The most common definition of a “blue moon” is the second full moon within one month. But it originally referred to the fourth full moon in a season – and even that is fairly recent. This is according to an article I read on space.com.
This will be the last “blue moon” until 2015 so I wanted to be sure to capture it. The actual full moon was at 6:58 a.m. this morning Pacific Time. So I got up early thinking I could photograph the moon setting. The skies were clear except for a layer of smoke hovering over the horizon which all but obliterated the moon. I could see a very faint outline of the moon and tried to capture it. A little work in Photoshop helped to bring it out a bit.
But as I was driving to work, the sun was coming up as the biggest, reddest ball of fire I have ever seen. I pulled over as soon as I could find a safe place to park without impeding traffic to photograph it. The photos certainly do not do justice to the size and color. When I metered on the sun, everything else was black. When I used matrix metering, the sun got washed out. So you have to trust me when I tell you it was red, red, red!!!
Tonight I wanted to capture the moon rising. Again, we had that layer of smoke on the horizon so I couldn’t actually see the moon until it had risen a fair amount above the horizon. It was still a gorgeous moonrise.
So, until 2015. . .
Maralee
Through My Lens 
Any ideas as to how to get the face of the moon clear while at the same time getting the clouds around it? When I open my aperture for the clouds, the moon is too bright. When I close my aperture more to accommodate the moon’s light, I lose the clouds. We had an awesome moonrise tongiht.
The best way to attempt this is not when the sun is down but when there is still some light in the sky. Otherwise your dynamic range is too great and you just have to make some choices. Also, you could try bracketing and merging as an HDR shot.
Thanks. The clouds when it was higher up were so awesome. Maybe I could try layering with Gimp, too.
Carissa’s advice is good. It is hard to get the dynamic range when there is bright and dark. When I have that situation, I use HDR. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t come out so well. When I want to get just the definition in the moon, I spot meter the moon, use the longest lens I have (300mm), put the camera on the tripod, and shoot. Then I crop it.
I have not tried HDR. I will have to read more up on it.
I use Photomatix. They have a free 30 day trial download if you want to check it out.
http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html
Thank you!
Captured in all its beauty by Maralee, how well you do this… thank you…
Thank you, Rob.
I saw it, but didn’t realize what I was seeing. Thanks for telling me. We also saw the silhouette of our owl last night. We hear him every night, but rarely see him.
I’m envious of you seeing the owl. That’s one of the birds I want to photograph in the wild. We have them here at the High Desert Museum – they are rescued birds. But I’d love to be able to photograph one in its natural habitat.
Beautiful shots, Maralee. We had a fiery sunrise a few mornings ago. I took some shots but never did post them. My photos just couldn’t seem to capture what I was seeing.
Thanks, Carissa. This didn’t really show the beauty of the sunrise. It was such a beautiful red glow.
The Sun, and the Moon, both at their stunning best… Love it. I tried, once again to take pics of the unbelievable full moon, but once again, they failed. Loved the light of the moon though! 🙂
Sunrises and sunsets are some of my favorite subjects. And the moon has always fascinated me. I’d love to learn how to connect my camera to a telescope to take some photos. I know it can be done – I just don’t know how.
WOW! I wished to take pictures like them… Thank you dear Maralee, love, nia
Beautiful, I missed the full moon, it doesn’t rise above the tree tops until so very late (or perhaps early) and then it is a disappointment. It’s best to leave that to you pros!! 😉
You really nailed it. Beautiful.
Maralee – now you got the moon where you wanted it … I love when there is trees and clouds in the shot with the moon, it makes it more mysterious – that behind the tree branches is my pick – even if the top one is fantastic .. can nearly see Armstrong opening his Carlsberg .. up there.