Last of 2009

I was out at Stockdale Park on Tuttle Creek Lake to catch the last sunset of 2009. Turned out it was a good one (aren't they all?). I set up on a boat ramp to shoot the sun as it was dipping down below the far hills. It was really quiet that evening and I could hear the ice on the lake making all sorts of eerie noises.

After shooting the sunset, I drove farther down the cove where it opened out onto the lake to wait for the moon rise. This happened to be a "blue moon" which despite the name isn't blue. A blue moon occurs when you get 2 full moons in one month, which on average occurs every 2.5 years. The next time a blue moon will occur on Dec 31st will be 2028. Maybe if I'm still around I'll come back to this spot and try to photograph it again!

The moon photo shown in this post is from a sequence of shots showing the moon rising above the hills. These were taken over a 4 min span.

I also got to see a couple of foxes crossing the frozen lake and one of them came right up to my vehicle. One the way that evening I saw several deer and some quail. I'll take that over Times Square any day!

More photos from this evening are at the link below:

Last Sunset and Blue Moon, 2009, Stockdale Park, Kansas.

Halloween Moonrise

With the almost full moon rising on Halloween night I thought it would make a great photo for the holiday. I've always enjoyed photographing the moonrise (see my previous post about how I got hooked on the moonrise here). Normally, 1-2 days before the actual full moon the light is right so that you can expose both the foreground and the moon with one shot...this can be tricky to do without blowing out (over exposing) the moon unless the light is just right.

On this particular evening I was trying to think of what scene would be interesting to photograph with the moon included. I happened to remember these trees in the water at Stockdale Park on Tuttle Creek Lake. A friend had recently told me about the software program, The Photographers Ephemeris which will tell you the location of sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset, which I used to determine that the moon would rise behind these trees (I recommend checking out this software). It was also a clear evening as well...perfect for getting some good shots of the moon.

The light was fantastic when I first arrived at Stockdale and I was able to shoot the moon and the trees in the foreground still lit by the setting sun. As the sun went down, the sky picked up more color...it was a fantastic show of color. I couldn't have asked for a better Halloween treat!

I was very pleased with the photographs for a number of reasons, but for me, this was one of the first times I was able to "pre-visualize" the scene I wanted to photograph and then go out and make it happen. Sometimes trying to pre-visualize a scene gets in my way of finding a shot, but in this case it worked out well. You can view my photos from the evening by clicking the link below:

Halloween Moonrise, Stockdale Park, Tuttle Creek Lake, Kansas

Solstice Sunset....almost

I went out recently to get a picture of the sunset on the winter solstice, I thought that would be kinda cool. Fortunately there was a good sunset that evening, the only problem was that I went out a day early! A few pics from that evening can be viewed here.

Enjoy!