Morning Sunrise at Gooseberry

Finally, a morning when we did not have to pick up my son at work.  We will be able to get a sunrise today.  Arriving at Gooseberry neck, Westport, Massachusetts at around 5:20 AM.  The sky was still dark in the waxing gibbous moon was high in the West.  The first pictures that I took were of the waxing gibbous moon.

Waxing Gibbous Moon

 Then turning our attention to the East, looking over Buzzards Bay toward the Cape, the sky was filled with clouds haze and fog to the right.  I utilized my Nikon D 810, Tamron 28-75 on a tripod.  I set my ISO at 200, F-stop at f10, put a two second delay on shutter release and used a wired remote..  Checking a depth of field chart everything was in focus from about 5 feet to infinity.  I then took a series of photographs starting at about 5:35 AM, with Venus still prominent in the sky, and finishing up after the sun had risen.  Timewise halfway before the sun rose.  I created a panorama to show the fog bank, haze and clouds over Buzzards Bay.  The haze and clouds created a bright red sun, rather than a bright yellow sun, as it rose from beneath the horizon.

Nautical Dawn with Venus in the Sky

Civil Dawn

Civil Dawn

Civil Dawn

Panorama Show in the Clouds Haze and the Fog Bank on the Right

Just Prior to Sunrise

Sun Rising

Final Photograph after the Sun Had Risen

I have photographed it both sunrises and sunsets on Gooseberry neck over the years and never or to the same.  For sunrises, you should arrive while it is still dark, and for sunsets be prepared to stay at least a half hour after sunset because you never know when the best colors is going to occur.

Because of the dampness in the ear and the slight fog, prior to putting equipment the way we dried off the tripod legs with the towel and blotted the camera and lens to remove any dampness that may have been on them.

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Supermoon No Sunset Yes But a Waning Gibbous Moon Yes

Lake Rico in the Golden Hour

The evening of September eighth, the moon will be full.  This moon is known as the Hunter' s Moon and will be a supermoon.  After checking both The Photographer' s Ephemeris and PhotoPills, I decided to travel down the road to Lake Rico, and hopefully capture the full moon rising over the trees and the lake.  The moonrise was going to occur before sunset, so I knew I wanted be down there before sunset.  So I could get set up in a good location.  After parking and setting up my cameras, I was using my 500 mm lens on one camera and my 28-75 mm lens on another camera.  This way I could capture the scene as a variety of compositions.  I then opened PhotoPills on my iPad and utilized the Augmented Reality feature of the program to locate exactly where the moon would rise.

Location of the moon rise, according to PhotoPills

The major problem that faced me was the clouds in the East over of trees and lake.  Behind me in the East with the sun was setting, the clouds were breaking up and clear skies were noted.  What I was hoping is the weather patten would continue and the clouds in the East with disappear or would dissipate enough to allow the moon to be seen.

Just before the sunset, in the Golden hour, the trees, clouds and lake turned a golden orange.  Later, after the sunset, the sky and clouds came a nice shade of pink.

More Golden Hour

Pink in the Sky after Sunset

The Sky Looking South after Sunset

However, after that the clouds instead of dissipating became thicker and nowhere could the moon be seen.  Well, the next two nights will be almost a full moon, and I will try again to photograph the moon over Lake Rico.

Tuesday Night, again no luck because of heavy clouds. Yea! On Wednesday night almost a clear sky I I was able to photograph the 95% waxing Gibbous moon rising over Lake Rico. At least it was not three strikes and you are out!

Light of the moon starting to peer over the trees

The Moon shining through the trees

95% Waning Gibbous Moon

Composite of the moon rising because of time constraints I could not get more photos

  Now, if I was just set up to photograph the sunset in the West and did not turn around, I would have missed the beautiful colors that occurred.  So remember, if you are photographing a sunset or sunrise always look behind you, because it could be great color and a scene that should be photographed.

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Perseid Meteor Shower, Supermoon, and Sunsets

Waxing Gibbous Moon

Be ready for a interesting evening and night time event this weekend.  On Sunday, August 10, 2014 though be the closest and largest full moon of the year.  The moon will rise at 7:34 PM and set at 6:52 AM, at my location.  There are many apps or websites to give you the exact time for your location.  It'll be a great time to get out and get pictures of the moon set against a background.  Also, the Perseid meteor shower will be starting to peak from August 11-13.  Normally, the bright moon changes the background of the sky from black to a much brighter sky, which makes it harder to see meteors.  However, there is one good caveat, the Perseid meteors have the largest number of fireballs of any meteor shower.  Because of this occurrence this could be an extremely beautiful event.  Imagine seeing a fireball in the light of the bright supermoon.

I will be out photographing moonrise and sunset on August 10, then go home and rest to return to my favorite spot after midnight to see if I can capture some fireballs.

Last evening, I went down to battleship Cove in Fall River to photograph the sunset.  Although I knew approximately with the sunset was going to happen, I utilize my iPad with PhotoPills and its augmented reality, which showed me exactly the location where the sun would set.  Besides the sunset, looking behind me was a 94% waxing gibbous moon shining over the hills of Fall River.

Harbor master boat meeting, fire Dept. boat at battleship Cove

The image below was from three photos that I blended together in Photomatix

Sunset at battleship Cove

The image below was from three photos that I blended together in NIK HDR Pro

Sunset at battleship Cove

Sunset at battleship Cove as a Silhouette

Although there are two's separate set of images that I post processed in Photomatics and NIK HDR Pro, personally, I like the one that was processed in Photomatics.  I also utilized Topaz Clarity And Detail to finish up the processing of all these photos.


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Remember The Lunar Eclipse Is Coming

Waxing gibbous moon, because the moon is so bright I utilized the sunny 16 rule my settings were F/16, 1/100 second, ISO 100 and I utilized a 200 mm lens with some adjustments in Lightroom. The camera and lens was on a tripod 

Remember on April 15 is the total lunar eclipse which will start at 1:58 AM. Now we have to keep our fingers crossed in regards to the weather. Right now a long-range forecast is for clouds with rain later. Hopefully the weather will shift and least we will have only partly cloudy. I still will be at the Stone Barn of Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary starting at midnight to hopefully photograph the first of the tetrad that will occur over the next two years.

Last night I went outside in my condominium complex just to check some of my settings on the waxing gibbous moon plus I wanted a photograph of Mars since it is at the closest point to earth.

Although Mars was very bright it did require me to up my ISO to 2000, I dropped my f-stop to F/8 soon back my lens to 70 mm in this shot was taken at one second. Then adjusted in Lightroom and Topaz Clarity and DeNoise

Hope to see you at the Stone Barn, there will be hot drinks and snacks available.




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