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Hamlin Lake Off Pontoon Boat

A setting full moon greets us as Brad and I wait for dawn's early light. The light of the moon should give us a jump on spotting a snowy owl we know is hanging out in a West Michigan field.

Moon Walker

I always get a thrill out of photographing the moon as it is about to set in the west. On this frosty morning, the moon looks particularly huge and bright.

Grand Island Ice Caves

Blood Moon

The southern limb of the Moon passed through the center of the Earth's shadow.in November of 2022

Werewolf Dreams

Super Moon

The moon is an extremely difficult subject to photograph. If you set your exposure according to the camera meter, then you get some detail in the night sky and foreground, but the moon is a solid white circle with no detail. If you underexpose by three or four stops, then you get the "cheese" of the moon, but no detail in the sky or foreground. The moon also moves so quickly that it requires a relatively fast shutter speed. When it's dark outside, the only way to get a fast shutter speed is to raise your ISO or film speed. However, high film speeds are grainy or noisy. The choice is yours.

The moon is an extremely difficult subject to photograph. If you set your exposure according to the camera meter, then you get some detail in the night sky and foreground, but the moon is a solid white circle with no detail. If you underexpose by three or four stops, then you get the "cheese" of the moon, but no detail in the sky or foreground. The moon also moves so quickly that it requires a relatively fast shutter speed. When it's dark outside, the only way to get a fast shutter speed is to raise your ISO or film speed. However, high film speeds are grainy or noisy. The choice is yours.

With our minds on the new photography book that my dad and I are working on that will cover West Michigan, I decided to head north to Frankfort and my dad headed south to Muskegon to photograph the solar eclipse. In this area of Michigan, we witnessed about 75 percent coverage. We also had clouds to battle, but as we often say, clouds are your friend.

The moon’s “cheese” was not only highly visible but took on a beautiful golden red hue during the lunar eclipse on September 27, 2015. At this point, the moon was almost totally eclipsed. I ended up liking this image better than my total eclipse shot because I felt that the slight highlight of the uneclipsed edge made the photograph more exciting and more three-dimensional looking.

Eclipse With Ludington Lighthouse Shore Light

Tonight, I photographed the Super Worm Moon from the Bryant Soccer Fields near my house. The first full moon of March is called the worm moon. Tonight’s moon is also the second closet of the three supermoons for 2020.

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Launch

Ludington Lunar Sunrise