Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/05/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I had photographed the upper falls moonbow a few years ago, so decided to try something new and start at the lower falls. Hiked out to the bridge at night to find a small group of photographers. I was 1 day early, and did so on purpose because I had heard it gets crowded out there on full moon day, even though for all practical purposes you could never tell the difference. Besides, you don't have to stay up as late a day or two before. This was actually the last shot I took as I had to climb out on some rocks (in the dark) and had not wanted to interfere with the few serious photographers that had been there. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/moonbow+lower+falls-0526.jpg.html A little closer view: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/moonbow+lower+falls-0524.jpg.html However, I find that perhaps one could think these were taken during the day and just faked to look a bit darker. So, I think it is important to include some sky so you can see it really is night. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/moonbow+lower+falls-0534.jpg.html http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/moonbow+lower+falls-0525.jpg.html What do you like? More or less sky? Or maybe you like no sky? Interesting side note. Quite a few non-photographers had wandered out to the bridge after hearing of the moonbow, just to have a look. They, of course, could not really see anything but a smear of white light. They were inquisitive, and always being the science teacher, I showed them my photos and told them that the light was too dim for most people to see any color there at all. Looks rather plane with the naked eye, but the camera does not have that limitation. Many whipped out there cellphones, but were not successful in photographing the event. Then there were the flash crew, but I won't comment further on them. On the night of the full moon we went to Cook's Meadow for the upper falls. It was not a good year. Not that much water, so not that much spray, and also, the angle of the moon this month must have been pretty high, as the bow just barely showed up at the very base of the upper falls. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/Upper+Falls+Moonbow-0680.jpg.html http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/Upper+Falls+Moonbow-0682.jpg.html I gave up and found a tree to add a bit of compositional variation to what I was seeing. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s4/y/n/Upper+Falls+Moonbow-0684-Edit.jpg.html All taken with D600 at 30 seconds, f/4. Note - darn hard to line things up through the viewfinder. I could see well enough to get close then modify what I wanted. With live view all you saw was a black screen. I also tried my wife's new Olympus D M10 and could see absolutely nothing through the EVF. I was impressed with the outcome at ISO 1200 for a 4/3 sensor. And of course, focusing to infinity has the same problem and solution as with the D600. On one of these nights we tried prefocusing in daylight, switching the lens to manual focus and taping the focus ring so it would not move. I know my 24-120 has a sever focus shift when zooming and I loose infinity, but I thought my 16-36 and my 70-200 were true zooms, but found out otherwise. Good old trusty Leica 35-70/4, as stated in previous post. Comments welcome Aram Aram Langhans (Semi) Retired (retarded?) Science Teacher & Unemployed photographer "The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin himself would ever have dared dream." James D. Watson