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[OM] Supermoon Superphotographer

Subject: [OM] Supermoon Superphotographer
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 14:25:37 -0500
I had some success Saturday evening. The shot I've been trying for
years to get remains unshot. There were low clouds to the east and to
the west. The sun disappeared about 10 minutes before sunset, so I
lost the direct sunlight on my subject (a wind turbine). Also, for my
desired shot, I had to be miles away from it. The moon didn't start
coming through the clouds until about 25 minutes after moonrise.

I will be doing an extensive write-up about this on www.zone-10.com,
but in a nutshell here is what happened:

1. I used TPE to plot out my time and location for the intercept point
for the moonrise. Based on the plot lines, I figured out seven
possible locations.

2. As evening approached, we drove to the farthest desired spot and
found that the terrain (rolling hills of Iowa) proved to be quite the
problem. Backing up to the south east, I found that almost all of the
shooting locations were not going to work. Finally, I found one, but
had to drive up to a farmhouse on the top of a hill. No answer when I
knocked on the door, but figured I'll take my liberties anyway, and
talk myself out of the business end of a shotgun. No shotgun appeared,
but neither did the moon.

3. As the moon rose above my subject and was still hidden, there was
no reason to stay there. So, the idea then is to pursue alternative
compositions. As the moon is rising, you need to get closer to the
subject. So, off we go to the other crossings as defined by TPE,
taking into account that as the moon is rising, I'm having to move a
little more to the east.

4. Finally, we end up at the closest interesection to the wind
turbine. We set there for a few minutes and the moon finally starts to
shine through the clouds. I grab the camera/tripod and head on off
down the road getting a composition.

5. While I'm trotting down the road, the sherriff stops to check on my
wife, who is sitting in the car, but I had accidently parked next to
the stopsign of some remote country road. Go figure. Anyway, while she
is dealing with him, I'm photographing the moon.

6. As the moon was rising, I had to keep moving quickly to the east
along the road. I'd take a couple shots and then relocate about fifty
feet, shoot a couple and relocate... I did this until the moon cleared
the tower. Show over.

End result? I got two pictures that are quite satisfactory, and a
couple hundred duds. That's the nature of photographing things that
move in very bad light. A few of you who are FB friends have already
seen tiny versions of these pictures.

The moral of the story is to always have a primary location and a set
of backup locations to shoot from. If you are photographing a subject
with the moonrise coming up behind it, start out at your farthest
point and work closer.

SWMBO wasn't too pleased about the police episode.

AG
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