Moonset @ Horsetooth Reservoir

[OdiN]

Went out this morning early to grab the moon setting behind Horsetooth Rock. Here are two really quick edits. Didn't spend much time on these yet. Might go out again tomorrow.

The first one is a composite of two images to get the profile of the rock and the moon in the same shot. The second is a single image from when the moon was no longer visible - converted to B&W and duotoned it.

Moon Shoot 1
Moon Shoot 2

 

[soydios]

nice shots. I like the foreground profile for perspective. lack of colors is spooky, which is a good thing in this instance, IMO.

I'm gonna try for a shot of the lunar eclipse tomorrow night. I'll be using the college newspaper's AF-S 400mm f/2.8 with 2x TC on my D50, for an equivalent focal length of 1200mm. pics will follow if I'm successful.

 

[OdiN]

I wish I had a 400mm lens available to me.

 

[pennylane]

That's really cool. I stumbled upon a similar situation (moon rising over a mountain) a couple months ago by accident, and I wasn't ready for it. Maybe I'll give it another look.

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: OdiN
I wish I had a 400mm lens available to me.

I wish it was mine.

400mm is an extremely long focal length, and even more so on a cropped-frame body. the focal length is just not even usable except in very unique circumstances, like shooting the moon or a football/soccer/lacrosse/baseball game.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: OdiN
I wish I had a 400mm lens available to me.

I wish it was mine.

400mm is an extremely long focal length, and even more so on a cropped-frame body. the focal length is just not even usable except in very unique circumstances, like shooting the moon or a football/soccer/lacrosse/baseball game.

Very good for wildlife as well.

I'd prefer a good 600mm for that. But I don't really od wildlife.

 

[Jawo]

Don't forget tomorrow night is the last full eclipse in the US until 2010!

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: OdiN
I wish I had a 400mm lens available to me.

I wish it was mine.

400mm is an extremely long focal length, and even more so on a cropped-frame body. the focal length is just not even usable except in very unique circumstances, like shooting the moon or a football/soccer/lacrosse/baseball game.

Very good for wildlife as well.

I'd prefer a good 600mm for that. But I don't really od wildlife.

I think there's a bit too much black sky at the top, but that's because I'm more of a widescreen perspective type. Very nice composite though. I tried to do something similar but failed miserably because the moon was surrounded by clouds, meaning it didn't have a well defined edge. It's hard to explain, but the composite didn't work.

As for 400mm, I personally think it's short. I have a 500mm (50-500mm) and I even think 500mm is short. I absolutely cannot imagine how photographers did their thing without this 1.5/1.6 crop factor that we have nowadays. For birds and stuff I found myself routinely stacking a 1.4x TC onto my 500mm and 30D, and still came up short (not to mention blurry because the 30D can't AF at f/8 and the viewfinder isn't worth a damn for doing such things).

EDIT: Just realized that the phase of your moon is exactly the phase of my moon: http://fuzzybabybunny.smugmug..../246428303_7yPXn-O.jpg

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: Jawo
Don't forget tomorrow night is the last full eclipse in the US until 2010!

yes, I am very well aware of that:

Originally posted by: soydios
I'm gonna try for a shot of the lunar eclipse tomorrow night. I'll be using the college newspaper's AF-S 400mm f/2.8 with 2x TC on my D50, for an equivalent focal length of 1200mm. pics will follow if I'm successful.

and since we're posting moon shots, this is what I got with a 400mm f/2.8 + 2x TC at a near-full moon (digitally cropped, not the full 6MP of my D50): http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6924/dsc0441tr8.jpg
it's either not perfectly in focus, I wasn't using good long-lens technique, or both.

 

[OdiN]

I still was getting a lot of camera shake when at 200mm + 2x TC this morning.

I have a good tripod and I even hung a 25lb sandbag on it. It's just nuts when you get to those focal lengths.

 

[OdiN]

Oh and FBB - I will probably wide screen it I was thinking about it this morning but these were just some quick edits after I got back before I had to get myself in to work. I'm not done with them at all.

 

[Fardringle]

You folks are making me jealous with your moon photos. They sure are nice to look at, though!

The best I can get with my Fuji even at max zoom with a 2X converter is about what Odin posted in his first shot, and mine isn't even as clean as that one. Since my camera has the same sensor resolution as the D50, I digitally cropped my shot to the same dimensions as the one soydios posted, and my moon gets close to 1/2 the size of the moon in that shot as should be expected (600mm vs. 1200mm), but it doesn't look very good at all: bad moon. Part of the bad results are due to my hands being too cold to manually focus well so I had to rely on the camera's auto-focus, but I'm still jealous of the "big boy toys" you guys have. I really hope to get one of my own as soon as possible!

 

[magomago]

You live in Fort Collins? :x I lived there for many years, including at one point on overland and pecan (LOL are they still there???) for several and could easily see horse tooth....as well as have to deal with all the college students who park in your driveway for the game every saturday during football season(although we got used to it living there, and ended up celebrating each time the cannon went off as we knew we scored a TD ) It was great always hiking up there, although now I wonder how much empty space still exists around the stadium (at the time I lived there it was nearly entirely empty save for some kind of rodeo pit nearby)

Beautiful pic, brings back many memories

 

[OdiN]

I live near FoCo but not in it.

I'm sure it has grown.

There is apparently a "buffer" that FoCo and Loveland are trying to maintain to keep the cities seperate. There is the Cathy Fromme protected area between them on Shields south of Harmony a bit.

There are housing developments out near the stadium. I don't think it's surrounded yet. Give it time lol.

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: Jawo
Don't forget tomorrow night is the last full eclipse in the US until 2010!

yes, I am very well aware of that:

Originally posted by: soydios
I'm gonna try for a shot of the lunar eclipse tomorrow night. I'll be using the college newspaper's AF-S 400mm f/2.8 with 2x TC on my D50, for an equivalent focal length of 1200mm. pics will follow if I'm successful.

and since we're posting moon shots, this is what I got with a 400mm f/2.8 + 2x TC at a near-full moon (digitally cropped, not the full 6MP of my D50): http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6924/dsc0441tr8.jpg
it's either not perfectly in focus, I wasn't using good long-lens technique, or both.

Awesome picture! I have never gotten a moon pic I liked at night. But then....I just have a 300mm (plus 1.6 crop) so I can't get that close.

On another note...jelous of Odin living near Ft Collins since there are so many great micro brewerys there (especially Fat Tire!)

 

[OdiN]

Haha....I hate beer and never drink it. You can have the micros

 

[Alyx]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: OdiN
I wish I had a 400mm lens available to me.

I wish it was mine.

400mm is an extremely long focal length, and even more so on a cropped-frame body. the focal length is just not even usable except in very unique circumstances, like shooting the moon or a football/soccer/lacrosse/baseball game.

Very good for wildlife as well.

I'd prefer a good 600mm for that. But I don't really od wildlife.

I think there's a bit too much black sky at the top, but that's because I'm more of a widescreen perspective type. Very nice composite though. I tried to do something similar but failed miserably because the moon was surrounded by clouds, meaning it didn't have a well defined edge. It's hard to explain, but the composite didn't work.

As for 400mm, I personally think it's short. I have a 500mm (50-500mm) and I even think 500mm is short. I absolutely cannot imagine how photographers did their thing without this 1.5/1.6 crop factor that we have nowadays. For birds and stuff I found myself routinely stacking a 1.4x TC onto my 500mm and 30D, and still came up short (not to mention blurry because the 30D can't AF at f/8 and the viewfinder isn't worth a damn for doing such things).

EDIT: Just realized that the phase of your moon is exactly the phase of my moon: http://fuzzybabybunny.smugmug..../246428303_7yPXn-O.jpg

Wow a Bigma with a 1.4x on it, thats nuts. 1120mm. At the 1:1 ratio for shutter speed to lens length it must be impossible to hand hold, not to mention after you loose faster apertures because of the TC.

You need to work on your ninja skills to get in close.