On Friday night, Mark had to cover a night shift and work from 7pm to 7am. As such, it was difficult for me to get to sleep. I wanted to stay up with him partly to make sure he was okay and partly because I didn’t want to climb into an empty bed. I stayed up until 4am which is not advisable when you’re 31 and have absolutely no reason to be missing that much sleep (like a baby or emergency).
At one point, I got up and took a look out in the backyard and saw the most beautiful moonlit sky. Clouds were passing in front of the moon and without the excuse of the husband or kids I knew I had to break out the tripod and go outside to shoot. I had never before attempted long exposure night shots, so I was super excited to be doing something new with my photography for a change.
Unfortunately by time I got my tripod set up, all the clouds were past the moon. Boo. Around 5am there was a lunar eclipse my husband got to witness. Even though I know nothing actually happened to the moon, it feels neat to know I got a picture of the moon shortly before an eclipse!
Most of the shots I tried to take turned out like it was daytime. I think the first secret to shots including the moon and clouds is probably not to use a 50mm lens, but it’s not like I had much of a choice. Perhaps a filter would do something to make the exposure turn out more “night like” while still capturing detail.
Earlier in the day when Mr. Serious was outside playing with the water table I noticed a new couple standing outside next door. They appeared to be about our age, which would made sense if one was the child of the older woman who lives there. When I stepped outside to shoot at around 1am, the man was standing outside smoking. I am not sure if he was, but it felt like he was staring at me and it made me a bit self-conscious. Twenty minutes passed and he’d long since finished his cigarette, but was still standing outside looking over in my direction. I kept wondering if he was a photographer and thought how I was setting up my shots and the fact that I didn’t have a remote shutter release was incredibly stupid. I wanted to flee back inside and only return when he was gone, but I was proud of myself for standing my ground. If I were my husband, I probably would have said hi to him, but I was a little freaked out that he might have been a pervert to try to initiate any sort of pleasantries with him.
In retrospect, even though I don’t have a shutter release remote, I should have used the self-timer! I don’t know why that thought didn’t occur to me! Texas skies are incredible, so I know I’ll get more chances to shoot at night. Hopefully I can get a telescopic some day, which will probably make shots like these a million times better!
The starry sky shot had a 30 second exposure. I tried longer through the bulb setting, which allows you to expose as long as you have the shutter depressed, but they all came out too bright. I haven’t done a lot of reading on getting good night sky exposures, but it’s pretty obvious I need to.
I love a starry sky!