" The Lunar Eclipse"

“The Lunar Eclipse”
The Longest total Lunar eclipse of the century was visible in South Africa. I reside in the Southern Peninsula, of Cape Town and the whole week, there were reports of us not being able to see this as we were in for a cold front, with rain and cloud cover.
On Friday I made a decision that if the skies were clear by 17:00 I will go out and attempt at getting the clips captured, with a couple of like-minded photography friends.
As with any project, event or outing I spend some time beforehand coming up with Ideas about how to put my own creative angle into the capture, and hopefully do something different or unique.
Creativity stems from within and making Ideas a reality can be a very rewarding experience. It can also be very disappointing, but I have learned to try and have some plan b’s or c’s or use what is available to replace the idea so that the day is not a total waste.
I had Simons town in my mind since the first report of the Eclipse, for no particular reason, but knew it was dark, fairly safe and there would be some areas where I could get a long exposure of the area to be able to do a composite. I wanted something different and unique to the area in which we live.
My first Idea was to shoot the Roman Rock Lighthouse in Simons town and form an arch of moon transition over it. I was not entirely happy with my image, so shot a whole lot of different creative backgrounds I could use, including bokeh of lights in the distance, the light on the sea and so on.
The Penumbral eclipse started around 19:15 and we captured our first shots of the night on Sea forth Beach. It was really chilly and the wind started to pick up. Patric who was down with myself and Mark stayed within walking distance from Sea forth and just before nine we decided to head to his home where we could warm up, have coffee grab a bite to eat and sit until late as it was safe there.
We were accompanied down the road, by some very verbal and cute Penguins waddling down by Moonlight.
It was amazing how fast the moon really moved as regular adjustments had to be made to the tripod in order to keep the focus on the moon. The second stage, Partial eclipse, happened just after 20:24 followed by the Total eclipse at 21:30 and Maximum eclipse at 22:21.
During the Maximum, we were left in total darkness, and decided to turn off all the lights, as the sky was so clear and all stars visible including the Milky Way! I tilted my tripod and camera straight up at the sky and shot the Milky way which I decided to use for my composite. My timing was perfect as minutes later clouds moved in and it became misty, so I could not capture the reverse of the Eclipse to round my idea off, unfortunately.
I was really pleased and blessed by the fact that I could see the Eclipse, but to capture it was really special.
Ideas don’t always materialise the way in which we intend, but with good company, good laughs and some creativity in the mix. What more can any photographer ask for?

Love and Light

Melanie C