Who here is into Photography?

[dkvart1]

Wow, great pics everyone! A year ago I got a Nikon D5000 and lenses for Christmas and finally this fall took a photo class (it had been years and years since high school photo class!).

 

[faykokoWV]

Quote:
I love Babcock state park. I stayed at the cabins and hiked there last fall and had a great time. Those pictures are wonderful

 

[MaggieRae]

There's gonna be a super moon tomorrow night as the moon comes closest to us than it has in the last 20 years or so! Should be 20% bigger and 30% brighter or something like that (don't remember key figures). You know what that sounds like to me?

Photo op.

 

[MaggieRae]

Lies. All lies. I just looked it up.
Correction: 14% bigger, 33% brighter.
Still sounds cool!

 

[dkvart1]

Quote:
Already have my tripod set up and ready to go!

 

[peewee]

dkvart1, love the frog!!

Haven't had much time in the last week or two to get any pics. but I did manage to get these the last couple of days.

I posted this in the quail forum just for some laughs:

 

[dkvart1]

Peewee, you take amazing pictures! I have to admit the frog is one of my favorites, he visits just about every night when it's warm out and we should start seeing him again soon. Unfortunatly he sits right outside out door and I have a minature schnauzer who thinks toads are great... to eat!! I love the quail pic, too funny!

Where are you located? I see little lizards and bugs that wouldn't be out in most places right now. I'm in northern FL and we're just starting to see some bugs and lizards...

 

[MaggieRae]

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/

^ A NASA link for those interested in the super moon.
I went outside to take some pics. They didn't turn out so well, but I'm blaming it on the clouds and miserable tripod (and perhaps my inexperience might have played a itsy bitsy role...

Who am I kidding? I don't know what I'm doing.). My truck worked better as a 'tripod' than the actual tripod did!

And I'm going to use this moment to ask for advice from anyone with experience shooting at night. Does anyone have any hints, tips, or tricks they could share?

 

[dkvart1]

Maggie, your picture turned out great! People tend to lose the details in the moon when shooting it and my first couple of shots last night were just white discs until I got my settings right. Like you I am pretty inexperienced at shooting with a tripod (seems such an ackward device) and taking pics of the moon.

One of the problems is that the brighter the moon is the harder it is to capture the details of it's surface. I did quite a few adjustments, then finally just set my camera to Aperature priority and set the aperature at 5.6 and ISO at 200 (might have even gotten a better shot at ISO 100, but got tired of fiddling around) and managed to get some decent shots (which look just like your moon!)

I have a telescope and contrary to what we might think the best time to view is moon is not when it's full and at it's brightest, which washes out the details. A couple of tricks are to photograph it when it is first ascending or descending when there is still a little light left in the sky. Include some of the earth if possible (I had to wait for it to clear all the buildings around me, so couldn't achieve that last night, but tonight I am heading to the coast to try to get some shots off as it rises over the ocean), use your longest lens, use a low ISO (the moon is actually brighter than some stars! it is after all reflected sunlight that lights it for us.)

And that's about all I know about getting shots of the moon! I too would welcome any other hints or tricks for getting good pictures. Again, I think your shot turned out wonderful!

 

[Kassaundra]

I agree w/ everything dkvart said, and would add, a good photo editor is your friend after the shot w/ adjusting and refining the light exposure. Definately do it on the front end when taking the pic, but refine and fine tune w/ the editor.

Here is one my husband took, but not last night we were clouded in.