Let me toss my feeble efforts among the millions of photos made of last nights Super Blood Wolf Moon Total Lunar Eclipse. Usually, for any of these types of events, there are issues that prevent me from making the effort. But last night I stuck with it and above you see what I was able to obtain. A little grainy but I was shooting handheld with the longest lens I own. I usually have a pretty steady hand but a tripod would have been better for sure. For those who like to schedule ahead, the next total lunar eclipse will be May 26, 2021. :-)
Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. This stuff ain’t easy! Although a tripod would have certainly been a good idea. Did you use auto-exposure or manual? I’m just sort of wondering about the 2nd image from the right. But at least you got to see the damn thing. We had such a wonderful night for sky watching – total clouds, heavy snow, very strong winds, and temperatures near 0. By morning the wind chill was about -25. Just wonderful……
Hi Paul, good to hear from you. Admittedly, it was kinda an ill-conceived last-minute effort. 😞 Manual exposure…on the first two images I’d been exposing for the brightness but on the third image (2nd from the right) I exposed for the eclipse shadows in order to capture shadow details and the beginnings of the ‘blood’ coloring. I did shoot a shot exposed for the brighter parts at the same time but I haven’t made the effort to merge those two images to reclaim those highlight details…perhaps later. I couldn’t find a compromise where both the highlights and the shadows would retain details. Perhaps just beyond the range of my little 4/3’s camera or certainly my own skills. Weather-wise it was pretty good. A few high wispy clouds which passed quickly and in the ’30s with only a slight breeze. There were 20-30 minutes between each of these shots, so I stepped inside between them. It’d been several months since I’d even picked up a camera so it felt good to go through the motions again. :-)
Very cool! Very clear with handheld! I only stayed up until about 1/2 way through, it was about 2 deg last night and my laziness kicked in for braving the cold, even though I could just run in and out. I do know that feeling of just being out exposing some pixels though. Helps re-energize.
Thanks, Mark. I only stayed up until it entered the full phase of the eclipse, which was a little before midnight. Not exactly a hardship. :-) Can’t blame you guys at higher latitudes for not braving it…mighty cold temperatures and like in the case of Paul Maxim, in the midst of a blizzard.
Well, I reckon that “feeble” effort paid off rather well Earl. Nothing wrong with those little 4/3 sensors :)
Didn’t get a blood moon over here but we did have a spectacularly large moon last Sunday. I was on my way to the airport at the time and it was quite something watching a plane get silhouetted against it. I’m sure it would have made a cool photo :)
Thanks, Cedric, I was pleased with the results considering the lack of planning and being kinda shot from the hip, so to speak. Those 4/3’s do a decent overall job but extreme low light situations can be difficult with them. I always stop to admire those shots with a big passenger plane silhouetted in front of the moon or sun…must have been even better seeing it live.
Nice to hear from Paul Maxim!
I saw the moon but not the eclipse, probably should have paid better attention to the timing before heading to bed. I don’t generally try to photograph the moon because I don’t have a long enough lens to really do it justice, and any attempts I have made have been poor. This is a pretty good result, I’d say!
Tom, thanks. The nice thing in capturing the moon at night is it doesn’t require a very fast or expensive lens. For this shot, I was using a 4.8-6.7f zoom at near 300mm (600mm FF equivalent). Even with this fairly slow but sharp lens, I was shooting at 1/5000sec or faster shutter speed and a higher f-stop early in the eclipse process to keep from blowing out the white details. This is also one reason my hand-held shots were mostly sharp…not enough exposure time for the shakes to have any effect. Of course, the last two images were a different story…a much longer exposure time. :-)
Well, damn! That’s a great feeble attempt, Earl! :) I was, um, how shall we say, sleeping during this event. :)
Thanks, Paul. Thank goodness it was a slow event which gave me plenty of time to fumble around with my camera settings. There were moments in the cold when I was wondering why I wasn’t in a warm bed but now I’m glad I stuck it out.