Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘moon’

Not-so-full Moon

Posted in Landscape, moon, Photography, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2021| 14 Comments »

Normally I try to photograph the moon when it is full, but early Tuesday morning the skies were so clear when I looked out my front door, that I couldn’t help but grab my camera and step outside to capture this image, one of the few times that I have taken an outdoor shot while wearing slippers.

I posted this image on Facebook and Steve Gingold, a fellow photographer and blogger, noted that, “the full moon is always great but a partial like this offers better detail with the sidelighting and you got some nice detail.”  Thanks, Steve.

Steve is a wonderful nature photographer who lives in New England—be sure to check out his blog at Steve Gingold Nature Photography Photography Blog, where at the moment he is featuring winter images full of snow and ice.

moon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Moonset in Paris

Posted in Architecture, Landscape, Paris, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on November 14, 2019| 10 Comments »

I got up early yesterday morning to try to capture a sunrise here in Paris. The sunrise was pretty much a bust, but on the way to my location, I captured this image of a full moon over some shadowy Parisian roofs.

It is always tricky to take a shot of a full moon—the camera wants to overexpose the moon, leaving a glowing white circle. In order to get the moon looking right. I usually have to underexpose the image by a couple of stops, which leaves the content of the rest of the subject barely visible. I hope that you can just see the curve of the domed roof to the left of the moon and a roof with some chimney pipes just below the moon.

I was hoping to have more time to take additional photos, but as I made adjustments to my camera, the moon disappeared in the clouds and quickly dropped lower on the horizon.

moon in Paris

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Half moon

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on February 27, 2019| 5 Comments »

The moon was especially beautiful early yesterday morning—an almost perfect half moon. I love photographing the moon, no matter what phase it happens to be in,

I zoomed all of the way in with my 150-600mm telephoto lens and was able to capture the first image. I love the way that you can see so many details of the moon. However, the image is lacking a bit in context.

I zoomed out with the same lens and captured the second image. I would have like to have included some wonderful landscape features, but I was shooting in my neighborhood and had to be content with including the tops of some trees. In many ways the second image does a better job than the first in capturing the sense of serenity that I was experiencing at that moment.

half moon

half moon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

Read Full Post »

Starting the day in Vienna

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Travel, tagged , , , , , on December 15, 2017| 4 Comments »

The view from my hotel room in Vienna seems to be mostly of ongoing construction work, but this morning it featured a touch of color as the sun slowly began to rise. A nice highlight was the sliver of a crescent moon still visible in the sky.

Vienna

Vienna

vienna

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Almost super moon

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on November 14, 2016| 11 Comments »

I think that tonight is officially the “super moon,” but the weather forecasters predict that it will be cloudy. Knowing this, I went out last night (and again this morning) to get some shots of the almost super moon.

I learned a couple of things from this experience. First, it’s not too hard to get shots of the moon in the sky. If I am going to be shooting the moon with any regularity, I need to scout out some locations so that I can get shots of the moon rising over the mountains or over the water.

Secondly, I learned that the visible features on the moon change their apparent positions over the course of a single night. If I had had any basic lessons in astronomy, I would probably have known this already, but this revelation came to me when I was comparing the shots that I took last night with those that I took this morning. I took the first shot below at 8:02 pm (20:02 hrs) last night and the second shot at 5:38 this morning. When you compare the photos, you can see that distinctive land features are in different locations.

almost super moon

Moon at 8:02 in the evening of 13 November 2016

Moon 5:38 in the morning of 14 November 2016

Moon at 5:38 in the morning of 14 November 2016

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Full moon over the marsh

Posted in Art, Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on August 2, 2015| 10 Comments »

The full moon was bright and beautiful early yesterday morning, when I arrived at Huntley Meadows Park as the sun was just beginning to rise.

I struggled a little, trying to figure out the best way to capture the moon. Should I show the moon against the black night sky? Should I show merely its reflection? Should I show it as an element of a larger composition?

Here are some of my attempts to show the full moon in the predawn light at my local marsh.

Green Heron

Green Heron in the moonlight

Full moon in the night sky

Full moon in the night sky

reflections of a full moon

Reflections of a full moon

full moon

Moon over the marsh

 

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Impressions of Brussels in June

Posted in Architecture, Landscape, Photography, Travel, Urban, tagged , , , , on June 12, 2014| 13 Comments »

Another short business trip to Brussels is coming to an end. Here are some images of this beautiful city taken during the last few days with my old point-and-shoot Canon A620.

palace_blogchurch_blogmoon_blog

panorama_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Just past full moon

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, spring, tagged , , , , , on April 17, 2014| 6 Comments »

The moon was shining brightly in my neighborhood this morning at 6:00, just a few days after the full moon.

moon_april_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Moon sliver

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2014| 5 Comments »

There is something magical about the moon and I have been seeing it more often this month in the frigid early morning hours, as I let the dog out in the backyard or pick up my newspaper from the front stoop. I took this shot of a sliver of the moon a few days ago, when the moon phase was somewhere between the last quarter and the waning crescent. I know I should use my tripod, but that would mean getting dressed warmly—it’s much too tempting to grab a few quick shots and to rush back into the comfort of the heated house.

moon_sliver_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Moon at sunrise

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , on January 19, 2014| 7 Comments »

The moon looked amazing at 7:00 this morning when I went out to get my newspaper from my front steps. It was still dark and in the opposite direction, the sun was just beginning to rise. I rushed back into the house, put some socks on my sandaled feet, and ran outside with my camera to get some shots.

I used the longest lens that I have, a Sigma 135-400mm lens, and leaned it against the roof of a parked car to stabilize it.  I was surprised at the detail that I managed to capture of the craters near the dark side of the moon. (I think the full moon was a few nights ago.) Click on the photo to see it in higher resolution.

moon_19Jan_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Early morning in Brussels

Posted in Architecture, Landscape, Photography, Travel, Urban, tagged , , , , , , on January 17, 2014| 3 Comments »

The city was mostly deserted when I took a walk through the center of Brussels at 5:00 this morning, my last day in Brussels for this trip.  It was a little eerie to visit some of the major tourist sites in the moonlight and to be mostly alone.

Mountains of bulging trash bags and folded cardboard were piled up outside the businesses as I made my way through the cobblestone streets of the pedestrian area. The buildings of the Grand Place were as beautiful as ever, though I didn’t really care for the series of off-and-on lights that illuminated them (and they made it tough to get a proper exposure). I finished up my early morning stroll with a visit to the Mannekin Pis, the little boy who is one of the symbols of Brussels. Occasionally I have seen him in one of his many costumes, but this morning, he was au naturel.

Despite seeing again some of the famous landmarks, my favorite subject this morning was the moon as it lit up the clouds in the sky. I tried to capture some of the feeling in the first photo, where the moon shows itself in between parts of the roofs in a downtown house.

roofs_blogtowers_blogHall_moon_blogboy_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Brussels moon

Posted in Art, Landscape, Photography, Travel, Urban, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on January 15, 2014| 3 Comments »

It rained most of the day in Brussels, but finally the skies cleared a little in the evening and the moon was visible from time to time, peeking through the clouds. I enjoy walking through this old city at night and observing the interplay of the light and shadows.

It’s a fun challenge to try and capture the effects of light at night with an older point-and-shoot digital camera and I am always looking for solid objects against which to lean to steady myself.

This was my most “artistic” shot of the evening, an attempt to balance the effect of the weak light of the moon with the artificial lights that illuminated this statue.

statue_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

 

Read Full Post »

Daylight moon

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on December 28, 2013| 18 Comments »

I don’t ever go out shooting with the express intent of taking landscape shots, but sometimes when I am looking for wildlife to photograph, the natural beauty of the setting virtually compels me to try to capture it.

That was the case last week, when I was at the location where I had photographed the otter and the fox and happened to glance up into the sky. I was surprised to see how well the colors of the moon, which was pretty prominent for mid-morning, matched the colors of the clouds. It was almost like the moon was a perfectly round cloud.

I didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver in the thick underbrush to help me frame the shot better, so I tried to capture the scene in both portrait and landscape format. I think I like the first image a little better, but decided to include both views.

daylight_moon1_blog

daylight_moon2_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Moon in Vienna

Posted in Architecture, Christmas, Landscape, Portraits, Travel, tagged , , , , on December 10, 2013| 5 Comments »

It finally stopped raining in Vienna and I was able to take a walk through the Christmas market in front of the Rathaus (City Hall). There are rows and rows of stalls set up with all kinds of products and food.

In the midst of all of the artificial lights, I was struck by the beauty of the moon, which kept peeking in and out of the clouds.

moon_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Supermoon June 2013

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Urban, tagged , , , , , on June 23, 2013| 3 Comments »

I didn’t go to a lot of trouble to set up a really cool backdrop, but did manage to get a shot yesterday evening of the supermoon. It was amazing to see how much light it put off and I had no trouble handholding my camera to take a shot, even with my 135-400mm zoom lens. I decided to add a little visual interest to the shot by shooting the moon with the shadowy outline of an electrical tower of some kind in the foreground.

moon1_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

January full moon—another look

Posted in Landscape, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2013| 3 Comments »

This is as close as I can get to showing you what the full moon looked like to me last night, with an orange tinged glow surrounding it. The image includes some tree branches on the right side of the photo in a mostly futile effort effort to frame the moonlit sky.

Last night I posted a photo that showed the moon and the clouds, but I wasn’t satisfied that it represented really well what my eyes had seen. So I went over the images again that I shot and came across this one. It required a bit of tweaking in Photoshop Elements to tone down the really bright light of the moon, but I had managed to capture some of the details of both the moon and the clouds.

I shot quite a few photos as I searched for a combination of f-stop and shutter speed that would capture the moment. This one was shot at f20 with a shutter speed of .8 seconds and was overexposed. Some of the other shots with faster shutter speeds rendered the moon well, but the sky was black and no amount of tweaking could bring out the clouds. Longer exposures, on the other hand, resulted in beautiful clouds, but the moon was a perfect circle that was pure white and, again, I couldn’t tweak the settings to get details.

As I was shooting, the light kept changing as the moon moved in and out of the clouds, which complicated my efforts. Learning from my previous efforts to shoot in the dark, though, I had a small flashlight with me to assist me as I repeatedly changed the settings on my camera.

I’m a little more content with this photo than the other one that I posted of the full moon but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be outside again this evening experimenting further with capturing this tricky subject.

moon2_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

January full moon

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , on January 27, 2013| 4 Comments »

The full moon tonight was so bright that I had trouble getting the right exposure to capture it and also the light reflected on the clouds. I got some nice shots of the clouds, but the moon was a solid white orb and I got nice shots of the moon, but the clouds were invisible. Here is a shot in which both of the elements are visible, although I didn’t catch entirely well the glow surrounding the moon. I’ll have another chance next month.

moon_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Moon in the afternoon

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , on January 21, 2013| 1 Comment »

Yesterday late in the afternoon I noticed that the moon was already visible and ascending. I took a few shots and deliberated underexposed them in order to darken the sky. Sometimes it’s possible to get good shots of the moon without waiting for it to get dark.

moon_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Transformed moonlight

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , on December 31, 2012| 10 Comments »

Do you ever play with the white balance of a photo in post-processing? I never realized before that a simple change to the white balance can fundamentally change the feel of some images.

I am currently using Photoshop Elements and the white balance slider is something that I haven’t experimented with much when processing my RAW images. Normally my camera is set to automatic white balance, so I don’t worry too much about the temperature of the light being wrong. I was thinking a lot about light, however, when looking at an image of reflected moonlight that I shot last week. I shot it at ISO100, f20, and 20 seconds. According to my computer, the image as shot had a color temperature of 3950 Kelvin. Wondering what would happen I changed the temperature to something different, I moved the temperature to the shade setting of 7500 K.

Transformed moonlight

Transformed moonlight

Suddenly my cool, moon-lit scene looks like a warm sunset. To give you an idea of the initial image, I went back to the RAW file and changed the color temperature to its original setting.  The image is not exactly as it came out of the camera, because I made some other changes in Camera RAW, but you can see the big difference.

The second image is closer to what my eye saw, but in many ways I like the transformed image more. My unofficial resolution for the coming year may be to learn more about processing my photos (and there seems to be an awful lot to learn).

Moonlight

Moonlight

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Morning moonlight in the marsh

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on December 28, 2012| 8 Comments »

Last night I saw a beautiful almost-full moon as I was driving home from work, so I got up early this morning with hopes of seeing the moon setting before sunrise.

The moon was bright in the cold pre-dawn sky.  Although it was partially obscured by clouds, the moon illuminated my way along the darkened path to the boardwalk of my local marsh. There were geese sleeping in the fields just off the boardwalk and I attempted to photograph them (I’ll post a photo or two of them later). I tried photographing the moon itself, but the overcast sky prevented me from getting any details of the moon, which looks like a blob of light in all of my photos. I had somewhat greater success in taking photos of the moonlight reflecting off the water. I had my camera on a tripod for extra stability, but focusing in the dark was difficult and I couldn’t see the dials of the camera, so my settings were not always right.

Here is my favorite image that shows a pathway of reflected light from the moon. The subject that I photographed is pretty mundane, but I really like the overall atmosphere of the photo.

Moonlight

Moonlight in the marsh

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

November full moon

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , on November 29, 2012| 13 Comments »

I knew that yesterday was the day of the full moon, so I was disappointed to see that it was already pretty high in the sky when I was driving home from work. I was surprised and pleased this morning as I was taking out the trash to see that the moon was out and was really bright. I rushed into the house, grabbed my camera and tripod and took some initial shots. I must confess that these are the first outdoor shots that I have taken in my slippers. My exposures were not right when I looked at the images on the computer, so I made some adjustments and rushed back outdoors. I blindly set the camera on manual and made some guesses on appropriate settings. I went through that cycle twice more before I got an image that I judged was ok. It’s not perfect (I need to experiment some more on settings), but it looks reasonably close to what my eyes were seeing a few short minutes ago.

Full moon in November

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Moonrise before sunset

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , on November 25, 2012| 6 Comments »

The late afternoon sun was still illuminating the top of trees today in my neighborhood as the moon began to rise. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the full moon will be on Wednesday the 28th of November.  November’s full Moon (also called the Full Frost Moon) traditionally was called the Beaver Moon because it was the time to set beaver traps, before the waters of the swamps froze over.

November moonrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: