Super Moon March 19, 2011

Yesterday, the full moon was the brightest its been in almost 18 years. That's because it was the closest it's been to the earth in that amount of time. Dubbed the "Super Moon", and not expected to happen for another 18 or so years, it was something to behold.

We were blessed here in southeast Florida to have a cloudless sky, so I was able to capture it in all its glory. I wasn't set up in time to photograph it as it poked above the horizon in a blaze of bright orange color, but I did get some decent pics of what looked like an ever changing bowling ball in the sky. The golden yellowish orange colors came first and it evolved into a brilliant, bright white orb.

Unfortunately, I don't have a super telephoto lens, so I had to make do with my Canon EF-S 55-250 mm lens, and my tripod, although there was not much distinction, if any, between the tripod shots and the handheld ones.

I set it to manual and daylight for the whole shoot, but towards the end when it was plain white, I used a flash. I kept the ISO at 100 to 200. F8 to F11. 1/125 to 1/250. I bracketed some at the beginning, and then stopped.

These are cropped, big time, with some minimal tweaking in Photoshop.

My Stones By A Stream Made It To Front Page Of Etsy

This beautiful treasury made it to the coveted Front Page of Etsy early this morning. It was a tribute to the people of Japan during this terrible time.

I was honored to have my "Stones By A Stream" included.

Vivian Maier- Street Photographer From The 1950s to 1970s

Vivian Maier lived in relative obscurity as a 'street' photographer for her whole life, but some recently discovered photos and undeveloped film inspired Chicagoan John Maloof to create a blog dedicated to her work.  He is now trying to get financing to shoot a documentary film about Maier's life, which sounds fascinating.

Born in New York to a French mother, she worked as nanny/caretaker, but apparently loved photography, taking a ton of rolls of film, many of which were undeveloped when Maloof purchased a box of her things at an auction house for about $400.00. Little did he know what he would unearth. He claims there are anywhere from 30 to 40,000 negatives.

Many of her B&W photos are posted on Maloof's blog, and a Flickr discussion explains the beginnings. Well worth checking out. And if you feel you want to donate to the documentary film, you can click here.

Time Lapse Photography Of A Blizzard

This is a very cool time-lapse video of a blizzard, taken over a 20 hour period.

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

Wait Until After Christmas To Buy That New Camera

It's hard for many of us to wait to purchase things that we really want. We often think that all the amazing  pre-Christmas sales are the best time to buy those items we've been yearning for all year long. But apparently there are better times of the year to buy certain things, and according to walletpop.com the optimum time to buy cameras is after Christmas, not before. Their theory is that since all the electronic trade shows showcasing all the fabulous new products usually take place in January and February, all the old models usually get slashed up to 30%.

I think I'll wait until March to check on some lenses and other things I've had my eye on for a little while.

So, if you didn't break down and buy that camera, wait it out until February or March and maybe you'll snag some wonderful deal.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is actually a photo of fall colors that I created to look like a kaleidoscope or mandala.

 May you have a blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving.

Be grateful and thankful for all we have!



Giving Back- Going Green With GE's Ecomagination Photo Project

It's not often that we as artists have the opportunity to give back, so when there's a chance to do that we should jump on it. For those photographers with a Flickr account, General Electric (GE) has an ongoing 'ecomagination photo project' that is dedicated to bringing water, solar power and wind energy to those countries in most need.

There are three different categories:

1. Wind
2. Water
3. Light

All you have to do is upload  to Flickr through GE's Ecomagination Photo Project website photos for one or all categories.  Give the photos a title, a short description, and then tag with either "wind", "water" or "light". Then simply share the links with your friends on Twitter or Facebook.
I'm not quite sure of the actual mechanics, but GE in conjunction with three different charities will then donate the following:

4.5kW hours of wind energy for every wind photo
175 hours of solar power for every light photo
480 gallons of drinking water for every water photo

In other words, your photos will build a wind turbine to power health clinics in rural parts of Peru, build clean water wells, and provide families in  East Timor with solar-powered lanterns.

For more information check out their website and give upload a few yourself.