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| September 17th's Full Moon, Leica M11 w/ 180mm Apo-Telyt |
So moon. Very moon. This one was Super (because it was closer than normal), Harvest (that's the time of year), Blood because of the (partial) eclipse), and Full because these things are all full moon occurrences. Tuesday's moon of many names was definitely a sight to be seen, but not at first. Waiting on the beach for it to rise over the hills, it appeared to be late. Maybe my app was off. Maybe the mountains delayed the rising. Maybe it was taken by a dragon below the horizon, like a friend joked.
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First sighting, and missed focus - Canon R w/ 100-400 II
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By the time I could actually spot it through the dim light of the Earth's shadow and the thick atmosphere, it had nearly cleared the horizon. My autofocus still couldn't find it. These types of events always move faster than I anticipate, even though I anticipate them going quickly.
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Azure Seas coming in - Leica M11 w/ 180mm Apo-Telyt
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While I had known of this happening for a couple days, I figured I would just watch and shoot it from my beach. But the reality of that is a little lackluster, photographically speaking, as I don't have the best view to the east. Last Minute Matt jumped into action with a change of plans to get to a more interesting location. I wanted something quintessentially Santa Barbara in the foreground, with both the ocean and the mountains that frame the city.
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| Just about peak eclipse - Canon R w/ 100-400 II |
You really only get to choose one location for these types of events. With some careful planning, two may be possible, but you'd have to be pretty well prepared, with a short distance between the two spots. This night, my two locations were about one hundred feet apart, as I moved just a little down the beach to re-align the moon and wharf to a better position.
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| Lunatics - Canon R w/ 100-400 II |
I also chose to use two cameras. The Leica glass is really SO much sharper. I think even adding a 2x teleconverter would have given me better results than anything the Canon was putting out with the 100-400 - which is no slouch by any means. The M11 sensor is also far superior to the older Canon and gave me plenty to crop from, even though most of the shots I left with a little wider field of view.
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| The Sunset Kidd staying out late - Leica M11 w/ 180mm Apo-Telyt |
Within 20 minutes of it's rising, the moon was already this high in the sky and the Earth's shadow was giving way to full sun. This last frame was a stretch for the dynamic range of single shot - even from one of the best sensors currently out there. It is easy to get wrapped up into shooting and forget to actually watch and appreciate what's happening, but I took a few moments for that as well. We live on a pretty amazing little rock whizzing around a giant fire ball in the middle of a lot of nothingness.
