Shoot the Moon...

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything new. I have been very busy lately with the new Metro Photo and haven't really had much time to go out shooting. The good news is the storm season is a little less then a month away. The weather here has been excellent for the past few days and while I was home last night I couldn't help but be outside. I love it when the seasons begin to transform. It was a beautiful clear evening with temps around 70 degrees and a nice breeze from the south. I had to get out and take advantage of this spectacular weather. I ran back into the apartment and grabbed my gear and as I headed down the steps I looked over to the east and saw the moon rising over the horizon. I had taken many moon pictures before, but this time I wanted to do something different and break away from the monotony. Here are some of the captures.

Enjoy.

-Ben

 A technically correct moon exposure. Since the moon reflects most of the sun's light the exposure would be close to that of sunny sky. In this case we use the "Sunny 16" rule. The rule states that when photographing a clear blue sky use 1/film speed as the shutter speed. In this photo I used the "Sunny 16" rule which gave me an exposure of 1/200, f/16, ISO:200 While this is a nice photo, I felt it didn't represent what I saw and desired to capture.

 

 Opened up the aperture by 2 stops and now we can see more of the foreground and background while retaining some detail in the moon. The sun was setting and the sky became a beautiful blue-purple color. This was a little better, but not quite what I wanted. The only solution was to slow down the shutter.

 ...And change the focus. Instead of looking at the moon as the subject I replaced it as the background and used the silhouettes of the tree branches for my foreground. I really liked the look of the photo and it was different, not something that I try to do when photographing the moon.

This was my personal favorite. This was the best photo that told the story of the evening.  Calm, cool, and peaceful.

Double Calender Publications...

I recently had some photographs featured in two different calender publications. One was a from a local radio station's 2011 wall calender, "Reflecting Life in Texoma". KMOC (FM 89.5) is a Christian radio station who base out of Wichita Falls.  More info on KMOC and how to obtain one of these calenders can be found on their website.

The following images were featured in the KMOC 2011 Wall Calender

 Snowy Road

 Frozen

 Winter Sunset

 TEXAS

 Hay Day

Secondly, I received news that the Photography Corner 2011 Wall calenders are now ready to be ordered. More info on who else was featured and where to buy can be found here.

This image is published in the 2011 Corner Calender from www.photographycorner.com

Doing the Dishes: A Bothersome Household Chore Or...

Is it a photographic opportunity?

So I had this idea for a photograph. I was going to be experimenting with high speed flash. I love all the creative things I can do with this. I used my Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 micro lens (AI), 2 Nikon SB 600's at 1/32 power and a shutter speed of 1/20th. It seemed to work out pretty well. Needless to say, there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up afterwards.

Thanks for the support.

-Ben

10/22/10 Chase Teaser...

Here is a teaser photograph of one of the supercells we chased on Friday. To see more visit http://majesticnoise.blogspot.com/

Take care!

-Ben

Awesome Lightning and 10/10/10 Chase Report...

My full chase report is on my new storm chasing blog. Here is a little taste of some of the action.

Thanks.

-Ben

Desktop Backgrounds Now Available...

You can now download some of images to use as a desktop background. I have 20 images with resolution of 800px, 1024px, 1280px, and 1080p sizes. Check it out in the link here.

Thanks for the support.

-Ben

Nothing Like Fall Weather...

Fall weather--70 degree temperatures, clear skies. and a gentle breeze, who doesn't love Autumn in Texas? Last week we received some very pleasant weather. It was so enjoyable, that I woke up before sunrise (something that rarely happens now) and drove down to Goron Lake in Iowa Park. I hadn't visited the lake in a while and was curious to see what was new. Gordon Lake has always been a favorite location of mine. It never disappoints. Hopefully we will have more fall weather heading our way next week.

Thanks for the support.
-Ben

 Tranquil scenes like these are why I keep coming back to Gordon Lake.

 I almost always prefer some clouds in sunrise/sunset shots, but there are times when I will shoot a "plain" sunrise. They are prefect for back lit shots like this one.

 After the sun reached a certain height it was time to focus on some of the wildlife.

A pair of Grackles perched in the cattails.

 There is a residential Great Blue Heron that hangs around the lake. I was fortunate to get close shots of this bird. I just wish the light was at a different angle.

The Snowy Egret is also seen during the summer months. This one was a little too preoccupied with catching breakfast, it didn't really mind me being so close to it.

 Semipalmated Sandpipers are always fun to shoot. They're very fast and almost never sit still. They are also hard to approach, usually you have to wait for them to come to you. I was lying on my stomach for almost 20 minutes before a group of them landed not more than 10 feet from me.

 A pair of foraging sandpipers.



I think this is my personal favorite of the day. I love the graduation of color from the orange to the blue in the shot. The pose and angle of the bird helps male this a more intimate portrait.