Shoot the Moon

The photo editors meet-up group I belong to held two photo shoots this weekend to shoot the “super moon.” I ended up going to both of them, and I’m glad I did. I got much better shots the second night. One of the organizers gave a short tutorial on HDR Friday night. I’ve bracketed my photos before, and I’ve owned Photomatix Essentials for over a year, but I’ve never gotten up the courage to try it. It’s so easy, I’m embarrassed I waited so long. Here are my favorite shots from the two nights. I didn’t get any shots I loved of the moon the first night, but there are a couple others I like.

This is the area where Carl gave his tutorial. It’s the underside of the Fredrick Douglas/Susan B. Anthony Bridge that goes over the Genesee River.

Here’s a look at the bridge itself, taken with my iPhone the same evening. No HDR here.

And the downtown skyline at the blue hour.

On Saturday night, we met on the bridge overlooking the Erie Canal in Pittsford.

Here’s a look at an overprocessed HDR. I had to give it a try, but one of the organizers told me the surefire way to tell that it’s overdone is the halos behind the trees. I love that we can get good feedback so I don’t keep making the same mistakes. Good to know when looking at others’ HDR photos as well.

My favorite shot of the moon.

And my final shot. I’ve tried several times before to get good shots of the full moon, but this is the first time I’ve felt at all successful. I always learn something at these photo shoots, and these were no exception. How was the moon where you were? We saw a shot taken in Iowa last night on ABC World News that was nearly three times as large as anything I saw here.