Great pictures Bill! I love water pictures and sunrise/sunset pictures. These are nice and relaxing. Thanks for sharing!

Margie

I really love these in particular. I have seen many of these sunrise and sunset pics, but nothing even compares to these. It makes you want to enjoy life and cherish each moment you have with your friends and family.

Thanks Margie, I also loved the article/interview you did with JD!

The description of the first pictures says it all, but not for the second picture. This one was taken when I was working at the Pillsbury Mtn fire tower in July of 1978.

It was very hot and humid all day long down down below, but I never really experienced the discomfort on the mountain. At about 3:45 that afternoon a violent t-storm popped up as a result it was the worst storm I had ever endured on the mountain. The storm ended at about 4:30 and when I looked out from my ground cabin the sky was awash in gold. So I grabbed my camera and rushed up the tower. The sky was still full of clouds and the air was saturated with moisture. The clouds opened up and the sunshine came in at a sharp angle causing the moist air to distort and twist the light. The by-product is what you see in the picture.

Unfortunately the picture does not do the true image justice, but it comes close. I’m glad you liked it though.

Bill,

Thanks for the description! I love hearing the stories behind the pictures. You’re right–photos really can’t always do justice to the real thing, but they give us an idea. I still need to submit a picture I took from a plane last year. As we flew into BWI, it was raining so you can see the thicker storm clouds below and the sun shining above. If I can remember, I’ll send it to Janice this evening. Thanks again for the description and your kind words about my article.

Margie

Nice pics. Tonight at sunset you should be able to see the largest full moon of the year. It should be visible at sunset

Nice Pics Bill!!

Were those taken in NY state? I can think of at least 3 Pine Lakes I know of in different parts of the world.

Now that sounds interesting Don.

I’ve got a plumbing chore when I get home and if all goes well I’ll be out there with my camera. I absolutely love seeing a large full orange lazy Harvest Moon too, but the pictures I’ve taken in the past had always disappointed me.

When I was on Pillsbury one of my favorite time of day was when dusk turned to night. I would sit on the cabin porch looking off at Sacandaga Lake and Lake Pleasant. Then one by one the birds and other daytime animals would stop making their sounds. After about 45 minutes the nighttime animals began their singing. Although the best part of that silent time was watching the Moon come up. Just off to the left three Balsam trees stood in a row going from shortest to highest and the Moon followed a path over those 3 trees in order. Then for about 60 seconds the Moon looked as if it were balancing on the very tiptop of the highest Balsam tree. It always reminded me of a grand ornament on the top of a Christmas tree.

Margie and other photo buffs…any thoughts or ideas?

Bill, can you set your camera to shutter or aperture priority? If you can set it to shutter priority and put on a tripod. The moon will be bright so you should not have a long exposure that would show movement.

Bill and everyone,

I have no idea how the chart below will turn out once I send it, but hopefully it will be readable. The moon is very hard to photograph because usually the pictures come out all washed out. You think that since it’s nighttime, there should be a long exposure, but that’s not the case. You will need a digital camera that allows you to set it manually in order to take good pictures. The chart below will give you some settings for the various stages of the moon. A good zoom or telephoto lens is also a must if you don’t want the moon to wind up looking like a dot. The longer the exposure, the more blur you will get because the moon and earth are both moving fast, although it doesn’t seem that way to us. If the chart below doesn’t turn out well when I send this, I’ll post the link to the site where I found it. This is for a regular SLR camera, but it translates the same for a digital camera that you can manually set. I don’t want to include the link here just in case it winds up in the spam filter. Good luck!

Lunar Photography Exposure Guide (at f/16 aperture)
Film Full Moon Gibbous 1st Q Thick Thin
Speed Crescent Crescent Earthshine
25 1/15 1/8 1/4 1/2 1
50 1/30 1/15 1/18 1/4 1/2
100 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4
200 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 40 to 80 sec.
400 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 1/15 20 to 40 sec.
800 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 1/30 10 to 20 sec.
1600 1/1000 1/500 1/250 1/125 1/60 5 to 10 sec.
3200 1/2000 1/1000 1/300 1/250 1/125 2 to 5 sec.

Well, I see that the chart didn’t keep any of the tabs and now looks like a mess. Have fun figuring it all out! The first column down is film speed, then the next one is the exposure for a full moon, then Gibbous, then 1st quarter then thick crescent, thin crescent and finally earth shine (those are the ones in seconds). I’ll send the link separately because this blog doesn’t like me sometimes and it sends my links to the spam filter (or turns my nice charts into a mess!).

I just know the way things are going that this will wind up in the spam filter, but maybe I’ll get lucky. Here’s the link to the photo guide (It’s for SLR cameras but there is still a lot of useful info, especially if you have a digital SLR):

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/howtophoto/

Another thing to keep in mind that pictures of the full moon aren’t the most exciting. The different stages make better pictures but you need a good zoom/telephoto lens for the moon to really show up. Have fun!

Margie

Thanks Margie & Don.

The weather has turned sour here and no hopes of seeing the Moon tonight, but the web link you provided Margie will be quite useful in upcoming Lunar events.

Very peaceful pictures that really inspire serenity….

Brad, I like when you wrote: “It makes you want to enjoy life and cherish each moment you have with your friends and family.”
Such moments are definitely magic!

Madame Moon is quite bright over Manhattan right now…but not that big, I have to admit
not sure why….. (and believe me: she is often spectacular, even around here!!)

Guillaume

Thanks, Bill, and thank you, Janice, for posting these beautiful photos.

George Spink
Los Angeles

Margie and Bill

The single most important “photo trick” one can learn is called hyper focal distance. It can be used with and lens that has a depth of field scale. It gets rather involved but in essence the part anyone can use when shooting a landscape is to put the infinity mark opposite the f stop that your using for the picture. This will increase the foreground focus thru infinity. It’s worth studying and understanding for all picture taking. A good example would be taking pictures on a curve of a racetrack. You have no idea where the car coming around the bend will be. By understanding hyper focal distance one can set focus and f stop so no matter where the car is located it will be in focus.

Hmm, great trick Don. Thanks!