Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Lunar Eclipse

Hi there folks!

Ever since I got back, haven't been doing much photography... I think the warm weather is somewhat to blame...

However, an opportunity presented itself in the shape of the lunar eclipse, which occurred between the past Thursday and Friday...

The skies were rather cloudy in this part of the world, and far from ideal for a good lunar eclipse shot. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience...

Dramatic Skies © Osama Sidat
In the Midst of Clouds © Osama Sidat
Eerie © Osama Sidat
The Glowing Red Moon © Osama Sidat


Other images from the lunar eclipse can be found here.

For this shoot, I used my Sony Alpha A100, with the Sony 55-200mm, Minolta 70-210mm f/4, and a Tamron 2X teleconverter.

As the moon began to near the full eclipse, the eclipsed part began to become red, almost glowing. Unfortunately, as the eclipse moved towards completion, the clouds cover intensified, resulting in the conclusion of the shoot. It was said that the "Milky Way" would be visible this time around during the lunar eclipse... which the clouds apparently barred us from seeing...

Anyways... enjoy the pics!

Until next time...

4 comments:

  1. These are some very interesting pictures you have got here, now if you had pictures of lightening, that would complete your "portfolio". I have had a chance to get a glimpse of your other pictures. I notices that the only thing you are missing is a ligthening in the sky! I am hoping to see that too in your profile one day! Excellent photographer, I must say.

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  2. Thanks for the wonderful compliments!

    Lightning is something I look forward to shooting... however, it's random nature makes it a challenging target... not to mention that lightning is almost always accompanied by rain, which presents a potential risk to camera gear. Nevertheless, I'll be on the lookout and grab some lightning shots when I can...

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  3. MashaAllah. beautiful. Straight out of Twilight :P My parents woke me up for it. Went to the balcony, looked into the sky a few seconds before the eclipse started, got bored n went back to sleep. Been hitting myself ever since. Btw, since I don't know much of the photography profession, do photographer's photoshop their photos as a rule? Or is it a dirty little secret of the proffession?

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  4. Thanks for the compliments, Faysal. To be honest, sitting under the night sky for three whole hours was kinda boring. But it was worth it...

    Photography is an art where you set your own rules to achieve what you want. As a photographer, I aim not to show what exactly was there, rather show what I wanted to see...

    Depending on the situation, my effort is divided into 40-60% into actual photo-taking, with the rest of the efforts in tweaking the photos in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Most of the shots I upload here, on Flickr and on Facebook are all edited to a certain degree. Often I have found that shots which are totally ruined at the time of taking can be rescued if the editing is done in an efficient manner.

    Some are of the opinion that if a photo is not directly out of camera, it is not true photography. I beg to differ. Think of digital tweaking as developing film. The processes have more in common than one would realize.

    So unless bound by client or competition limitations, the photographer is free to (and should, in my opinion) produce photos in accordance to his/her own rules...

    Cheers...

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