[LRflex] Re: Yosemite Moonbow
- From: William Abbott <bill2301@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 12:17:46 -0700
Aram,
Wonderful, very nicely done, and I say that after a single foray into night
photos at Yosemite last April, on a cold night at Tunnel View, where I ran into
focusing problems that I had not anticipated and could resolve only by
bracketing the focus and "chimping" shots with a small flashlight. My WA was of
no use in focusing in the dark on a star or the moon.
I was lucky to get this at f/2.5, 16 seconds, ISO 800. View wide to fill your
screen. To add insult to injury, high clouds had moved in and obscured the
stars, but the moonlight was nicely diffused, so it wasn't all bad.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/wbabbott3/YNPnight/
My conclusion, which I have not tried yet, is to focus during daylight and use
a piece of tape on the lens barrel to lock the focus and come back after dark
to shoot, which is a lot of bother. Which leads me to wonder what a camera back
monitor would look like through a night vision device, goggles or a monocular
device. Hm ... Once classified technology, even WalMart sells them now.
I find the whole night business very interesting, a bat's view of the world
perhaps.
We saw a lower falls moonbow many, many years ago, clear as a bell from the
bridge but, as you said, with no colors for the human eye.
I tend to favor your 0524 and 0534 and 0684; the latter belongs on a Yosemite
Conservancy brochure.
Thanks for pointing the way, which reminds me of an old quote, "For now we see
through a glass, darkly."
Bill
On May 23, 2014, at 7:12 AM, Aram Langhans <leica_r8@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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
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