Full Moon Rising

Click on a photo to see it enlarged
I love photographing the moon, but what started as a self-assigned project (to photograph every full moon for a year), now seems like an obligation; so I am giving up the imperative and will photograph the moon only when the conditions are right and I feel inspired. If it's raining and clouds obscure the sky, I will stay home and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. If it's a choice between the full moon and going out to dinner, I will choose dinner.
I came to this decision while viewing the photos of this month's full moon. Every one was ordinary and I realized I took them just because I felt I had to take something. The experience and the results were less than satisfying. Both of these were taken from the private road leading up El Toro. (It is still fun to trespass.) In this one, the lights on Dunne Avenue point directly to the moon.

I am now a bit enchanted with the crescent moon,
but will avoid anything that feels compulsory.

San Francisco Skyline

During the holidays, the San Francisco skyline is rimed in lights. They won't be lit until after Thanksgiving, but I drove up to Treasure Island anyway to scout it as a possible shoot-out for the photography club, and to practice creating panoramas. It's a long drive into the city and onto the Bay Bridge, but I'm so glad I made the effort. This first panorama that includes the bridge and the city is a composite of 5 photos. Click on the panoramas to see them enlarged.

The clouds created a perfect reflective surface for the colors of the setting sun. This red sky was not created in my computer. I purposefully under exposed the shot to draw out the color and render the distinctive skyline as a silhouette. There is a time after the sun sets that the sky turns dark blue. For photographers, this is magic light. And fortunately on this night, the clouds thinned enough for the blue sky to make an appearance.

Once the sky was completely black, I started to play with the city lights. I set the camera controls and then twisted the zoom lens during a 2 second exposure to get these exploding effects.

Cool, huh?

Serendipity

A Waxing Crescent Moon
(Click the image to see it enlarged)

The clouds had been hovering all day. I thought they would make for a beautiful sunset so I drove to one of my favorite spots, Chesbro Reservoir, hoping to get gorgeous sunset colors reflected in the sky and water. I wanted to practice a few of the techniques I had learned on the workshop in the Easter Sierras. Alas, it was not to be. By the time the sun was low in the sky, all clouds had vanished. I set up my camera and tripod anyway and took a few shots that I knew were ordinary. Then I shifted my gaze to the left and there was a pretty, little crescent moon just wanting to be photographed. This was so uncanny. I had been thinking about photographing the crescent moon for several months, but had not actively done anything about it. And suddenly it presented itself. If the clouds had held, I wouldn't have seen it.

This may be my new lunatic project.

Photos I Like

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These photos don't have much of a story to go with them,
but each has a quality I like. The first two I took at Moss Landing.

I like the colors and reflections. I used my macro lens to photograph a dahlia
that unexpectedly bloomed in my garden.
I like the delicate curves of the petals.

On Halloween the downtown portion of Monterey Road in Morgan Hill is transformed into a pedestrian only thoroughfare of costume-clad trick 'r treaters. Most of the people parading past the candy-dispensing merchants didn't realize that genuine ghosts were striding along with them. Since ghosts are not visible in photographs, I attached a special specter intensifying filter to catch these three postmortem revelers. I like photographing ghosts.

Wildfire

A bit of photojournalism...
Last Tuesday as I was driving home on Hale, I spotted smoke in the distance. I couldn't tell the exact location, but it appeared to be in the hills just west of Hale. As I drove closer, I spotted 3 airplanes and a helicopter circling overhead. When I was even with the source of the smoke, I pulled off the road, took out my little Lumix camera, and waited for one of the planes to come in low and drop the red retardant. The plane is in this picture (click on it to see a larger view), but it is obscured by the smoke and the tree on the crest of the hill.

I continued to shoot and caught the helicopter as it dropped water on the flames. I thought this was a most excellent action photo and submitted it to the Morgan Hill Times. They published it with their online edition of the story. You can read all about it and see my photo at: http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/269876-wildfire-burns-portion-of-tilton-ranch

Never go anywhere with out a camera.

Pumpkin Patch

The Macro Focus Group in the photography club held a shoot-out at a local pumpkin patch. We had a shoot-out here 2 years ago, so I have plenty of pumpkin photos already (that I didn't think I could improve upon), so I decided to forgo the wide shots, use my macro lens, and concentrate on the details; like this colorful corn cob.
Click on a photo to enlarge it.

and this sunflower that looks like it's on fire

and this bee working its magic with pollen

and these sunflower curlicues.

(These upper photos were cropped to enlarge the detail)
I thought this pumpkin stem looked like the head of a horse.

You can see more photos from this shoot-out on my Flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suebrazelton/

October Full Moon

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I am constantly on the look-out for a composition that will show-off the full moon as it rises above the eastern hills. The most compelling photos have a foreground subject that adds interest to the shot and gives it some context (otherwise the full moon will look pretty much the same each month). I took this photo while waiting for the moon to show itself. The colors in the sky were so pretty. I was looking forward to a beautiful moon rise photograph. I just needed the impending storm clouds to hold off for another 30 minutes or so.

As I waited, I turned my camera to the west.
These two photos were taken within 10 minutes of each other.

Alas, the clouds thickened to the point that the moon was not visible until it was high in the sky, well above my lovely foreground tree. Such are the vagaries of the weather.

Even though I did not get the shot I was hoping for,
I am not discouraged. The full moon will rise again next month.