Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yesterday, I snuck out of the office at 4:30, and headed to the ferry pier. There I saw a man who was crabbing with a few traps. He would have made an interesting picture, but I found the moon already above the horizon, and moving very quickly. I moved to the south end of the pier, and started shooting, alternating between my M6 with Elmarit 90, and Nikon F3/T with a 180mm lens. It was quite amazing to see the moon move so fast. Seconds after I compose, the moon has already moved so that I needed to resposition myself so that the moon would fit just right between the piller and cables of the Bay Bridge. Soon, George Hartzell appeared, with a slew of, ahem, Nikon gears. He set up impressively quickly, mounting a 80-200mm on the tripod, and firing shots with his motor-driven AF camera. Then, he pulled out his 500mm 1:4 lens, which captured the top of the bridge with a large moon. Looking through the viewfinder, it was a stunning photo. As the moon climbed further, we moved towards the land, hoping to capture a silhouette of the bridge. Realising that the moon is moving very fast, we just took a few more shots of the moon over the bridge. The time to take my ferry to Marin has come, and we parted. Today, I left the office at more normal time of 5:15, and got to the ferry pier, with a M6 0.85 with Noctilux. Minutes after I went aboard onto the upper deck of the ferry, the moon started rising over the Oakland hills, peeking below the decks of the Bay Bridge. Due to the higher humidity and possibly higher pollution from all the Christmas shoppers, the moon was incredibly red. Not being armed with a long lens, but only with a Noctilux, I just shot a few pictures of the San Francisco skyline. As the ferry started to cruise on the Bay, the moon was now seen above Berkeley. The shimmering reflection on the water was stunningly beautiful, and most of my ferry-mates must have thought the same, as there were more passengers on the upper deck than I have ever seen. At this point, the exposure is really a guess without a spotmeter. I bracketed between 1/30 at wideopen to 1/250, hoping that some of them will produce a right balance between the brightness of the moon, and the reflection on the water. Regardless of how big and bright the moon really was or wasn't, the past two evenings were truly mystical. I will see if I can get up early enough tomorrow morning to capture the moonset into the Pacific from Bolinas Ridge. Cheers, Ken Iisaka kiisaka@pacbell.net, kiisaka@attglobal.net, kiisaka@ibm.net Lost in Mill Valley in Marin County, California - ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeff S <4season@boulder.net> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 3:13 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] SF Moon rise > Greg Locke wrote: > > > > At 10:26 AM 21/12/99 -0800, you wrote: > > > > > I will be going to the Golden Gate ferry pier, right behind the > > > Gabbiano's restaurant for the moonrise. From this angle, you will > > > see the moon above the Bay Bridge. Tomorrow night, I will try going > > > to Marin Headlands. > > > > > > I am armed with an M6HM (with Rapidwinder) and Elmarit 90mm, as well > > > as, ahem, a Nikon F3/T with a 180mm lens. I have my trusty Leica > > > tabletop tripod in my chest pocket. > > > > > > > SIGH! The sun is starting to go down here now but I won't be doing any > > moon shots tonight. Solid overcast and SNOW!!!! > > > > It was no different in Boulder, but I'll soon be enjoying some of that > balmy Bay Area weather when I visit family for the holidays. Ahh, > there's nothing like hearing folks complain how they're freezing--and > it's almost 50 degrees outside ;-) > > By the way, the gibbous and crescent phases of the moon can be > especially dazzling at higher magnifications; it's like the difference > between shooting during "magic hour" and high noon! > > -- > > Jeff > Somewhere in Boulder, Colorado > >