My Not-So-Super Eclipse Experience

For those. . .not in the know, there was a super lunar eclipse on September 27th, 2015 (this past Sunday). I was pretty excited and thought it would be a great opportunity to test out the new camera that my wonderful wife, Kyra, got for me.  So I did some research and found this website which was tremendously helpful and gave me the awesome idea of doing a stacked shot (like the one below). The idea was to set up and take the shots from Kerry Park, one of the more famous picture spots in Seattle.

What I was TRYING to get. Photo credit: Fred Espenak http://www.MrEclipse.com 

Armed with this knowledge, I did all the calculations and prep work I could do at home. I printed out the exposure guidelines, I used the PlanIt for Photographers app on my phone to "preframe" the shot, and I tested out my camera, tripod, and intervalometer to make sure all of  my equipment worked.

Finally, the big day arrived.  The golden hour started around 6:15, moonrise was around 7:00, the blue hour began around 7:15 and the maximum eclipse was scheduled at 7:47. I knew it was going to be busy so I arrived around 5:30 to a pretty packed house, found a place to squeeze in, got everything set up, and waited.

I took a few shots of the city during the golden and blue hours, only one really turned out, but they were primarily to test the composition and to get the one good shot to use as a base layer for the image stack.

Blue Hour Seattle From Kerry Park: 60mm, 25 second exposure, f/22 ISO 100

At around 7:30, I realized that the moon was supposed to be up, but I couldn't see it.  I pulled out my trusty compass to verify the direction of the moon rise, set it to 90 degrees. . .and ended up staring directly into a building. A TALL building.  I double checked my app and found out that the moon wouldn't be be past/above the building at around 9:30, well past the eclipse.

Well, crap! There goes my idea.  I didn't want to just pack it in, so after thinking it over for a few minutes I figured that the best place to go would be West Seattle. I hopped into my car and raced across town, parked illegally at Salty's (sorry), grabbed my tripod and set up by the water.  The overall framing of the pictures wasn't that great as the moon was really pretty far South of the city, but at least I could fit it all in the frame.

I started by taking a few close-up shots, of which one turned out fairly nice.  I was looking for some way to frame the moon, but there really wasn't anything around. Yeah, that's the top of a very scraggly tree in the bottom right, and the glow is from the lights on Harbor Island. All in all, for a hurried drive across town to even see the damn moon, I'm not too upset.

The Moon from the parking lot of Salty's in West Seattle. 105mm, 4 second exposure, f/4.0, ISO 400

After going for a few close-up shots of the moon, I recomposed the shot in an effort to get Seattle and the moon at the same time and ended up taking several shots.  By this point, I was no longer thinking about shooting in constant intervals to stack, I was just playing with different aperture, ISO, and shutter speeds seeing what I could do.  After taking around 70 shots I ended up with about 4 that I thought were worth saving and post processing.

One of many shots that I thought turned out OK.  This is actually the backdrop to the entire stack.
24mm, 4 seconds, f/4.0, ISO 400

Another one. Yeah, I know that it is very underexposed, but I found I personally enjoyed how the city lights look when the rest is underexposed. 24mm, 10 seconds, f/8.0 ISO 400

24mm, 15 seconds, f/8.0, ISO 200

Very dark, but personally, I think this has the sharpest city lights.
24mm, 8 seconds, f/11.0, ISO 400

It was only after the fact, way after the fact (in fact?) that I realized I took enough photos to do some type of stack that would allow me to see the transition of the moon out of eclipse state.  So, I went back to the drawing board and reloaded all of the RAW files from the camera (when I reject photos I generally delete the RAW files as well to save space. If I reject a photo, I reject a photo).

I then filtered through these files for ones that showed the progression of the moon at the appropriate (enough) intervals.  Once identified, I exported those photos into Photoshop as layers and did the whole mask layers thing to make each moon appear.  For a first attempt, it turned out alright.  The biggest issue is that I was taking each of these photos with an eye on the city skyline more so than the moon and in some cases ended up with either a slightly over exposed moon, or the moon noticeably moving in the shot.  Oh well, better that I tried, had fun, and learned something than just give up when things didn't turn out as planned.

The final stack.  Not too shabby for an afterthought.  It was fun and I can't wait for another opportunity to try something like this again.

Lessons Learned:

1. When possible, SCOUT THE LOCATION BEFOREHAND!!!  This is especially true when dealing with incredibly rare events such as a super-blood-moon eclipse.  Had I gone out to Kerry park a day or two before the eclipse and watched the moon rise (or at a minimum pulled out my compass) I would have immediately known that the location would not work.  Unfortunately, due to new baby and wedding shenanigans I was unable to do this.
2. When you make a plan to take a specific type of shot, stick to that plan.  This is in reference to the moon-stacking shot.  I planned to do the stacking shot, then forgot about it when I drove across town and ended up with fewer exposures, and improperly exposed for the moon.  Had I stuck to the plan of a multiple-exposure shot then I would have captured the full eclipse, more moons, and each moon would look better.
3. Be flexible.  I know, I know.  This flies in the face of the second lesson, but it is an important one anyway.  I could have stayed at Kerry park all night and not gotten much of anything.  It was my willingness to leave that got me something at least.  However, it would have been better had I pre-picked an alternate location before hand. . .so perhaps the lesson should be
4. Have a backup plan for when things don't end up as planned. And, finally
5. Have fun and learn something.  After all, isn't this why anyone has a hobby, to have fun and learn a new skill.  If you keep getting upset and frustrated because things don't turn out perfectly, you will never do anything.  Mistakes are part of the learning process.  I can guarantee that I won't make these same mistakes the next super-blood-moon eclipse. . .in 18 years :)