Return to Delicate Arch

Here's one last image of Delicate Arch. In the sky above is the Moon and Jupiter (probably).

When setting up for this shot, I didn't have a lot of light. A long exposure would have exposed more of the foreground, but too long would cause the Moon and Jupiter to become elongated (due to the Earth's rotation). A shorter exposure might have lost Jupiter, but exposed the moon better. It’s a tricky exposure problem capture both the foreground and the bright objects.

In order to get a short shot, I pumped up the ISO on my camera, knowing that noise would be an issue. I really didn't want the noise, but, I couldn't think of another option. I was hoping that I could somehow mitigate the noise at home. In this case I decided to add more noise; I applied a crinkled paper texture to the photo. Sometimes, a little noise is annoying, while more is pleasing (hopefully).

You may note that moon has flares and is overexposed. I believe the flairs are due to the very small aperture is used to capture the scene. Overall, the moon looks more like the Sun than the Moon and lends a surrealistic feel to the image.

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Cliche?

Since last we chatted, I spent two days and and night in Joshua Tree National Park and a couple of days touring around the Newport Beach, CA area. Tomorrow is David and Nicole's wedding. It looks to be a wonderful event!

After this, I'll spend almost a week in Las Vegas. Besides playing a little poker, I hit the Valley of Fire park, Hoover Damn, and Death Valley.

This picture is the last of the series of photos I took at the Whitetank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix. The third morning was very overcast in the eastern sky during the time in which the sun was supposed to be rising. Unlike the day before, the sun never made an appearance. Luckily, the moon was setting around the same time. I covered a lot of ground looking for a shot like this before it disappeared.

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Fly me to the Stars

This photo is the last picture I took the other evening while at the Paint Mines. It's cropped a lot to get the moon this big. It's also a bit fuzzy - there was a bit of a moon dog that night. I actually quite amazed at how well it turned out. I'd love to have access to a large telescope and take some big photos of the moon, photos of the planets (Jupiter and Mars), galaxies, nebulae, etc.

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Nothing but sky

For today's Skywatch Friday, I present nothing but sky. Well, that and the moon. Oh, and the clouds. But, other than that...

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