The last time I observed a lunar eclipse I was in high school which by now is many many years ago. Therefore, I decided not to miss this mornings lunar eclipse despite the middle of the night timing.
I met up with some photographer friends of mine in Everglades National Park around 1:00 AM to try and capture the lunar eclipse on digital film. We started our adventure at Pine Glades Lake and then decided to venture out into one of the cypress domes to try and shoot the eclipse through the forest of trees.
The cypress dome did not produce any useable images. However, I did capture a good image of a lone cypress tree with the moon above it. I used a flashlight to paint/illuminate the tree during the exposure. I also took two images and combined them into one. One image exposed for the night sky and the other exposed for the moon. For the moon exposure I also changed to a longer lens. Using my 16-35 causes the moon to look miniscule in the image. Whereas with my longer lens I can capture a moon that looks closer to what I perceive in real life.
One of the more interesting images I captured was of the lunar eclipse just before it was completely blocked by the earth’s shadow. I captured this image at Pine Glades Lake just as a layer of fog had started to develop above the lake. I used some rocks as a foreground subject. During the exposure I flashed the high beams of my truck to illuminate the fog in the distance as well as the rocks. The image looks as if the bottom of the moon is illuminating the fog but it is not. I also converted this image to black and white.
It was amazing to witness the eclipse from beginning to end. This was especially true of the effect the eclipse had on the night sky. Prior to the eclipse the moon was causing too much light pollution to see anything but the brightest of stars. During the peak of the eclipse the stars became instantly visible and thousands were visible all at once.
I had a good time observing nature and trying to photograph what I was witnessing. Here a few images from this morning.
