POTD 2 January 2017 - Nelson, Moon and Mars

[Mike Farley]

For more about this shot, see my blog post - http://lightintotheshadows.proimageblog ... moon-mars/

[Ronald Barker]

Hi Mike

First Happy New Year and best wishes to all.

I like this shot, was the camera on a tripod and what was the settings, I do not think I would be able to hand hold the camera to get such a clear shot. Light pollution shows more in the lower part of the image but does not distract. Very nice.

Ron

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[Mike Farley]

I like this shot, was the camera on a tripod and what was the settings, I do not think I would be able to hand hold the camera to get such a clear shot. Light pollution shows more in the lower part of the image but does not distract. Very nice.

Thanks, Ron. Happy New Year to you and others who see this on the forum.

I am pleased not only to get the feedback, but also know that you liked the shot. I concur with your comments about the light pollutiuon at the bottom of the frame. I did manipulate it a bit in Lightroom and could have eliminated it altogether, but left it in as it complements the illuminated statue. In addition, it helps add to the impression that there is something going on out of shot below the column.

Capture details are:

• Camera: Fuji X-Pro1
• Lens: Fuji XF 18-55 f/2.8-f/4 @ 55 mm
• Aperture: f/4
• Shutter speed: 1/5 sec
• ISO 3200

The shot was taken was handheld. The lens is stabilised, which based on this and previous experience, works reasonably well. I have had sharp shots at around 1/2 sec. This was an opportunistic capture as my wife and I had been up to town to meet our daughter and her boyfriend for lunch. Even if I had been in the area with the sole intention of doing photography, I doubt I would have been carrying a tripod. It would have been more of a hindrance than an aid. Not only that, I have a habit of putting it down and not picking it up when I go. I did have a DSLR Gorillapod in my bag and if the image had not been sharp when I reviewed it, I would have looked for somewhere to set it up. Fortunately, that was not necessary, although I would have liked to have had the camera set to a lower ISO. The resulting Raw file is very grainy, especially as so much of the image is dark which always makes noise more noticeable.

[Mike Farley]

At the prompting of another member who queried whether I had identified the planet correctly, I spoke to Graham before his excellent talk on astonomy last night. It turns out that the celestial object in question is in fact Venus. Oops.

Not knowing much about the heavens*, I had ventured onto the BBC's astronomy website to make the attribution. And misinterpreted what I read. Mars was visible that evening and above the Moon in the top left hand corner of the original image there is a faint object. It seems to be in the right place, so probably is Mars, but I am not going to claim that it is. Once bitten etc. I cropped it out as its position in the image did not fit well with the rest of the composition.

As a consequence, the new title is "Nelson, Moon and Venus".

* Which is only too obvious, given the nature of this post.