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Moonrise Glen Aulin 11X14 P7310590

Shot in the High Sierras in the Glen Aulin area of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.

Shot in the High Sierras in the Glen Aulin area of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.
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OLYMPUS E-M5

settings

Aperture f/7.1 ISO 200 Shutter 1/320 Focal Length 300/1

upload_date

Jun, 2015

Views

1637

Likes

+290

Awards

Contest Finalist in The Moon Photo Contest

Staff Winter Selection 2015

Peer Award

+30

Top Choice

+27

Superb Composition

+25

Absolute Masterpiece

+20

Outstanding Creativity

Magnificent Capture

Superior Skill

All Star

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at a summit of a rock dome, just above the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp in Tuolumne Meadows, which is located in Yosemite National Park.

Time

My wife and I decided to leave the camp to shoot the sunset. We had scouted out the spot earlier in the day. After the sunset shots were finished we turned around and saw the moon rising behind the trees behind us.

Lighting

The lighting was all natural and I made the exposure from the moon, overexposing it a couple of stops.

Equipment

I used an Olympus E-M5 with a 75-300mm zoom lens. For those not familiar with micro four thirds format systems the lens has a 35mm full frame focal length equivalence of 150-600mm. Since this was a six day mule trip the equipment had to be minimal. I also used a Manfrotto CX PRO3 carbon fiber tripod with a 494 RC ball head.

Inspiration

The moon!

Editing

Of course! When taking long telephoto shots of the moon, and you see sharp focus of the closer distance foreground, and tens of thousands of miles away background, the picture is made from two exposures. I knew that I had to make two exposures, one for the silhouetted trees and one for the moon. Each shot was taken during the shoot. I merged the two in Photoshop CC and cleaned up the overlapping edges.

In my camera bag

My latest bag contains the following: Olympus E-M1 (Mark 1), Olympus 12-40mm PRO, Olympus 45mm 1.8, Olympus 60mm 1:1 macro, Olympus 75-300mm Mark II zoom, Panasonic 7-14mm and Pan-Leica 25mm 1.4 Summicron. Six batteries, memory cards, chargers, Olympus FL-300 flash, Dell M3800 workstation laptop and a bunch of cords and adapters. My bag is a small Case-logic backpack which I can also attach my tripod to it. Micro 4/3 cameras have almost cut in two the weight and bulk of what I used to carry. In the old days I would backpack for a week in the mountains with a Hasselblad body, three film magazines, lenses, an aluminum tripod and lots of film! My motto was "It is easier to carry the lens I might need than hike back to the car for four days to get the lens I do need!"

Feedback

See my note under post-processing for doing moon shots. I think it is very important for those doing moon shots to keep this is mind. I think this gives an authenticity to the photo. Just adding a stock photo of a large moon to a shot may look impressive, but many times just not fit the scene.

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Moonrise Glen Aulin 11X14 P7310590

Shot in the High Sierras in the Glen Aulin area of Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Shutterspeedblog

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