70/295 + 1

Vacancy or not, I don't think I'll be staying here.

280/85

I have previously made several ill faded attempts to capture a shot of the moon. After doing some web reading, I was ready to take on this challenge again. Last evening, with the moon being 78% full and in it’s Waxing Gibbous phase, I planted my tripod in the sands of the bay, set my camera on the steady and tried as I had before.

I found the first common mistake shared by many was to assume, because it is dark, crank up the ISO. There is no need to as the intended target is a brightly glowing object and secondly you must have a very fast shutter speed. Heck, the moon is moving and from what I witnessed at a rather quick pace.

For my settings; ISO 200, 1/250, f/10, @ 300mm, and I think this goes without saying no flash. I shot in RAW, so I could make fine post processing adjustments if necessary.

I was happy with myself for reading up, prior to shooting, as it did save me the time and trouble of doing lots of fine tuning in processing. I adjusted the whites, lights, and the blacks, dark, cropped and framed.

While I am fairly pleased with the shot, I do plan on trying again when the winds are still. Last night they were strong enough to move the tripod causing a bit of shake and motion resulting in some blur.

Go see what other photographers learned over @ Courtney's.  She has lots of wonderful and informative photography tips.

And why not web hop over to Ashley's to check out some awesome editing tips.

162/203

soon the pier will be full of people and screams, both of fear and delight ~

7/358

Last evening, a photo friend and I were practicing night photography. To be more exact, we were trying to create a starburst effect from the light which sits a top our local lighthouse. We had been successfully practicing this effect with Christmas lights and the sun; and after seeing several photographs, of different lighthouses, with fabulous starburst, we knew we needed to have a photo like that of our neighboring guiding light. Off we went on a 19° F night, we set our tripods, adjusted our setting, crossed our fingers and with a remote opened the shutter.

While I am happy with the images we obtained, we were not able to capture the effect we set off after. Perhaps we were too close to the light? Do you need to be further away? Does the light need to be stationary? Ours revolves. I believe I had the correct settings as I did get a burst from the lower illumining tower light. Any suggestions??

I learned, I am getting better at night photography but just when I think I have this down ~ I really don’t!

Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.

ISO 1600, f/5.6, .77 sec


ISO 800, f/22, 30 sec

view others @ Sky Watch Friday.

BOO!

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2 sec

Friday PhotoShare ~

My neighbor created an elaborate Halloween display, one of which scares all children young and old. I am not one who enjoys being frightened and prefers Halloween trick or treaters to be dressed as their favorite Disney character.

As of a late, I have been playing with some night photography and decided to take advantage of this neighbor's display. Somehow his yard of terror didn’t seem to be so frightful when I was armed with my camera.

Photo was taken @ ISO LO1, f/5.6, 1 sec. Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.

Frightful ~

second for the Halloween display

Friday PhotoShare ~

My husband and I took an evening trip to our closest lighthouse the other evening. I started to photograph with the recommended ISO 200, f/11, 30 sec. I understand this was a good setting to capture the star created by the flashing light. This produced a very dark image and foolishly I bumped the f stop to f/22. Wrong! What I got was black photo with one tiny white speck. Than it dawned on me to turn the f-stop down, I turned it to f/5.6 and to my surprise there was an actual image on the screen!! I was so excited, it was a "light bulb" moment.

The most difficult thing for me was focusing, (my lens doesn't have an infinity setting). It was so dark and I could barely see the lighthouse through the eyepiece and far to dark for auto focus. Dang!

My lowest ISO is 200 and it than goes to LO 0.3, LO 0.7, LO 1, what the heck does that mean?? Guess, it means, more reading is needed. I did use a tripod and I did use the self timer. I am pleased with the outcome but there is room for improvement.

I have been looking at this light for well over 35 years, and that night I realized the light does not flash, it is a revolving light, which means I would not get the star effect I was hoping for. No worries, we have 12 land lighthouses, 10 water based lighthouses and 2 lightships in my local area. I am certain one must have a flashing light.

Heading out this evening to try my luck with night shots of my local marina. After receiving a package from Japan today I am certain I have room on the 4GB to practice. Thank you very much to our hostess ~ Courtney.

Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.