Requesting Suggestion For Saturday'S Lunar Eclipse Background

[macnmotion]

Hi. On Saturday evening (December 10, 2011) there will be a total lunar eclipse viewable in Thailand. As the eclipse begins around 7:30PM, the moon will have just risen in the ENE, then travel directly up for the next 3.5 hours. I'd like to have something interesting and thematic of Thailand in the foreground. So I'm looking for somewhere, perhaps along the river, to set up where I can view something beautiful (e.g. a Wat or something else) in the foreground. I'll be using a fairly wide angle for this shot (probably shooting at 16mm).

Any suggestions? Thanks! Andy

[ETatBKK]

thanks for the info, I will keep my head up :-)

where and how to get the foreground, it is a matter of style and taste. you have already some good ideas !

perhaps you need to pack a telephoto with you too, if you want to get a fairly big moon in the background. using a wide angle then the moon becomes millimeter in size.

with a telephoto, you may consider to move away from the foreground too.

just a suggestion :-)

[macnmotion]

Thanks for the suggestion. It's looking as though I'll try to find a spot across the river and to the SW of the Grand Palace, which should make for a nice foreground. The reason I'm going wide is that I'm planning on taking a "Moon Trail" photo, essentially showing a time lapse of the eclipse. I did this about 7 years ago, but with no thought to foreground (just shot between trees in my yard). Now I would like to try again.

Here is the one I took 7 years ago:

http://www.andychatman.com/moon/eclipsetrailbright.jpg

I've done the close-ups of lunar eclipses, through both telephotos and telescopes, and after you've done that once or twice there's not too much exciting about repeating it. :-)

Andy

[pauljones]

The lights of the Grand Palace may be too bright?

How about popping a flash on something in the foreground. That might be good.

[macnmotion]

The lights of the Grand Palace may be too bright?

How about popping a flash on something in the foreground. That might be good.

They may be, I don't know. I'll be shooting at ISO 100, F22 which will cut them down as much as possible. And I can decide how long I want each sub-exposure to be. When I did it 7 years ago I used 120 second subs. But if I have to I can go with 30-seconds and just have a lot more images to stack. A final option would be to take one extra shot exposing for the Grand Palace, then substituting that in for the foreground if it's blown out in the eclipse subs.

Thanks. Andy

[pauljones]

I found this shot. Sort of what I had in mind. Using a flash on the foreground.

4348848175_539085c881.jpg

[macnmotion]

Here is the result!!

What a crazy day. Beginning at around 1:30PM, I spent a couple hours on the west side of the Chao Praya trying to find a suitable location to shoot across the river toward the Grand Palace. However the only place that might have worked was a Thai Naval Base, and of course that's off limits. The view from Wat Arun was no good. I took the ferry back to the east side of the river and started walking toward the Grand Palace, but there was nowhere with a good view (the security wall is way too high).

Next idea was the Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree Hotel. I got there by taxi/BTS/MRT/Walking. It was pushing 5:30PM. They would not allow me to photograph there. Finally I made arrangements to hit the roof of the condo I used to live in, off of Ekamai. I got there and was set up on the 28th floor with a half hour to spare, just enough time to grab some dinner.

The sky was relatively clear (a bit hazy), and it was crazy windy up there! Unfortunately all of the city's skyscrapers were behind me toward the west. But anyway, here is the photo! This is a composite of 104 2-minute exposures (over 3-1/2 hours) taken with a Canon 5DII + 16-35L at 16mm. ISO 100. F22. Shot in RAW, developed in Adobe Camera Raw, and stacked using Photoshop CS5 Statistics (Maximum) command. The bright object rising to the upper right of the moon is Jupiter.

[svenivan]

Well done ! A very special photo!

Thanks for sharing the event!

[hughden]

Very creative; never seen an eclipse captured in that way before.