photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
John Tangney | all galleries >> Washington >> Mount Rainier >> Mt. Rainier, Washington, USA, June 3rd-5th, 2004 > DSC_2443a.jpg
previous | next
03-JUN-2004 John Tangney

DSC_2443a.jpg

Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington, USA

Someone on a trail mentioned to me that there would be a full moon that night. So even though we started our day at 6 AM, and had done a lot, including hikes at Paradise, I decided to get back to a viewpoint that night to try a picture. We drove up to a viewpoint at about 10:30 PM, but thought there were plenty of stars out, no moon! We waited about 30 minutes and still no moon! Before leaving I decided to try one shot anyway. I put my D70 on a tripod with my 50mm f1.8. It was too dark for metering or autofocus! So I set the camera on manual, lens at f1.8, focus infinity, shutter at 30 seconds and went for it (didn't think about changing the ISO at the time so it was still at 200)! I was shocked at what I saw in the LCD when it was done! It had worked! Judging from the shadows on the mountain, the moon must have been up, at least partially, but near the horizon and blocked from our view by a nearby ridge. Still it was plenty dark, but I was happy to get the shot!


other sizes: small medium large original auto
comment | share
Robert Ballard02-Sep-2006 22:31
Good job!
Guest 03-Dec-2005 18:08
thats a great picture, nice to see pics of stars in digital photos, mine always turned out rubbish (very noisy) so i havent bothered since...found a custom function on my cam that supposedly cleans up noise in dark pictures...might try again...thanks ric
bob hodge 15-Jun-2004 19:45
Very nice. I live here and am always amazed at the views and pics of Rainier.
bob