Tag: Nikon 24-120mm f4.0 ED VR

Moon & Mars

Last night we went out and looked at the moon. Just past full, with Mars at 11:00. Josh had tried to take pictures of it with his phone, but to no avail. This was the perfect opportunity to check out the gear head!

The Nikon Df and Nikon 24-120mm f/4 lens were mounted, in both landscape and portrait mode. The tripod and camera were rock solid and the gear head did a fine job. We had to dig out a flashlight to see the camera settings and goof around a lot. It would have been nice to have a more clear image with details of the seas of the moon, but that didn’t happen.

Exposure was a bit of a trick – how long? Initially the camera was on aperture priority, but that wouldn’t have been for the best. Autofocus was really confused, too. In the end, all was set to manual, and exposures were done at 6, 8, and 10 seconds were attempted using the B mode, counting off. The exposure for this image was 6.9 sec per the EXIF data.

I think I need to do a bit of reading about shooting the moon, and try again tonight!

Fiery Sunrise

This Labor Day weekend has been hotter than hell, setting records for heat (121 F in Los Angeles), and creating havoc. Fires are everywhere in California. So far we have been spared – but the smoke is filling the sky from fires hundreds of miles away, and ash is falling. The sunrises are beautiful because of it, but breathing it is not so beautiful! This morning, the sky was murky with a few clouds. Through it all came a fiery red sun.

I was a bit torn about editing this photo as I did – the sky is more lavender here than in reality. However, I am of the thought that the unreal quality I saw this morning is better expressed in unreal colors . . .