Furious Skies

The ray shooting down was visible again for a very short time.

At this point it was getting less and less visible as the sun plunged into the horizon. I really wish I would have thought and pulled over during the big show earlier.

There was a really cool cloud deck moving in to the left hand side of the picture. Later on after I moved to a different position for the eclipse it provided an AWESOME addition to the sunset. Why I didn't get any pictures of that is beyond me. I suppose I was just too busy scanning the skies for the moon.

I got a little too carried away with the pillar. The moon was scheduled to rise at approximately 5:50. I knew I had a little extra time since it would be completely blanked out when it first came over the horizon, but it was already a quarter til 6 now and my location was quite a ways away yet. I quickly packed up and set off.

I finally got to my road where I wanted to shoot, but it was closed. They had a barricade up but there was JUST enough room for me to drive around it. The Rock River's banks are swelling quite a bit which has forced a backwater ditch to completely engulf the road. I didn't need to go that far anyway. I finally pulled off, shut the truck off and waited. I noticed there was quite a bit of haze on the horizon. I wasn't sure if this was going to effect anything or not. I should have known better though because I have been out many times shooting the full moon at twilight with the same exact scene.

So I waited just a little bit more, then finally at approximately 6:08 I finally noticed the first sliver.

As the twilight gets a bit stronger, it makes for some very good photo opportunities with this kind of light. Pretty soon the "dark" side of the moon was very visible.

Shooting the moon is extremely tricky. For the eclipsed portion of the moon, I used a slower shutter speed, but it tends to blow out the brighther portion more. In order to capture detail on the bright side, I shot with a really high shutter which made the eclipsed portion completely dark. You just can't have the two in the same shot unless you manipulate in post-processing.

More time passes and the shadow is starting to slide past the moon alot more. I wanted a little something to increase composition. That's I-88 eastbound on the right.

The entire round was really starting to show now.

Back to 88, but this time I over-exposed it JUST a tad to bring out more in the moon. I was happy with the way it came out.

Later on in the night. The shadow is past the halfway point now. It was actually a very slow process. I sort of wanted to hurry up here because 7 o'clock was approaching and I was supposed to be over at my buddy's house for a UFC party. The fights didn't actually start until 9, but we always have a "pre-game" party which is usually pretty fun. I just didn't want to miss any of this.

This time with a little longer exposure to get the light trails from the cars on the interstate.

Ok, now I figure I have enough pictures to satisfy so I decided to take one last one with a higher shutter and set off.

One last shot on the way home. This was actually hand-held pointed out the window. I set the ISO at 1600 at f/4.

So it was a pretty fun day from start to finish. The wedding was actually really, really nice (they usually put me to sleep), I got to witness a partial lunar eclipse, and the nightcap featured a 100" projection screen TV with all of our local fighters in UFC 68. I think my atmospheric optics itch has been over-scratched. Bring on the warmer weather and spring storms!! I'm more than ready.