.
Really fantastic shot Kim. Thanks for waiting it out.
Holy MOly! Whooo eeeee Kim. That knocked my socks off . This is in your vault I hope. Bonsoir from Paris!
V
You nailed it, Kim! It was a real pleasure meeting you last night.
Stunning moon photo. I am still learning how to take such shots myself so any settings you are willing to share will be greatly appreciated. Have a great day.
No comments. Very nice blog. I will follow it. PC
Amazing shot. Well worth the wait.
wow, that is truly amazing. I am seriously impressed. I think this is an excellent shot.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I didn't go because it was overcast and I though "no way!" And look at the amazing shot you got. Good for you! Bad for me. :-(
absolutely breathtaking!! i wish i could have seen it in seattle in person. someday i will...
Absolutely fantastic!!! This has just become my new wallpaper...
Great shot!!!
Wow! Fabulous! I wish I had a nice enough camera to get a shot like that. Mine is just a simple digital point-and-shoot. This is a beautiful photo - you may think you need to improve, but you are already miles ahead of many of us wannabe photographers. :)
Got to be a contender for your image of the year. As a photographer often blown away by photography of people who consider themselves still learning or amateur. Astonishing image and to be very professional.
Your best work yet, Kim. It is brilliant because it forces us to look again and again.
Fantastic!! Thank you for sharing!
Very nice shot!
Congrats on POTD!!!
Craig Glenn
WOW! WOW! WOW! Congrats on the Post of the Day Award!
NO WAY. Really? Really! This is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Congrats.
I have never seen the moon this amazing color. Absolutely spectacular. It's like you can reach out and touch it.
Thank you very, very much for your kind comments.
For those of you who asked about the camera and settings, you won't want to use these for a correct moon exposure, but I used a Caon 40D with manual settings at:
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 280 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with 1.4 extender
WB: Cloudy
There are other photos from this moonrise up at my Flickr site, and you can view the camera EXIF data for any shot there by clicking on more information under the name of the camera used. I chose to use my crop frame digital because it magnifies the image even larger and I wanted as much reach as I could get. My full frame camera (thank you Manu of SFDailyPhoto for selling me your 5D!) would probably delivered a better image, but I don't have a longer lens than 200mm, so could have gotten in tight. Most shooters that night were going for the whole downtown skyline with Space Needle scene, but I wanted just the moon and top. People with Photoshop layered a correctly exposed shot of that moon and a correctly exsposed shot of the Needle together into one image. I heard everyone who was trying bracketing complaining that there was just too much difference between the moon and the skyline scene to pull that off. I think the moon ended up a more intense gold because of my exposure settings and white balance set to cloudy. It was a paler gold to the naked eye. It was also moving very fast.
I haven't tried Photoshop yet and will probably take the plunge with learning it this summer. I've been using Flickr's onboard simple editor called Picnic for the last year or so to add a border and a watermark and do simple corrections and effects. Before that I used Picasa. Both are free and user friendly, but are extremely limited.
Thanks again!
-Kim
This is a draw-dropping shot Kim, totally stunningingly beautiful. That must have been a fun night.
Wow Kim! What a shot... outstanding!
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