We had some beautiful weather this weekend and here are a few photos taken with a 20.00 tripod.
It cooled off just enough that the mosquitoes went a away yet was still pleasant.
The moon was so bright it was lighting up the shore.
I drive by some elaborately decorated houses and tell my self “Next time I’ll stop and take pictures of them” and then the next time I drive by I say the same thing.
I finally stopped.
8 pointed non-snow flakes, as far as I know snow flakes only come in with 6 points but never mind they’re still pretty.
Then just for fun I turned it to manual focus and intentionally unfocused to see what I’d get.
I may be wrong but I think that’s an inflatable camper on the left with Christmas lights on it.
Merry Christmas and thank you for taking a little time out of your day to come visit my blog.
I’ll leave you with this because it made me laugh:
Charlie Brown Christmas quotes
Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees? -Linus 
The moon wasn't exactly cooperative for me it hid behind some clouds as it came up over the horizon.
This is the moonrise shot I had imagined, just without the clouds in front of it.
I actually read some stuff about taking moon pictures before I went out. All I got from it was I had the wrong lens. So I ignored that and went out anyway.
The stubborn clouds just hung on the tops of the mountains.
Then the moon rose above them.
f/4 1/4 sec ISO-500
I tried some different settings. I found that the longer exposures made a fuzzy moon. So I played with a higher ISO. I’ve been kind of afraid of high ISO because it makes the grainy look. But it’s there on my camera so I should at least try it now and then.
f/4 2.5 sec ISO-500
f/6.3 1/4 sec ISO-1000 +1.3 step
The “+1.3” is from bracketing. I bracked
because I read something that said it was a good idea for moon pictures. They might have explained it something like this: The camera might get confused with the brightness of the moon and darkness of everything else so bracket and maybe you’ll get a picture you like. I didn’t finish reading the article, I got distracted with something else like a burning smell coming from the oven. But I did remember the part that bracketing was good. I know, I know Ken Rockwell says bracketing is for people who can’t take a picture right the first time. Well I am one of those people at this point.
f/4 3 sec ISO-1000 +1.3 step
f/4 30 sec ISO-200 +1.3 step
f/4 1/3 sec ISO-1000 +1.3 step
f/4 1/10 sec ISO-1000 0 step
I hope you had a moment to enjoy the big moon this weekend and maybe get some pictures too.
f/2.8 1 sec ISO-200 18mm
Just last year. Taken Just propping the camera on the railing and holding my breath and hoping that I wasn’t wiggling. After looking at the picture I see I do quite a bit of wiggling in one second.
f/5.6 30.00 sec ISO-200 50mm
This year the Henley Street bridge under repair.
First use of the tripod. Yes, I haven’t been using a tripod before this. Um, well, I’d just set the camera on something and set the remote timer –after I found the timer that is. Reading the manual is just over rated. People don’t really do that do they?
f/5.6 30.00 sec ISO-200 50mm 3 shots stitched
I really didn’t know what I should set anything to so as usual I just tried something. Once again I didn’t do any preparing in advance, like reading about how to take good night pictures on cloudy nights.
In my mind this photo was going to have this whole bridge reflecting in the water just like Frank Kehren did in one of his inspiring photos.
Come to think of it I might’ve had a better angle from the other side.
Come to think of it getting to the other side would have to be accomplished by crossing some other bridge right now.
My fingers were cold. So I went home.
The end.
