All Things Bubba

Last night started out cloudy, but cleared up well before the eclipse reached totality. Unfortunately, it also got much colder, with a brisk wind. This not only made it uncomfortable for would-be eclipse watchers, it made it hard to keep the camera still enough for long exposures, even with a tripod.

Luckily, I had a great view of the rising moon from my back deck. I set up the tripod and camera there, and only went out from time to time to see how it was going, and take photos.

It's a very different kind of photography. Very relaxing, compared to sports photography. There's no "darn, missed the perfect shot, I'll never get another chance." There's plenty of time to fiddle with the camera controls, experiment with different settings, check photography books, and Google the web for tips.

I'd never used anything like the really long exposures you need during a full eclipse. Even though I had a tripod and remote switch, the camera wasn't quite still enough to get a sharp image. (Probably due to the wind.) So the photo above, of the uneclipsed moon, turned out much sharper than the others. Being brighter, it required a shorter exposure.

At first I thought we weren't getting a nice color, but as the eclipse progressed, the part of the moon in shadow slowly turned dark copper, then red-gold.

Here's the best photo I got of the eclipsed moon:



And here's the moon emerging from our shadow:


It really does look like there's a bite taken out of it.

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