Full Moon over DC, Part 2, Feb 2013

I recently posted a few images I took of the full moon as it rose over Washington, D.C.  Now that I've had a little time to process some of the images, I've developed a multiple exposure image and a time lapse video showing the progression of the full moon as it rose of the National Mall.  

Multiple Exposure of Full Moon rising over Washington, D.C., Feb 2013

As always, I look forward to reading your comments.

Full Moon over DC - Feb 2013

Beautiful night to capture the Full Moon Rise over DC this evening.  One of the clearest nights to capture this event in several years.  

Time Lapse of Full Moon rise over DC 2012

While I was photographing the Full Moon rise over DC yesterday, I tried something new.  I set up a second camera set to take a picture every 20 seconds.  I then used the timeline function in Photoshop CS6 to create this time lapse video.  With it, you can, in 5 seconds, watch 45 minutes of clouds moving across DC.  If you blink, you'll miss the moon as it was only visible for 4 or 5 minutes, the rest of time it was obscured by clouds.  Next time I try this, I'll use an interval of 5 or 10 seconds instead of 20.

Full Moon over DC -- Sept 2012

I ventured down to DC to capture the full moon rise over Washington DC this evening.  The full moon in Sept usually lines up nicely with the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and Capitol building, creating a wonderful shot.  I was hesitant to make the trip because of all the clouds, and it was quite cloudy so that we couldn't see the moon until about 15 minutes after it rose.  Thankfully, the moon peaked out from behind the clouds for a few minutes.

As I said in my post last year, the best place to capture this image is from in front of the Netherlands Carillon

Update:  Check out my next post where I show a 5 second time lapse video of the moon rise

Labor Day Weekend at VMI

Stonewall Jackson and the setting sun

Over Labor Day weekend, I returned to one of my favorite photographic subjects, the Virginia Military Institute located in Lexington, VA. It was fun watching the upper class cadets start to mold the new cadets into VMI citizen soldiers.  The sky was cloudy or overcast for most of the weekend, so I focused most of my shots before sunrise or after sunset to capture the "blue" sky rather than a white overcast.

Jackson Memorial Hall

Virginia Military Institute

Cadet Battery

A "Rat" gets some extra instruction

Morning Formation

First Snow

First Snow at White Sulphur Springs Heritage House

This past weekend, my family went to a weekend getaway at White Sulphur Springs, Eastern conference center of Officers' Christian Fellowship.  While there, we received around 10 inches of snow.  Snow of any amounted is unexpected for the end of October, but great fun for photography and enjoying the time away.

OCF just opened the Heritage House conference center this past spring, so not only was it the first snow of the year, it was the first snow to fall on the newly opened center.  

Night falls on the first snow at Heritage House

Saguaros, Sunrises and Star Trails

Saguaro at Sunset, McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix, AZ

I just returned from a 3 day trip to Phoenix and was blessed by a gorgeous sunset the first night and beautiful clear skies the next two nights.  Pictures of long exposure light trails, with the stars swirling around the North Star, have always been favorites of mine.  I have tried, unsuccessfully, several times over the past couple years.  I finally succeeded early one morning a couple weeks ago with a star trail over the Potomac River.  However, I couldn't get a long enough exposure before the sun rose.  More importantly, I lacked an interesting foreground.  The Saguaro Cactus and desert night sky of Arizona could solve both of those issues.

Light Trails at McDowell Mountain Park near Phoenix, AZ

I arrived in Phoenix to cloudy skies -- not promising conditions for star trails.  I went to McDowell Mountain Regional Park anyway, if nothing else just to scout out the area.  I arrived just after sunset.  While there I played around with some long exposures, light painting saguaro cacti and finally capturing a 6 minute exposure of the night sky as I drove the car back and forth along the road -- with only the parking lights, no headlights.

More images and light trails after the jump: