Monday, September 7, 2009

Full Moon on the Casco Bay and an adventure

The full moon was spectacular this month, as it was accompanied by brilliant, clear weather. Paul and I saddled up the Mako and witnessed the sunset/moonrise dance with Jupiter thrown in as icing. Here's one with Fisherman's Monument in the foreground. Very difficult to capture from a small boat, even with I.S.. Having to choose between the moon and the monument, I selected for the latter, leaving the moon to fend for herself.

There's a favorable balance of exposure when the moon first comes up, and it's possible to be at I.S., f 5.6, ISO 800 and 1/30th of a second to get both Eagle Island and the moon's definition. The sky still has light in it, allowing a more favorable exposure of the two items 250,000 miles apart. What I needed was f 16, ISO 100, & 1/500th second to get everything in focus, counteract the bouncing boat, and have both fore & back grounds exposed correctly. Still, a pleasing shot, taken at 105 mm and cropped in LightRoom.

One other composition includes the Maine landscape. I like this one, even though the seagulls' focus is, upon close inspection, suffering from the shallow depth of field that f 5.6 produces.


Nick to the rescue!

We went to Paul's Marina in Brunswick aboard the Mahuba on Saturday to get lunch - they make the best sandwiches around. Also needed some petrol, and here's where the drama began. As I was unscrewing the gas cap, the key dropped in the drink. I was not immediately concerned, however, for I've had it on a monkey fist rope "floatie" for the last seven years and would have bet the farm on the fact that it would bob on the surface. Imagine my surprise when it promptly dove to the bottom of the 12 foot high tide! We were screwed. Making a long story short, 18 year old Nick volunteered to go on a retrieval dive. After four attempts, he came up with the key. What a guy! He earned a reward and a great story to tell.