…as photographed from Northeast Kansas on the evening of March 3, 2007.
Totality was not observed from our vantage point, as the moon slid through the center of the Earth’s shadow before it rose above the horizon in Northeast Kansas. But we were afforded a cool, clear, crisp evening to observe the later 1/3 or so of the event. All shots were taken with the Canon 30D with the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM out to 300mm with varied exposures. The photos are not as crisp as I’d like and I believe this is for two reasons: a poor tripod and imperfect focusing.
The first shot was taken at 6:35pm (a cropped version now appears as the header image). The last eclipse shot was taken at 6:49pm CST. As always, click the image for a larger view.
6:35pm CST / Canon 30D, 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/3 sec
6:38pm CST / Canon 30D, 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/4 sec
6:40pm CST / Canon 30D, 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/5 sec
6:43pm CST / Canon 30D, 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/13 sec
6:48pm CST / Canon 30D, 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/11, ISO 200, 1/15 sec
6:49pm CST / Canon 30D, 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/11, ISO 200, 1/15 sec
I feel tonight’s shots fall into the “acceptable” category. They are not as crisp as I had hoped for and I’ll place some of the blame on my inability to lock the focus on this lens to ¥. If someone knows how to lock the focus of this lens to infinity (is it possible?), please let me know via email or a comment on this post.
The crispest image of the night (click to enlarge) was captured following the eclipse…exactly one hour following the last eclipse shot above, at 7:48pm CDT following the eclipse:
Canon 30D w/ 70-300mm IS USM, 300mm, f/16, ISO 100, 1/125 sec exposure
Technorati Tags: 2007 Lunar Eclipse, Lunar Eclipse Photos, Photography, Astronomy
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August 28, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Pingback from Notes in the Margin · Total Lunar Eclipse of 08/28/07
March 6, 2007 at 8:51 pm
John Boyd
Very nice photos, great job. Nice camera as well!
March 6, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Jake
John -
Thanks for the kind words…photograhpy is a great hobby to have for a meteorologist!
Question for you regarding your blog: Is there a plugin or some other application that allows you to display your images on your blog that way? I have seen it elsewhere and find it very pleasing. As it stands, my images simply open in a new page when clicked, but I like the little animated enlarging window that opens when I click the images on your site.
Thanks again for the feedback.
March 6, 2007 at 10:45 pm
mrblack
read your comments on newsbusters and gave your site a look. great stuff! you are now the expert meteorology blog i go to for info and feedback… hope you don’t mind. i’d also like to link to your site on my blog. i post random stuff, but i do like to include global warming/climate change hysteria there.
http://canisaysomethingelse.blogspot.com/
March 7, 2007 at 6:41 am
Jake
Mr. Black,
Thank you for the kind feed back and that’s great to have you as a reader. I’ve been slowly and irregularly blogging about meteorology topics over the last year or so, but with the recent media hype growing to the fervor that now exists, I’ve seen it as essential to add my voice to this debate. Thankfully, the chorus that disputes the mainstream media hype of man-made global warming is growing and we just need to keep getting louder!
You’re more than welcome to add a link to my site and spread the word. Thanks again for the message!
Jake
March 7, 2007 at 6:48 am
Steve Baarda
Excellent blog. I put a plug in for you at my own blog and added you to one of my links lists. Check me out at:
http://contrarytopopularopinion.blogspot.com/
March 7, 2007 at 6:51 am
Jake
Steve,
Thanks for the great feedback and for the link - the more attention to this issue, the better! I’ll be sure to check out your blog as well.
Jake
March 7, 2007 at 11:58 am
S P
Jake, saw your site at NB and checked it out. I read a lot there but don’t post much.
I don’t know how to lock your 70-300 IS at infinitiy, but I did notice that you got the best shots at f/11 or higher. The initial shots in that series were not as sharp and were at f/5.6, which I believe is wide open for that lens. I’d stick with f/8 or higher for those types of shots. Also, judging by the shutter speeds was that all handheld? If so that’s extremely impressive, but you were also probably pushing the limits of the IS system. Also, f/5.6 telephoto zooms will have a lot more trouble focusing in the dark like this than say an f/2.8 pro zoom. Nonetheless, great shots! I’d try putting it on a tripod, disabling the IS (since tripods mess up IS algorithms), lock iso @ 100, set aperture priority for f/8 or f/11, and just use a longer shutter speed. I shoot Nikon but have the wireless shutter release so I don’t disturb the camera while it’s sitting on the tripod and put sway into the thing. I’ve gotten lots of great night shots thanks to this. The other trick is to just use the shutter delay (5-10 secs) so that any motion in the camera/tripod from hitting the shutter release is damped and gone by the time it takes the picture. So the sharpness might not have necessarily been related to just focus error.
Also, this might be of some help. http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/70-300mm-is.htm
cheers,
Steve
March 7, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Jake
S P -
Thank you so much for the great feedback on the 70-300 lens - some of your thoughts are ones that hadn’t entered my mind.
A little more on the shots I took: I used the IS and DID use a tripod, but it was an old, cheap, insufficient tripod so it was only slightly better than handheld. I concur that using the IS on a good tripod isn’t a good idea, but since it was such a poor tripod, I decided to go with it. I think the rest of your comments on the shots are spot-on and yes, the focus issue could be any number of things.
The wirelss shutter release is a virtual must-have and is on my list for spring purchases (along with a new tripod). I’m looking for feedback on both of those purchases and would like to stay under $100 for the wireless or cable release and under $200 for the tripod if possible.
March 8, 2007 at 9:52 am
S P
I’m not sure about Canon, but the ML-L3 wireless release for my Nikon was the best $17 I ever spent! It’s also great for family/group shots that I want to include myself in too. I just use a cheapo Quantaray QT-100 travel tripod which is great for travel and the lighter lenses that I have, but it wouldn’t have nearly the support for 300mm night time shots. For some tripod recommendations check here:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/tripods.htm
The Ken Rockwell site has historically been Nikon, but he’s expanded into Canon recently by popular request and now has a lot of reviews for Canon gear, including that 70-300 IS lens, and your 30D. Best of all he’s independent so he’ll call it like he sees it and won’t feed you any BS since he’s not depending on freebies from the manufacturers to get gear for reviews like a lot of other online sites. And then a lot of the stuff on there is general photography technique that applies to anything, not just Nikon or Canon. Just hit the search button for any topic and he probably has a write-up for it. This is probably the best photographic site I’ve ever come across, and there are A LOT of them out there.
Anyhow, great blog you’ve got here. The whole GW alarmist stuff is fascinating to me and I like your analysis of that so I’ve bookmarked your site and will be reading, although (like NB) I probably won’t comment much. Keep up the great work! :)
Steve