27-SEP-2015
Lunar eclipse, Mission Beach, California, 2015
A total lunar eclipse dazzled millions of sky-gazers around the world on September 27th, 2015, as a full “supermoon” crossed into the earth’s shadow and took on a blood-red hue. I made this picture of it with my 345mm long telephoto lens zoomed all the way out. The largest opening of this lens does not let much light into the camera at full zoom, and there was not much light to begin with. So I selected a very high ISO (sensitivity) rating of 6400, and slowed down my shutter speed to 1.9th of a second in order to make this image. I also pressed my camera tightly against a wall of a nearby garden to minimize blurring due to camera shake. I include a palm tree to the left of the moon to offer both an idea of the moon’s scale and my location. This once-in-a-lifetime sight will always remain in my memory, and this photograph will always be there for me to verify it.
(The narrow streets of Mission Beach were full of eclipse-viewers, and nearly all of them were trying to make a picture of this blood-red moon using their cellphone cameras. Most of them voiced disappointment over their results, largely because their cellphone cameras lacked the necessary telephoto optics. The moon was barely visible in their pictures. A lucky few were also carrying telescopes on tripods to view the event, and they could easily have placed their cellphone camera lenses against the telescope’s eye-piece to make large, clear images of the eclipse.)
13-SEP-2015
Freighter, Mission Beach, California, 2015
During our visit to Mission Beach, I was fortunate to be able to photograph the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean for 27 consecutive nights. On most summer evenings in San Diego, the skies are usually clear. But at least once or twice a week some clouds appear, filling the skies with the golden reflections of a setting sun. I made this image on just such an evening. The setting sun is tucked away behind the fiery orange clouds. I am able to photograph the effects of the setting sun, rather than the setting sun itself. The image becomes an exercise in color, shape, and texture. It only needs a focal point to make it work, and by pure chance, a large freighter appears on the horizon, slowly moving towards the right hand edge of the frame. Juxtaposed against the blue sea and golden sky, the silhouetted freighter helps me once again use scale incongruity to compare this impressive example of man-made technology to the even more massive and staggeringly beautiful presence of nature.
05-SEP-2015
A final illusion, Mission Beach, California, 2015
There are two key moments to watch for during any sunset – the instant the bottom of the sun touches the sea itself, and the final glimpse of the top edge of the sun as it slips below the horizon. (The later moment, sometimes producing what is called a “green flash,” is not the subject of many photographs because it is produces only a seldom seen, instantaneous wink of green light.) On the other hand, when a setting sun first touches the sea, a golden reflection sometimes seems to rise from the sea to greet it. Just such a fortunate moment occurs here. The sun has descended through a thin layer of overhead clouds, and a tiny strand of cloud still lingers across its upper quarter. These colors are illusory. We know that the sun becomes yellow as it nears the horizon, but at this instant only the top quarter remains yellow, half becomes orange, and the lower quarter turns red. The sun becomes a multi-colored disc of reflected color and light as it magically merges with the sea below it. These colors are created by how my digital camera’s sensor happens to record light and color. The edges of the sun seem to shimmer as well, an effect caused by my long telephoto lens. All of these illusory effects combine here to create a photograph of great natural beauty. This image also brings appropriate closure to a gallery devoted to finding new ideas in familiar subjects.