The Moon Also Rises…
October 25, 2007 - A full moon rises along the edge of Diamond Head crater shot through a telephoto lens. This Hunter’s Moon (the name for the moon after September’s Harvest Moon) is the closest it will get in 2007, about 30,000 miles closer than April’s moon, which was the farthest from Earth. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 600mm f4 (with 1.4X converter — 840mm), Manual, 1/2700 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1200, Daylight balance
There was some hype about this month’s full moon being huge and spectacular, so I decided I’d go out and try and get a moonrise photo.
I told the city desk about my scheme, and they seemed to like it, although one guy said, “Sounds good, as long as the clouds disappear.”
Thanks. Good ol’ dramatic foreshadowing.
My plan was to go up to that little park on the hill in Kaimuki above the fire station, and shoot the moon coming up over Waialae Iki ridge. The potential for drama was good — a big moon, plus the Moon Illusion effect, plus the use of a big telephoto lens.
I got up there with the 600mm and the shot looked good. Except for the clouds. Lots of them. Thick and puffy, hanging low over the hills.
I was feeling a little queasy at this point, but there were some clear sections, and I gambled that the moon would rise in one of those pockets of clarity and the day would be saved.
No such luck. I caught a sliver of the moon, rising above the ridge. It looked great. Too bad there was nothing to shoot.
Okay, stay calm. Time for Plan X.
Which I didn’t have.
So I reasoned that the clouds were kind of low, so once they cleared the clouds I’d be okay. But I needed some object on the foreground. I thought about buildings in downtown or something, but given the time constraints I had, I settled on Diamond Head.
I jumped back in the car and ripped down to Kapiolani Park. I didn’t have much time before the moon got to the point that it would be too high for even Diamond Head.
After dodging a virtual marathon of joggers running all over the place, I parked and ran to a place between some trees where I had a good view of where the moon would rise. Or I thought it would. Of course it started rising nowhere near where I thought it would, so I had to go running to another place to line things up.
The moon is surprisingly bright, and I could shoot at high shutter speeds, which was good since I didn’t have a tripod (I was using a monopod with the Image Stabilizer activated).
After taking a slew of photos, I called it a night and went back to the newsroom to hand over the goods.
Not quite what I had in mind, but there’s always next time…
October 26th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I was walking in Waikiki yesterday and noticed that the moon was so bright. Nice shot!
October 27th, 2007 at 6:34 am
Iso of 1200 not necessary. You will get better quality with an iso of less than 400. Shutter speed can also be reduced as the moon does not move that quickly. Otherwise nice shot.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Thanks for another interesting and informative installment, Richard. I’m learning a lot from you.
Do you have regular hours at the paper? Are you on-call 24 hours a day for breaking news? If so, does that mean that, like an on-call doctor, you have to abstain from, ahem, adult beverages, etc.?
Also, I’m surprised you didn’t take a tripod to this shoot. Why not?
Sorry for all the questions, but, I’m a freelance magazine writer who often shoots photos to accompany my articles, so I’m very interested in how you do your work.
Thanks again.
Best,
Bill
October 27th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Absolutely true. My reasoning was that I was shooting with an effective focal length of 840mm on a monopod, so I wanted no camera shake. In retrospect, I could have lowered the ISO and ultimately the shutter speed, since I had the IS activated, but I opted for the safety net of a much higher (and probably unnecessary) shutter speed.
Thanks for reading!
October 27th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for reading, Bill.
We all have set schedules here at the paper. For the most part I start in the afternoon and work until about 10. We’re not really on call, but there are times (like the big earthquake last year) when we’ll be called in early. Thankfully, I don’t need to abstain from the “adult beverages.”
As for the tripod, well, I didn’t have one with me, so I did what I could with what I have. I rarely, if ever, use a tripod, so I never have one around with me.
Keep the questions coming!
October 31st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Great picture! What time did you take that shot?
October 31st, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Thanks.
I took it around 6:40 or so.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Cool shot. I’ve got a widget on my computer that shows the azimuth of the sun, but this made me wonder if there were a calculator for the rising and setting moon azimuth. Found one, and thought I’d pass it along. Never know when this might come in handy. I haven’t tested it out yet, but if you do, remember to correct for magnetic declination (if you’re using a magnetic compass) — we’re around 10 degrees easterly.
Moon rise/set azimuth for Honolulu:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=103&month=10&year=2007&obj=moon&afl=-12&day=1
Cheers,
Doug
November 1st, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Cool, thanks for the link, Doug!
November 1st, 2007 at 9:21 pm
When are you gonna upgrade to the 1Ds =) Nice photos, stumbled upon your blog and I think I’m gonna have to subscribe to your feed!
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I’ve been trying to get a good shot of the moon rising behind the Mokuluas in Lanikai. I didn’t realize that it rises in a different spot every night! The moon azimuth info will help greatly in planning.
Mahalo!