IMGP6862-Edit, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

My plan was to shoot the rising full moon through a gap in some rocks. It would have been cool but thick clouds to the East obscured the moon while it rose.

It was still a nice sunset and as this image shows the light was great!

I was only able to get this shot because I had my big A*300/4 along for moon shooting. These mountains are probably 20 Miles away but that is where the light was hitting. I couldn't fit this whole scene in the frame so I took a couple of overlapping shots from my tripod and stitched them together back home with Photoshop.

So what's my point? My point is to make lemonade out of lemons. If you get shut out from your mission look around and find a new one. This works for life too. 

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IMGP3156, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I was happy to catch these images tonight of the visiting comet and the crescent moon together. There was a 20 minute window to get the shot in clear skies so a smaller one with these clouds. My son and I hiked to the top of a nearby hill and I got these with my Pentax K-5 and vintage Pentax A*300/4 lens. They were just barely close enough together for 300mm to work! Now I'm getting I'm excited for ISON in November!

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IMGP2896-IMGP3015, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I haven't updated this blog in a while but I have been shooting. So have a look at my Flickr stream if you want to catch up. 

This image is a stack of 120 individual exposures of 10s each. I took it at Waunita Hot Springs Ranch when we stayed over night last night celebrating my son's birthday. 

It got clear after a storm day (of great skiing at Monarch) and the stars were really nice. So I set up for this, started it, and just came back later. Then I combined the images in ImageStacker. I'm happy with the result. 

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IMGP9486, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

Last week my wife texted me that a hot air balloon was over town and the late afternoon light was hitting it nicely. It was the end of my work day so I left as soon as I could get away and drove out to a spot where I thought I could line it up with some interesting background elements. Unfortunately by the time I got to the hilltop The balloon was out of the nice light and the photo wasn't going to be a keeper.
While I was there and I had my vintage Pentax A* 300mm f/4 lens mounted up I scanned around for other shots that might work. A glance toward the sunset in the west revealed these deer on the next ridge and this was the result. I shot a few frames as they grazed and moved down the ridge over the span of a couple of minutes. I liked the position of the deer in the frame so this was the keeper.

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IMGP8492-Edit, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I captured this image from my driveway last night of the moon and Jupiter's conjunction.

They appeared very close together overhead in the night sky.

By blending two exposures I was about to get our moon, Jupiter, and some of Jupiter's moons in the shot. This would be impossible with a single exposure because of the difference in brightness between the objects. Jupiter's moons appear very small and faint while our moon is big and bright. So with one exposure for our moon and Jupiter blended with another exposure for Jupiter's moons we can show them all in one image.

To create this image I shot with my Pentax K-5, Pentax A* 300mm f/4 lens, and Vivitar PK-A R-PK 2x TC (which doubles the effective length of the lens mounted to it).

I took two consecutive exposures 2 stops apart and then combined them using Photoshop CS5 using a layer mask.

Too see the detail better, check out the large version.

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I got this photo from my deck. It was cold, maybe -15 F or so and foggy. The sun was rising behind the mountain, illuminating the frost covered trees. I had to get out there in my socks while the light was good! Not long after the sun came over the mountain and washed everything out.

I took a few shots with different lenses while the light lasted but the old manual A* 300mm f/4 ended up being the tool for the shot I like the best.

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2011-01-16 Frost hdr1.jpg, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I have some canvas prints ready to go (including the image above, but a little lighter than this version) if you are looking for a unique last minute gift. Contact me if you'd like to see what else I have or to make a deal!

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IMGP4614, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

It was an evening of really nice light. I tried to ride out to take some shots of a big military plane doing touch n' go's but missed it. The light stayed nice for a while so I just soaked it in and shot whatever caught my eye until dark.

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IMGP4004, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I had hoped to be skiing this weekend but we don't have enough snow so I got a few rides in instead.
Friday I did a nice solo ride at Hartman Rocks and I kept noticing the moon as I was riding along. Almost as if it was trying to get my attention. Well, it did! I ended up taking several shots that ride which included the moon. This first one includes me as well!

With the moon constantly reminding me of it's presence and it's location in the sky, I had an idea. There's this neat bent old tree that I might be able to frame the moon under. It was maybe a mile away from my location when I had this idea and figured it might be worth it to head over there and see if it would line up.

Before I got to that bent tree I passed this big rock outcropping. With a little adjusting of my position I was able to capture the moon in the slot in these rocks. Cool, so far so good.

Then I got to the tree that brought me over this way. It wasn't easy but by balancing on a boulder (in cycling shoes) and using live view to compose while holding the camera over my head I managed to line this one up too. Hooray for the moon!

Finally on the way home the sunset started getting really good. I rode as quickly as I could to reach this little pond between the KOA and the airport in hopes of catching some nice sunset reflections. As luck would have it I caught the peak of a great sunset at the pond and I had time to snap a few more here before the last couple of chilly miles to get home. This one didn't include the moon as it was in a very clear part of the sky that wasn't as interesting as the parts with clouds. But that's ok. It was a nice ride and a good haul of photos for the day.

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IMGP3179, originally uploaded by MattB.net.

I was off work for a trip that got cancelled so I thought I'd shoot some of the dramatic clouds we were having that day just to get out. I headed down to the river near the Van Tuyl trails and brought a few favorite lenses and my ND 3.0 filter. It's a 10 stop filter which reduces the light coming in by 1/1000x. That allowed for the 25s exposure which have this fun effect in the clouds and water.

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