Monday, August 11, 2014


I haven't been shooting much lately (a theme on this blog) but I didn't want to let another full moon pass me by. For anyone interested in photographing a full moon or even just finding a good spot to watch from, there are two indispensable apps that I like to use to figure out just where the moon will be rising and at what time etc. The first one is called the Photographers Ephemeris. It has a desktop version as well as smart phone and tablet apps. I use Macs and iPhones/iPads but I believe that it is also available on Windows/Android. Another similar app which is really a great tool for photographers is called photopills. I won't go into all of the details of these apps but they are extremely handy for determining the points on a map that the sun/moon will rise/set and when. 

I shot this photo along a busy stretch of Route 67 in West Charlton between Amsterdam and Ballston Spa. I didn't want to spend too much time where I was as it was a bit unnerving shooting alongside a highway with tractor trailers going 55+ miles per hour just feet away. As with most of the images I take, I always see things I wish I had done differently after I get the photo onto my computer but there isn't much I can do about that now. Even though I shot this from a tripod, I shot it at ISO 800 because I wasn't confident in the footing of my tripod. I wanted to have a high enough shutter speed to counter any camera shake as a result. While I was happy with the focus of the image, the increased ISO did introduce some noise in the photo, which I removed in Adobe Lightroom. Whenever you remove digital noise, the trade off is a decrease in detail. 

Shot with my D7000 & 70-200 VRII. 

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