Eclipse of the Eclipse

Gallery: LandscapePosted March 27, 2013294 views3 comments

This is by far the rarest photo I have taken or possibly will ever take in my life. It is a near Lunar Eclipse shining through a crack in a rock out in the Olympic National Park.

I had a general idea based off my Ephemeris predictions that with some luck, I would be catching the setting moon through this rock. Luckily the tide and weather could not have been more perfect, especially considering it was in December.

Considering all the planning and effort I put into this shot, it is funny that I actually had no clue it was going to be a lunar eclipse around the same time. The Earth created a really intense orange glow around the moon and was enhanced further by the low angle in the horizon. One of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed!

Sorry if I am posting too many photos this week. I'll be doing photo work down in Oregon for several weeks soon, so you guys will get a break.

Thanks for looking!
Johan

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on March 28, 2013 at 3:10 PM

I'm surprised this doesn't have any comments on it. I suppose people are just looking at the thumbnail and not opening it up to see the stars. The stars make this shot, but they are not apparent in the small thumb. My only nit would be how the eclipse looks almost like a blob with a few points flowing outward. You probably could have shot this at a very small aperture to get nice pinpoints on the eclipse. And then take another shot just for the stars and blended them together. Either way, this is pretty neat.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on March 28, 2013 at 3:23 PM

It's visually quite interesting and your explanation helps me make sense of what I'm seeing. Compositionally it works well and I like the stars and the soft light on the sand. On the other hand, the moon shining through the rock overpowers the rest of the scene and there's almost too much going on here visually for me in all candor.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Johan Eickmeyer on March 28, 2013 at 4:05 PM

It's hard to get a good star flare from the moon, when it moves so far during long exposures. The smallest aperture I could get to was 5.6 without the movement making more of a blurb than star. I had to move the tripod every shot in front of the light beam and wait for the light to hit the lens and then open the shutter.

This is by far one of my least popular photos. It has more personal value to me than anything, because of the rarity of such a shot and the luck that I was able to get anything close to a decent star and composition. If it wasn't for that, it would have quickly gone into the trash bin. I only keep roughly 1 out of every 900 landscape shots I ever take.

The strange thing, is that when viewed small on the web, the moon is a little strong, but when printed large or viewed on my 40 inch monitor, the rest of the scene stands out more. I am often disappointed after uploading shots to the web, because I process mine for being viewed large. Web shots need a much different processing and composition to look more interesting.

Registered on March 25, 2013, 36 Posts, 164 Comments