Light Rays Through the Clouds

My sister's friend Carmen just bought a beautiful new Canon 5D MarkIII camera and she wanted to take it out for a spin. The three of us went over to the local park for sunset shots. It was one of those pretty evenings with some heavy clouds broken up by rays of light.

I like the above shot because, if you look closely, you can see the cranes in Long Beach that are used to offload cargo containers in LA Harbor. That's in the ballpark of 20 miles away, so cool that we could see them so clearly!

Here are my photo partners for the evening. My sister's likely to kill me for posting this, but couldn't resist!

Even had an opportunity for a fence shot:

We were packing up our camera gear. They sky was getting dark with very little color so we thought the show was over. Just then, the sun slipped under some heavy cloud cover and we had about a brief minute or two to enjoy watching the sun sink below the horizon.

Our last shot of the evening was trying out some long exposure shots as we headed back to the car.

F32, ISO 100, 13 second exposure, 200mm focal length.

Overall, a good night for photography!

Linking with 

and Skywatch Friday. Click on the link to check out fences and skies from around the world! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Land of the Wind Turbines

You know you are finally getting away from the urban sprawl of S. CA when you spot the first wind turbines as you head east on Interstate 10. These start to pop up somewhere around the Cabazon dinosaur (the "world's biggest dinosaur gift store", the Morongo Casino, and the outlet stores. San Gorgonio Mountain (11,503') is immediately to your north, and Mt. San Jacinto (10,834') to your south. These two mountains create something of a wind tunnel in the area, hence the nearly constant winds. Palm Springs is just ahead. As the big desert vistas come into view, my blood pressure immediately drops by about 10mmHg (at least that's what it feels like!). I took these shots two weekends ago on our way out to 29 Palms. The sky was heavy with rain clouds (turned out to be just a tease with not much rain). I chose B&W for this post, as I think it gives the sky a bit more drama.

The turnoff sign for 29 Palms/Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree (Highway 62) as you head east on Interstate 10.

My wife and Coyote Bait, Whitewater Road

Land of the Wind Turbines

Westbound traffic, Interstate 10

Unidentified and fenced off old buildings at Whitewater.  I wonder what this was??

I'm reading a book called My Life on the Mojave by June LeMert Paxton, who moved to the 29 Palms area in 1932. She said back then the closest mail delivery was in Whitewater (where these photos were taken). That's some 30+ miles on unpaved, rocky desert road to get your mail!! It would have been a very long, treacherous drive, even for the best of vehicles! I wonder if the old structure above might have been the Whitewater post office? I like that old door and the frame around it!

Linking with   and Skywatch Friday.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Cloud-Eating Dinosaur!!

My granddaughter loves these dinosaurs along Highway 62 between Joshua Tree and 29 Palms. She gets excited every time we drive by them! I couldn't resist stopping and taking a few pics on my way out to 29 a couple weekends ago. It was a beautiful sky in every direction!

Here's a shot of Rex eating a cloud for lunch!

Linking with Skywatch Friday and

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Lunar Eclipse

I've never tried taking pics of a lunar eclipse before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The moonrise was at about 6:45 PM here on the west coast. Right from the start, at least half the moon was obscured by the eclipse.

I had a great vantage point from which to view the eclipse, and to the northwest, the skies were nicely lit up as people waited for the moon. Evidently, my vantage point isn't much of a secret!

As the moon moved higher on the horizon, the visible crescent became smaller...

And smaller... this one reminds me of an eyeball or a diamond ring!

And smaller still. Here, just the slightest edge is illuminated.

Same image as above, just cropped. I like this shot... never seen a moon look like this before!

Finally, the moon just kind of disappeared for a while. Without a strong telephoto lens, binoculars, or a telescope, you would have been disappointed. People around me started to chit chat, and a few left. However, viewed through my telephoto lens, I could see the faint moon picking up a definite reddish tint by about 7:45 PM.

F/11, 2 sec exposure, 800mm, ISO 3200

The biggest challenges of shooting a lunar eclipse? 1] It's a very "dull" moon, so you must manually focus (difficult with an object putting out very little light). 2] The moon is moving quickly, so you need to keep your exposure at or under about 2 seconds or it will be blurry. Not an issue at all for a "normal" moon. For a lunar eclipse, it means you really have to push your ISO, which adds grain. Bottom line: Very difficult to get a clear, sharp, non-grainy lunar eclipse shot!!

Hope you had a chance to go out and check out the lunar eclipse! Linking with Skywatch Friday. Click on the link to check out great skies from around the world!!