Back in June, I wrote about how a moonrise photo expedition had gone wrong. I had miscalculated both the time and the location of the moonrise and had to settle for a couple of quickly composed frames without the foreground I was looking for. Ah, well.Last night was the arrival of the harvest moon. A check on a weather Web site showed that the moonrise and sunset would occur within 17 minutes of each other, giving enough light to catch foreground details while providing for an exposure time that would not overexpose the moon.
Having been to the beach at Evanston, Illinois the week before, I wanted to return to a relic pier that stretched into Lake Michigan, and having been there at sunrise, I had a good idea of where the moon would make its appearance.
I set up my camera on a tripod on the rocky beach, framed the pilings and waited for the star of the picture to arrive. And arrive it did- on time and in position. All I had to do was not mess it up inside the camera.
Moonrise over Lake Michigan at Evanston, Illinois. 135mm prime lens, circular polarizer and 2-stop graduated neutral density filter, 30 seconds at f16, 100 ISO film. Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2006 James Jordan.
It’s the cows: A news website in 
ompany a story on a milk producer that distributed milk tainted with bacteria. I post photos at Flickr with a Creative Commons license that allows reproduction with attribution. I guess
16 comments:
Awesome image. I've been under the moon myself the past couple of nights. Too much fun.
wow! amazing.
Great, just really great, I liked the first shot and now this one is just spectacular.
Fantastic picture, and to capture the mists and the moon.
James, I'm addicted to your photography. Seriously, I love the fact that you post regularly and that you talk about the process. I noticed the moon early Friday morning as it was setting. Your photo is awesome.
Just brilliant (and the other photos as well) Makes me want to rush outside with my camera!
all, thank you for the kind comments. I view photography as a process that is more than just the image on a page or screen. So I try to include as much information about what informs my photo work as I can. Glad you all are appreciating it (I threw in a "you all" for Shiela). :-)
Oh, and one other thing about the mistyness of the water in this photo - the waves were about a foot high all evening and some of them were breaking over the tops of some of the pilings. The long exposure time in this photo renders the moving waters as a misty whiteness. I love the effect.
Your images are amazing.
Great colors. The mist creates a fantastic image. Nick
Great image - I'm amazed you could 1/30th of a sec without getting a blurred moon.
Again, great shot
hillary, your friend does have some great images. Very nice.
asmundr and nick, thanks!
john, I had read beforehand that 20 seconds was the limit for keeping the moon sharp in a long exposure. I pushed it to 30 seconds because I wanted to blur the waves as much as I could. Had I used a longer lens, the moon would have been visibly blurred - as it is if you look at the enlarged image, you can detect some movement in the moon. It was a fun experiment and I'm glad it turned out as well as it did.
Fantastic image!
You would probably love my friend Brian's galleries - he does a lot with long exposures over water. There's a link on my sidebar if you're interested.
I've learned a lot about photography from both your site and his. Thank you for sharing your talent and your thoughts around each photograph. It is always a pleasure to see and to read!
That is amazing. I have the hardest time catching a moonrise when it's light enough to get the foreground like that.
This time you were ready!
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