Perigee Moon and light squiggles in-camera double exposure, March 19, 2011
I’d hate to let the month of September slip by and not post anything, I’ve been such a bad blogger this year. I may as well pick one of the recent hyped events to stay current. 🙂 Even though I had my expectations checked with reality, I did actually try to plan photographing the “Super Blood Moon” eclipse. I have only photographed one perigee moon before, and since then, well, they have been rather “meh” events. The first time I got a little bored and started playing with some light painting and in-camera double exposure.
This time I scouted a location the day before, even geeked-out and got out my augmented reality app to see exactly where the moon would rise. We don’t have much in the way of grand landscapes to photograph the moon with around here, so I settled for a simple moonrise over the lake. The forecast was stating clear skies. I was envisioning some moon over silky water type shot.
I got my chair, arrived before moonrise, only to see a cloud bank moving in from the west. Not a good sign. I even had family join me at the spot to witness the “big event.” Instead, we watched clouds and water by the lake while having wine and cheese in the dark. Not a bad consolation prize, but I abandoned hope of seeing it after awhile and headed home. Guess what popped out the second I pulled into my driveway?
Ultimately I did end up seeing the eclipse, grabbed the same shots thousands of others have of just the moon. They were destined just to sit on my hard drive for posterity sake, I wasn’t even going to process them. Then, while reviewing some other photos I took recently of petrified wood, an idea popped into my head. I am not much into compositing photos, but to add my own unique spin on it, I ended up making a composite with some petrified wood I have. It turned into something I was willing to share instead of letting sit untouched.
Perigee and Petrified Eclipse (photographic composite)
Superb work Mark, you should consider doing more of it.
Thanks a bunch Cedric. I certainly will when the inspiration hits.
I like this creative work of art very much, Mark. My luck has always been so bad for evens such as this that I hardly even bother any longer — for this one I didn’t even see it — it was solid clouds.
I almost didn’t see it myself Brooks for the same reasons. Thanks!
Love your creativity in coming up with unusual work Mark. Nothing wrong with effects if people know you’re using them and you’re not trying to deceive them into thinking it really looked that way, but just expressing yourself well artistically. I am all for pushing the limits of what “photography” can be with integrity.
Thanks David. I don’t see a lot of difference between this and a double exposure, except the double exposure composite takes place in camera of course.
I didn’t even get out to look at it, though I have seen this eclipse before. The composite looks great – the petrified wood is a cool foreground.
Thanks Tom
Thank you all for the feedback
That’s quite a combination, Mark. I’m glad you thought of it!
Very surreal! A great and really neat original idea. I love it!
A wonderful evening. Moon or no moon. Loved the posted photo.
So glad the idea popped into your head. Your composite lovely.