Shoot the Moon Goes to the Santa Monica Mountains

In February, the Camera Committee goes to the Santa Monica Mountains to shoot the moon. Stephen Beck is assisting on the trip and together we scouted a very promising location. The photo above (with a half moon) is more a picture of our location than of the scene I expect we'll capture. I expect most of us will shoot from locations closer in.
I particularly like the standing rocks on the right.  But you never know one or more of our participants could find this to be the right view. Especially with a long lens.  Hmmm - I may change my mind.
We may linger after sunset and try a little painting with light, too. Or long exposures, maybe.

Trip info:

• Sunday February 24
• Meet at Malibu Civic Center at 2:30 or 3:30 at the trailhead
• Moonrise 5:03 p.m.
  Sunset 5:47 p.m.
  End civil twilight 6:12 p.m.
• Not too much walking required but the footing can be treacherous so wear serious boots.
• Bring tripod, flashlight (a red filter would be good on the flashlight), fresh batteries for camera and flashlight, remote shutter release if you have one.
• Prepare for a cold evening!
• To reserve send a note to me

STM - Stone House Edition



La Luna peeking in the window.

I'm not ready with a complete post but I wanted to get at least one shot up here to mark the occasion of Shoot the Moon - The Stone House Edition, a Camera Committee outing.
It was a fun evening while we were on location. I hope the others got some good pictures.

First Full Moon of 2012 - Just Sayin'

The first full moon of 2012 is on Monday, January 9 (or actually very late Sunday). That means the best time to shoot the rising full moon this month is on Sunday, January 8. 
I will try to be out there somewhere.  How about you?

Sun and Moon Data for One Day

Los Angeles, California (longitude W118.4, latitude N34.1): Sunday    8 January 2012 PST
SUN Data
     Begin civil twilight 6:32 a.m.
     Sunrise 7:00 a.m.
     Sun transit 12:00 noon
     Sunset 5:01 p.m.
     End civil twilight 5:28 p.m.
MOON Data
     Moonrise 3:49 p.m. on preceding day
     Moonset 6:22 a.m. 
     Moonrise 4:48 p.m.
     Moon transit 11:59 p.m.
     Moonset 7:06 a.m. on following day
Full Moon on 8 January 2012 at 11:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Shooting the Moon in Rainbow Basin

The Camera Committee hosted a car camp in Rainbow Basin Natural Area last weekend. Carole Scurlock went out Friday afternoon (the night before full moon) and collected a few nice images. You can visit her gallery to see this shot and more from the weekend.

Moonrise in Rainbow Basin by Carole Scurlock

This is a collection of links to interesting or helpful pages.

• Photographing Moonset and Moonrise is a helpful PDF tips sheet from PhotoCentric.com
• Get photo tips and astronomical calculators in Moonrise and Moonset Photography Tips and Tricks (TimeandDate.com)
• Keith Cooley offers technical information on Keith's Moon Photography. It's a bit dated but numbers are numbers, right?
• Photographer Don Smith has an interesting take on planning for moonrise using software called The Photographer's Ephemeris
• Photo instuctor Jim Beecher offers lots of information in Moon Photography on PhotoKaboom.com. He shares lots of links at the bottom of the page.
• Cyndy McIntyre blogs about shooting the moon in Big Bend National Park in Winter’s Last Moon
• Moonrise over Hernandez may be the most iconic of moon shots. Ansel Anecdotes: Perspectives on Moonrise offers three versions of how the image was captured.

September 11 Moon at Allan's House

My Camera Committee colleague Allan Der couldn't come to Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook but he did shoot the moon in his backyard.



It's such a beauty! I couldn't believe a regular person could make an image like this at home in the LA/OC metropolitan area. He tells me he used a digiscope and provided a link to this album.  The captions on the photos of the 'scope have plenty of information if you are interested in attempting this yourself.
Allan has also been experimenting this photographing the Milky Way.

September 11 at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

This ain't no Moonrise Over Hernandez

Yesterday, I invited some friends to join me at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook to shoot the moon.  I knew the conditions were not going to be very good, but it would get me (and maybe some of my pals) out there with a camera.  And parking on Jefferson would give me a little exercise, too.

The only confirmation I got was from Peter and we met in front of the Victor Wire Company and walked up the trail with a little time on the stairs. We looked at the view from all the switchbacks, from the former picnic area (see previous post) and from behind the visitors center. While we were speculating, Steve and Virginia joined us - Woo-Hoo! Long-time, no-see those folks.

Steve convinced us that the only place to shoot is from the overlook platform proper. So that's where we landed and that's where Cullen found us - Woo-Hoo-Hoo! We had a small crowd gathered.

I was right: conditions were pretty bad.  You can see here the gunk in the air that hid Ms. Luna for some time until she could rise above it.  See how the atmosphere gets thicker to the right (south) of Downtown?  Well, Ms Luna was coming up even further south.

Finally, Peter set up and made a gigapan and I broke out my tripod and made a few moon shots while playing with the settings on my camera.  I was very surprised that I could capture as much texture in the moon as I did. I was using my old Minolta Dimage Z5 5.0 megapixel with 12x optical zoom on my funky little Slik tripod with a little no-name mini ball head.

Steve declares that tomorrow will be the better day to shoot the moon, but I don't think so.  He's thinking he'll have to check it out. If you see this in time, you might take a trip to BHSO, too.  Me? I'll be at a birthday dinner slurping noodles.