“Big Moon”
Click here for a larger view Photo and narrative by Rick Ellis.
On the evening of January 29, 2010 the Moon was full. It was also at the closest point to the Earth in its orbit. Astronomers call it Perigee. This celestial geometry offered a larger, brighter full Moon than normal.
Using a concrete bridge as a tripod and two coins to obtain the correct angle I managed to get this image of the phenomenon as it appeared above the rooftops on that very cold evening. Even at ISO 80 the surface features are washed out and it resembles more a filtered Sun than rising full Moon.
We didn’t get to see that big bright moon here in Washington… we were buried under our typical winter blanket of heavy overcast. Looks like you got a good view, though!
Moon shots are hard to get with any features. A full moon will generally require a shutter speed of 1/200 or more at f/8 to show much detail; otherwise, it tends to look like a big ol’ light bulb up there. Of course, if you expose for detail on the lunar surface, everything else in the image is just black shadows…
Nice job Mr. Ellis. Like Mr. Rockwell, I missed this amazing moon due to cloud cover. You sure have captured winner here.
I like this image a lot Rick. The sihouette of the tree top is very nice indeed with the blazing moon shining through.
Marvelous.
And I missed the moon shot because hubby and kids all had my SD cards. It was a great excuse to buy another.
Thanks for the tips, Mr Rockwell. I’ve added them to my ‘Take Better Photos” file.
This photo is simply striking Mr. Ellis. What an outstanding job you did on an extremely difficult exposure. This is a real wall-hanger.
Striking shot!!!
I too really like this shot. In fact, I’d love to have a print of it hanging on my office wall.