Lessons Learned: Photographing the Lunar Eclipse

For the August 28 lunar eclipse I decided to go shoot by Mono Lake, where there would be no light pollution and at an elevation of about 7000 feet there would be minimal atmospheric interference. I spent the previous night in Yosemite Valley and travelled to the South Tufa access point at Mono Lake to spend the night of the eclipse. To plan for the eclipse, here are some links that I used.

Lunar Eclipse Photo Examples and Shooting Advice:
http://www.mreclipse.com/LEphoto/LEphoto.html

Aug 28 Lunar Eclipse Phases & Times:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2007Aug28/TLE2007Aug28.html

I really liked the example of a wide angle lunar eclipse sequence in a particular setting, so I set up one camera to leave with one wide perspective, and I used another to capture zoomed shots of the moon at various phases of the eclipse.

I did a fair amount of exposure bracketing, but I had some focusing problems during the darker phases of the eclipse. In my case I had added a 2X teleconverter to my lense which forced manual focus, so I assumed that I simply wasn't focusing accurately enough. Examining the shots on my computer the next day, the stars revealed that the real culprit turned out to be the rotation of the earth. My 70-200mm lens doubled via a 2X teleconverter to 400mm is equivalent to 640mm on a 35mm camera, so in the process of magnifiying the detail of the moon I was magnifying the motion of the moon as well. With the moon 10,000 times less bright during the eclipse, about a 15 stop shift darker, and the 2X teleconverter also cutting my lens's widest aperture down 2 stops from f/4 to f/8.0, I could focus on the moon sharply at any given instant, but the exposure times were simply too long as both the moon moved and my position moved (the surface of the earth rotates at over 1000 miles/hour). As I examine the shots in more detail it'll be interesting to see at what exposure time the motion becomes too great at that level of zoom.

Update: Using the "500 Rule" to determine an approximate maximum exposure before the stars and moon start to "drag", divide 500 by the effective focal length of 640 mm and you get 500/640 = 0.78.  So any exposure time under 0.8 seconds or so will produce a photo without that apparent motion blur.

A different issue I've found related to moon shots and image stabilization is that when I bracketed I wanted to use Photomatix HDR software to combine multiple exposures to really bring out the moon's detail. Unfortunately the IS system seemed to re-acquire a new lock on the moon in between shots, which moves each shot slightly and destroys the alignment of the shots relative to each other. Normally HDR software can attempt to restore alignment across multiple shots, but the information in each shot is so different that there doesn't seem to be enough information for the software to use to perform alignment automatically. I guess I'll have to use Photoshop skills to superimpose, align, and blend multiple shots.

My biggest challenge however turned out to be one that I had anticipated: battery power. What I hadn't anticipated was shooting in yosmite all day then catching a nice sunset in the Mammoth Lakes area before heading over to Mono Lake. I started the night with neither of my cameras fully charged, and having to do a little battery shuffling and charging during the night cost me a couple of key shots from the sequence I wanted to complete. Lesson learned.

The still partially eclipsed moon set over the crest of the Sierras near 13,000 foot Mt. Dana, I enjoyed a nice sunrise at Mono Lake, then I spent another day shooting Yosemite under some nice, dramatic clouds. I started getting a little tired after 36 straight hours of photography, but what a great trip!

With clouds over Yosemite and water levels low and calm on the Merced River, I had a particularly productive time there. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

The turnout opposite Bridalveil Falls is a great place to stop right before sunset as the softening golden light of the setting sun brings out the color in the valley's granite. Bridalveil Falls and the Merced River in Yosemite Valley are at extremely low levels following a winter season of low snowfall.

I wasn't sure if the reflection was going to be strong enough, but as it turned out I really like how the rocky bottom of the river shows through in the darker areas of the reflection. Some people think that all you have to do in landscape photography si show and trigger the shutter, but in this case a circular polarizer at partial strength, a graduated neutral density filter hand-held in front, auto exposure bracketing 3 shots plus HDR processing and Photoshop color adjustment were all needed to create this result

I go to Yosemite a lot, but this was my first visit with a really wide lense. Being that deep in a valley, the extra coverage sure helps, especially if you're trying to double it the Valley's landmarks with a reflection!

I call this photo "PapaBearazzi." Fortunately this bear had plenty of ripe apples to keep him full, but at night the bears roam the campgrounds, like giant dogs, looking for dropped table scraps. I've rarely seen bears wandering around during the day in Yosemite, but on this day I saw 2, and the night before my father stepped out of his tent and almost tripped over one!

Oregon Photography Tour: Fossil Lake Sand Dunes

After a night in a campground near the Painted Hills, with rain still forecast for the Oregon Coast, I set my sights for a large area on my Oregon map marked "sand dunes" out by the dry Fossil Lake, near Fort Rock and the town of Christmas Valley. What could be a safer place, I thought, than sand dunes near a dry lake, for a photographer spending a rainy week in Oregon?

Although the woman in the BLM office I visited to get maps said that she had never heard of people visiting the dunes to hike and take pictures (why do we ignore warning signs like that until we remember them later with 20/20 hindsight?), the dunes appeared to be oriented east to west, so I envisioned a sea of dunes that would be warmly lit by the sun at dusk and dawn.

It was going to be a 3-4 hour drive, so partway into the trip to stretch my legs I stopped at Newberry National Volcanic Monument in the Deschutes National Forest. One of the attractions there is the Lava River Cave, a lava tube which extends over a mile underground. Upon reaching one long, straight section, I tried some 30 second exposures. I determined that the gas lanterns rented by the entrance booth were a bit too bright, so I carried a flashlight (red end, white light shining on the floor) and triggered my camera flash multiple timestowards the walls as I rushed out 15 seconds and and then back for 15 seconds.

Having distracted myself from the long drive, I continued on towards the dunes. The drive seemed endless. Although I had a detailed BLM map and the road out to the dunes had been designated a "Scenic Byway" by the State of Oregon, The turns didn't seem to match my maps and the Scenic Byway was very poorly marked.

When I finally arrived at the primitive campground by the dunes, there was a group of maybe a dozen children riding around on tiny ATVs. It gave me the impression of a sort of miniature version of Mad Max. The parents were sitting by their pickup trucks drinking beers and watching approvingly.


Unfortunately the nearby dunes were sparse and widely spaced, overrun with ATV tracks, not particularly photogenic. I hiked out onto the dunes for a variety of sand pattern shots, but it didn't look good for dawn, so I decided to drive a couple of hours more to move on to Crater Lake.


I plotted the course on the map, and tooka a route that might get me to the Klamath Marsh for sunset.

Western States Photography Tour: Fantasy Canyon

I'm generally on my way towards Colorado, but my next destination is Teapot Rock, which is found on the Bureau of Land Management's Fantasy Canyon site in Utah, not far from Dinosaur National Monument.

Yosemite Valley, Labor Day Weekend

I went camping in Yosemite National Park over Labor Day weekend and swam in the plunge pools under several of the valley's waterfalls. One in particular stood out. There's little water left in this creek at this time of year, and I found a relatively secluded alcove near where the natural shower was falling. I had a flat rock in the sun, adjacent shade nearby for refuge as needed, and there was just enough water falling to cool off in the refreshing spray.

Reaching this spot one night about 30 minutes before sunset, I watched the light from the setting sun creep up the face of Half Dome. The other swimmers who had been enjoying the pool left, but I was able to stay since I had brought a headlamp for the return trip. As I flyfished for the next 20-30 minutes under the remaining alpenglow, the nearly-full moon rose over Glacier Point, bathing the scene in bright, pale light. Although the air started to get crisp, the rocks were radiating the heat they had been absorbing all day, so I was completely comfortable in my bathing suit.

With the calm pool, waterfall, sunset and moonrise, in perfect weather, this was one of the most romantic settings I've ever been in.

Next time I'll have to bring someone!

Jeff

Photos from the trip:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CatmzJu2aNGW&notag=1

Planning my western states tour

In September after spending Labor Day weekend in Yosemite I'll continue on to Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton, Colorado National Monument, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyon, Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, Bryce Canyon, Zion, and back via Death Valley.

I've established this blog to chronicle my adventures. Come along for the ride.