moon Archives - Page 6 of 6 - Craig Rogers Photography

Waning Gibbous at 93% Visibility

30th September 20159th October 2017Craig Rogers

As some may know, I have a fascination of the night sky so you can imagine how gutted I was getting up at 3:30am a few nights back to have quite thick fog obstructing the Super Blood Moon Eclipse. Luckily, I could see the red Moon through the fog quite clearly, however, it wasn’t worth pointing the camera at as it couldn’t pick any detail out.

So tonight with the sky totally clear, I thought I’d try out the Nikon TC-20e III 2x Teleconverter on my Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR II. This Teleconverter takes the lens to a 600mm. Teleconverters are known to loose detail, however, the Nikon ones are known to work very well with the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 lenses and this shot clearly shows that there is still a high amount of quality detail hitting the camera sensor.

This has been cropped in quite tight too. I think the combination of D810, 300mm f/2.8 VR II and TC-20e III is a winner, certainly when it comes to a very bright object like the Moon.

Anyone else think it looks a bit Egg shaped tonight?

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}

Waning Gibbous (93%) — Egg Moon – D810, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 with TC-20e III @ 500mm, f/11, ISO64, 1/50sec – {Flickr Link}

Last night’s “Blue Moon”

1st August 20159th October 2017Craig Rogers

There was a lot of mention of the “Blue Moon” and I think a lot of people were expecting something special…… However, a Blue Moon is simply the 2nd Full Moon in one calendar month, which is quite rare, hence the term “Once in a Blue Moon”.

I didn’t want to get the usual close up shot but wanted to frame it with something else. Using Sundroid (Android App for tracking the Moon and Sun) I worked out it would be rising from behind a ridge in the distance. For those that know, the Church is in Hanbury, Staffordshire.

Using my 80-400mm at 250mm, the shot was framed quite nice. However, I had to take 2 shots in succession of the same scene with different exposures. One to capture the landscape (with a slow shutter) and one to capture the detail in the Moon (faster shutter), then these 2 images have been merged in Photoshop.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}

Blue Moon Rising - D7100, AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 250mm - {Flickr Link}

Blackbird against a White Moon

30th April 201510th October 2017Craig Rogers

The Moon was great at Sunset tonight and I was trying to use the last of the light before it went behind some clouds to photograph the House Martins and Swallows that have arrived for the summer.

I noticed a Blackbird sitting on the electricity cable singing away and a couple of steps sideways put the awesome moon this evening right behind him.

The final photo is made from 2 photos taken from the same place, but with different apertures to ensure both the Blackbird and Moon were in focus, they were then merged together in Photoshop. This is where Photoshop is not cheating, it simply gives you the tool to create what the camera cannot capture which is the same view your eyes are seeing. I couldn’t decide if I like the Landscape or Portrait crop, so have included both.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}

Blackbird Singing - D7100, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 - {Flickr Link}

Edited photos from today’s Solar Eclipse

20th March 201510th October 2017Craig Rogers

I can’t believe how lucky we were in the Midlands this morning with the clear skies. Only right at the end did the clouds obscure the sun/moon combo which is why I’ve not got a 6th photo. You’ll notice that some of the shots are right down at f/40, never thought I’d be shooting that stopped down, but it seemed to work just fine. If you look at the first photo closely, you can see some dark Sun Spots.

This is one great thing with the Nikon D7100, it shoots at a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000sec which certainly helped today.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}

Partial Eclipse. D7100, AF-S 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 400mm, f/40, ISO100, 1/8000, ND8 and Circ Pol filters - {Flickr Link}