Secrets of the Moon Whisperer

Moon Whisperer.

That's kind of a joke, 

a name a friend gave me because back in 2010 I took a zillion...

no, TWO zillion photos of the full moon.

About ten came out (semi-)worthy of posting.

I loved to zoom in really close.

Here's the post I wrote that explained my process:

Moon Fever

I still love zooming in close, 

but to be honest, 

the moon doesn't change much from month to month.

Now I challenge myself to capture different images of the moon, 

like the one below.

So my process has changed.

I usually start at the settings in the post above, 

see what I captured, 

and start making adjustments.

Repeat.

I mostly use Lightroom for post-processing now.

For this one I reduced noise

sharpened

added clarity and brightness.

That's it.

You'll find my camera settings for this particular image below it.

Happy Moon Chasing!

Exposure 1/125 sec at f / 5.0
Focal Length 140 mm
ISO 1600

Night Dance

Twirling and swirling scarves of gray and gold, 

the full moon dances across night's stage. 

(small stone # 26)

A Week of Moons

Most glorious night!
Thou wert not sent for slumber!
~Lord Byron, Childe Harold

Was the moon stalking me or vice versa this week? I think it was a little of both.

He rose early, in time for my evening walk with the dogs.

He didn't call it a night until he told me good morning...

...and hung around even longer the next day.

But then he teased me, playing hide and seek with the clouds in the middle of the night...

...until finally rewarding my patience by breaking free.

Same time, next month?

O wild and wondrous midnight, 

There is a might in thee

To make the charmed body

Almost like spirit be,

And give it some faint glimpses

Of immortality.

~James Russell Lowell, Midnight

I see the (super) moon... the (super) moon sees me.

Saturday night, we climbed to the top of a nearby hill to face the Super Moon. 

Nothing between us but a valley and a bit of the lake.

I wish we'd arrived in time to catch its arrival, when it first poked its orange face up above the horizon. 

I wish I'd remembered my tripod.

I wish I could have stayed there all night.

Moon glow reaches out, 

touches my shoulder, 

reassures me that even when darkness falls,

the sun is still shining.

~ me

(Hours later, at its peak.)

My Adventures with a Lunar Eclipse - Moon Magic

Full moon, wispy clouds, soft darkness, puppies snoring.

No red moonbeams 

No amber glow

But a magical night anyway.

Before the eclipse ... the clouds can't make up their minds...

At the end ... after the full eclipse, when the clouds got bored and began drifting away, allowing me a glimpse of the partial eclipse (but no red moonbeams)...

With a little manual tweak in the coloring...

Yeah, I got carried away.


I prefer the natural color, anyway. Except for these last three, I didn't touch the color. I cropped and lightened, but otherwise they are straight out of the camera.

Moon Rising

It doesn't matter how busy I am. Doesn't matter I fast I'm zooming from one task to another. 

When a full moon rises,

I stand still.

Moon Fever

I'm a sucker for the full moon.

It draws me in and holds me, mesmerizes me.

A thousand thoughts fly through my mind, but later I can't remember a single one.

I love the moon; I love moonlight

splashing across the water, across my living room floor.

I love the world bathed in moonlight, a dreamworld aglow, caught between light and shadow. ~ me

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side he never shows to anyone. ~ Mark Twain

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you might hit a star. ~ W. Clement Stone

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to. ~ Carl Sandburg

The moon of a bright silver, which dazzles by its shining, illumines a world which surely is no longer ours; for it resembles in nothing what may be seen in other lands.
~ Pierre Loti

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. ~ George Carlin

We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls. ~ Mother Teresa

Last night was a Super Harvest Moon, according to CNN (see the article here, with a photo I suspect was photoshopped - what do you think?)  And click here to read about my experience photographing it last night.

I've been asked, so here's the "secret" to my moon shots... low ISO (mine was 100), low shutterspeed (around 1/2000, I think... this is where I experimented the most, and it might vary by camera) and zoomed in the maximum amount, 300mm on mine, for full frame shots like the ones above.

They'll look dark, but that leaves you room to play with the contrast. Crop it, then start adjusting the fill, highlights and shadows (I just have Picasa and it works great for me.) Have fun!

Ready to Explore

I had heard of  FlickR, but until a few months ago, I had no idea it was this other world allowing dual-citizenship for thousands of photography addicts from around the world. Soon after strolling around in there a bit and meeting several other citizens, I became aware of FlickR Explore, an honor bestowed on the "best" 500 photos every day, determined by an algorithm which rates each photo by factors such as how many have viewed a photo, how many have commented on it and how many have "favorited" it.

Of course, right away I longed for one of mine to be chosen, but after nearly three months of citizenship and almost 200 photos submitted, I realized it probably wasn't going to happen, especially when I compared mine to those that were chosen.

Then, surprise! This email appeared from fellow FlickR citizen RuudMorijn: This beautiful picture is quite rightly chosen for EXPLORE. Congratulations!


My Morning Moon photo did it! Some of my contacts have had numerous photos chosen; I'm not sure if it's that big of a deal to anyone else and there's no trophy, ribbon or monetary prize attached to it... in fact, my photo is buried somewhere in an endless web album of other photos by now... but for me, it ranks up there with Homecoming Queen and almost with getting my first essay published. Thank you, FlickR!  

Click here to see more FlickR Explore.