This past Sunday, September 28th marked the rare astronomical event of a total lunar eclipse with a super moon creating the appearance of an abnormally large, or swollen moon covered in a copper red light. The Province newspaper reported “this combination has not happened since 1982 and will not occur again until 2033.” What a historical photographic opportunity this will present to everyone in class.
On Saturday night I decided to head out and take photos of the moon, as a trial run for Sunday. I wanted to experiment with aperture values, shutter speeds, ISO values and positioning of the tri-pod. After honing in on the ideal camera settings, I was able to photograph the moon and refine the f-stop value and shutter speeds to further enhance the image. The result was a crisp shot of the moon, where I was able to distinguish its colorings and identify some of its craters. I continued taking several shots before I decided to vary the composition and included nearby tree branches to slightly eclipse the moon, in a way foreshadowing the lunar event to unfold Sunday night.
On Saturday night I decided to head out and take photos of the moon, as a trial run for Sunday. I wanted to experiment with aperture values, shutter speeds, ISO values and positioning of the tri-pod. After honing in on the ideal camera settings, I was able to photograph the moon and refine the f-stop value and shutter speeds to further enhance the image. The result was a crisp shot of the moon, where I was able to distinguish its colorings and identify some of its craters. I continued taking several shots before I decided to vary the composition and included nearby tree branches to slightly eclipse the moon, in a way foreshadowing the lunar event to unfold Sunday night.
On Sunday night, I headed out excited at the opportunity to photograph this historical event, knowing that the next time I would see this I would be 34 years old! After refining my shutter speed and aperture, with knowledge of approximate settings from the previous night I switched to manual focus for more control. I was so excited just at the prospect of shooting the moon, that when I saw the results I was even more elated. You can see my photographs from Sunday night below. In my photographs, I aimed to zoom in as far as I could with my 400mm lens to capture a close in shot of the moon. I also found that 400 ISO worked best with night photography, as well as a high f-stop value and ¼ shutter speed. I tried to vary the composition by placing the moon in the center, as well having it as an asymmetrical shot (taking into account the law of thirds). After reviewing my shots, I preferred the asymmetrical shots, finding they led your eyes more readily into the photo and were hopefully more compositionally appealing to the viewer.
I found shooting on Sunday night to be more challenging than Saturday night. There was highly diffuse light, coming up from the city, immediately below where the moon was positioned tonight. It was notably easier last night to capture images of the moon with the absence of tonight’s varying shades of red.
I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of history this weekend. I felt inspired and connected to the universe being able to capture images of something more than 350,000 km away. After Sunday’s event, I wish to continue lunar photography and further explore and experiment with my SLR with night photography shoots!
I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of history this weekend. I felt inspired and connected to the universe being able to capture images of something more than 350,000 km away. After Sunday’s event, I wish to continue lunar photography and further explore and experiment with my SLR with night photography shoots!
Here's a few shots of me with my tripod!