Night Photography

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How to Photograph a Lunar Eclipse

Took the big lens out last night and shot the moon! It's a film lens, not a digital one, so there's a little chromatic aberration going on. But you gotta love a 2000mm lens. The red is real, the reason to try to photograph a lunar eclipse is the color and the darkness of the moon.

How to Photograph the Moon

You need a big lens, the bigger, the better. Except during a lunar eclipse, the moon is really bright. Mixing it with other elements like the skyline is difficult. You either take two pictures to expose the moon and the earth-bound objects separately or let the moon burn out, like I did with this picture of the full moon over Minneapolis. To get the exposure right for the moon, check out this chart I found or just wing it and look at the LCD. The moon isn't going anywhere, so experimenting isn't difficult. If your camera has a histogram, make sure you use it with night photography, it's easy to underexpose the image since the LCD looks brighter to your dilated pupils at night. Make sure you chose a clear night, in February in Minneapolis it gets pretty cold at night. Last night it was below zero and the nice thing about that is that it's too cold for clouds to form, so it's pretty clear (snow pants rock). Back to the list: big lens, a good tripod, cable release or camera on timer mode and flashlight (cell phone works as a light too, a pretty good one in fact). The moon is on the move, so keep the shutter time down. That's not an issue with the moon normally, but it is with an eclipse. This one is at f8 (crappy lens) and 4 seconds. You can see the moon is blurred slightly in today's picture because it moved noticeably in those 4 seconds.

6

Last Luminary

The last luminary from the City of Lakes Loppet both literally and figuratively. This was my favorite shot from that night; it was on the wall as we were climbing out of the lagoon. Worked out real well too, since my camera battery gave it's last for this shot before it froze up. Yes Virginia, camera batteries will freeze.

5

Skating Rink Star

What could be more romantic than an evening on the Lake of the Isles skating rink? How about a star? Many of you have asked about the star effect that I have in a few of my shots and frankly, I wasn't sure how I was getting it. After a little experimenting I have the answer.

Star Effect

You could use a star filter, but then you would have to carry it with you. This image was created without one. How? Crank down the aperture (bigger number, it's an inverse ratio, i.e. 1/22). When the aperture opening is very small, the points where the blades intersect become more pronounced and this causes the star effect. By the way, you can find out how many blades are on the aperture by counting the points on the star. Arcane knowledge for sure, but each lens may be different and it's fun to know. This shot was taken with my Nikon 70-300mm at f/32. This is possible at night with a good stable tripod — you'll have a longer exposure. Also, note that you need a point of bright light, not an illuminated surface for this to work. Once you are set up, put your camera on aperture priority and try different settings to see how big of a star you can get. I shot this in manual mode so that I could set the shutter speed as well to determine the exposure. Another problem with night photography is that your LCD is relatively bright, so you may accidentally underexpose your images because they seem bright on the LCD to you (and your highly dilated eyes) at night. Check you histogram after each shot and make sure that the exposure is right. If you get a chance to try this and like the result, please leave a comment with a link to your picture, I'd love to see it and share it with my readers.

5

Minneapolis at Night II

The successor to Saturday.

6

Luminaries Under the Bridge

Recoiling from the shock of pure daylight, we return to the safety of the night. Here are a few more of the luminaries (look to previous posts to see what I'm talking about). I really enjoy this image, it has a real Gothic feel to it.

8

Up Close and Luminary

Here is a close-up of one of the luminaries from the City of Lakes Loppet that I've been talking about.

1

City of Lakes Loppet & Independence

Back on the ice. Here is the illuminated pyramid from the Caribou Coffee City of Lakes Illuminated Loppet. You can see the pyramid from above in yesterday's post and here it is from ground-level. The pyramid has 200 'luminaries' alone. There are 400 of them forming a path on Lake of the Isles. I got to learn more about this project when Hal Galvin called yesterday. Hal and David Bryan are responsible for the light show; you can read more about them in this WCCO interview. He called me hoping to see some more of my pictures of the lights, so hopefully I'll get to meet him later on this week. The lights are blocks of ice made in buckets with candles in them. I'm curious about the whole process and look forward to talking with him more. I'll let you know what I learn.

Super Bowl Declaration of Independence

I don't know if you saw this during the Super Bowl, but they produced this dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the time. I'm often troubled by the US citizenry's lack of knowledge of the constitution and history. Like 'School House Rock', this production makes the Declaration of Independence tolerable to the less interested. If a few people are inspired to learn more about the Declaration of Independence, great; if some go on to read the first draft and see what was cut out for political expediency even better.I was reading the comments on the YouTube page for this video and ran into a discussion of the first draft. I had not read this before; someone pointed out a section that had been removed. Many people take issue, and rightly so, with the line "all men are created equal" when the constitution (adopted 11 years later) allowed for slavery. There was a section removed from the declaration that addressed slavery and starts:"He [King George of England] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither...."Slavery was here when the country was created. I wish we had resolved that problem in 1787. But we didn't and have suffered ever since.I'm glad they created the video and I hope that a few other people have thought about it and maybe, just maybe, some conversations have come from it. Today is Super Tuesday and the horse race is in full swing. Sometimes politics is a dangerous topic, but talking with those around you about the original intent of the Great American Experiment is a good idea; who knows, you might learn something.

9

City of Lakes Loppet

This weekend was the City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis on Lake of the Isles. I live in Uptown and the races went right by my home, up the boulevard by the Greenway. My friends Bob, Rob and Matt came by and we spent Saturday evening photographing the event and the area. They have posted their pics too, so check them out. Caribou Coffee sponsors a Luminary Loppet on Saturday evening; they put 700 ice luminaries around the lake. It's really impressive and we had fun photographing them. I'll be posting some of my pics this week. I wanted to start with this view from the bridge to give you an idea as to what the area looks like — an establishing shot. Monday is in full swing here at MRDI, so I have to run, but there will be more as the week progresses.

1

Evening Hockey Game

Wandering in from the shadows, the local hockey players gather in the light.