Monday, December 12, 2011

Black Flag (Full Moon)

.
Black Flag (Full Moon)

There was a full moon Saturday night. Moonrise was about 5:50 PM, a reasonable hour, so I went out looking for a place where I could shoot it with the Arch in the picture. Driving back and forth on the overpasses across Interstates 44 and 64, looking for a spot to set up the tripod, nothing seemed to work: no sidewalk, tall fence, bad angle. As I drove slowly on the Mississippi Avenue overpass across I 44, I saw the pale yellow globe, fat as a big potato, rising over downtown. That was where I had to make my stand.

The result was a failure. I couldn't come close to exposing for both the moon and the Arch. My hands shaking in the cold, I could not get my tripod and big telephoto lens locked down tight enough for a 1 second exposure without bad shake. To salvage the shoot I tried to get just the bright disk. The sky was black in contrast to the city light below. After downloading the pictures, the moon looked like the emblem on a simple black flag, laden with much more meaning than the Jolly Roger.

8 comments:

cieldequimper said...

Well I like it. I've just seen it outside high in the sky, 8:00 am and as usual, I talked to her.

Olivier said...

magnifique photo de la lune et je trouve que le b&w lui va si bien a cette "lune noire"

Bergson said...

fanstastic B&W

brattcat said...

valiant effort, beautiful result in the end.

Sharon said...

This is wonderful. Sounds like it might have been a frustrating experience but you did get a great shot. I've tried a good number of times to get a good moon shot and still haven't gotten one.

Jack said...

Pretty spectacular, Bob. There is always tomorrow . . .

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Gosh I'd be happy with this Bob.. You should have seen my pitiful attempt to take a shot of the eclipse the other night, hopeless!!

Shandi Penrod said...

Like a beautiful flag of humanitarianism.