Waxing Crescent Moon, May 25, 2020.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

[MLAA]

1. This is the best one yet!

I enjoy all the pics you post. This is my favorite. Mystical, magical, glowing. You really nailed this one!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Omigod, my dear MLAA!

Thank you so much!

You really gave me a boost tonight!

[2naSalit]

2. Good capture!

I took a short nap after a busy day of planting all the rest of my plants in the garden, it was so beautiful and sunny after a crappy snowy weekend. And 45 mins later when I woke up, it was completely overcast and still is! Maybe I'll see something tomorrow.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Thank you so much, my dear 2naSalit!

I hear you about the weather. We've been pretty cloudy and I was thinking I wouldn't be able to get this slender crescent after all.

But today looked good and so did tonight......so I pounced!



Good luck tomorrow!

[2naSalit]

6. Thanks.

At least I know there's no major weather expected for a week or so, I'm sure to catch a glimpse of my evening celestial favorites. Mercury is above Venus in the twilight sky right now and I want to see that, Mercury is a rare sight to see.

[mike_c]

5. wow, that is sublime

That is a beautiful, evocative photo. It's like a haiku. Minimal, yet sufficient and profound. Thank you for sharing it!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Wow, my dear mike_c!

I write poetry from time to time, and your metaphor for my photo remind me of my own poetry. Thank you for your lovely words.

[Talitha]

8. This makes me smile... thank you, Peggy!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. So glad it makes you smile, my dear Talitha!

When I saw what I had gotten, I smiled too.

[Hekate]

10. Perfect Cheshire Cat Smile

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. It is, isn't it? Thank you so much, my dear Hekate!

[flamin lib]

12. I enjoy seeing your lunar images. To take a single subject and see it in so

many ways over time is inspiring. Is it enough to see a thing only once and move on? I think not and your dogged determination to make a different, a better portrait of the moon is proof positive.

Brava!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. Thank you so much, my dear flamin lib!

I'm addicted to photographing the moon in all her phases. I can't help myself.

And I'm always trying to get a better shot than I did before. This one is an improvement, I think.

Many Thanks!

[flamin lib]

14. Along with sex, politics and religion some think it rude to ask about the hardware

used to make our pictures. That said, astro photography is kinda specialized so if I may can I ask what you are shooting these with? Your pics show what seems to be relatively high magnification and very little noise.

If you're using a cell phone I'd not be surprised as the software magic employed by some of the phone makers is phenomenal.

So, if I'm not being rude, will you share with me?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. You are not being rude, not by a long shot, my dear flamin lib! I'm happy to share.

My camera is a Nikon D3200. I bought it in 2013, right before a trip to Italy. My old Nikon D50 had just died!

I've had several lenses. The current lens is a Tamron 18--400mm. It was made for the Nikon cameras. I LOVE it!

I've always preferred zoom lenses to the fixed focal ones. I feel unsafe changing lenses (might drop it, might get something inside the camera etc.). I'm aware that I do lose some resolution with the zoom, but that outweighs my desire for speed and convenience.

I'm still shooting jpegs but hope someday to learn how to shoot in raw. I need lessons and advice on what kinds of software to get the best photos. A local photographer and I are preparing to do lessons on these subjects.

So there you have it!

[flamin lib]

16. Once upon a time the quality of zoom lenses was notably compromised

compared to fixed focal length 'prime' lenses. Not so much anymore. With the wonders of digital almost all of the downsides of zooms have been overcome. Frankly sharpness was never an issue even in the film days as the lens could resolve more than silver halide film could hold. The issues were barrel and pincushion distortion and chromatic abnormalities. Today the lens and camera talk to each other and the camera fixes the issues. Put your Sigma on the Nikon and the Camera says, 'Ok I have a Sigma zoomed to 200mm so I'll adjust the perspective and clean up that purple fringe.'

In the day the name brand lenses were limited to 2:1 range, ie 75-150 or 35-70. Off brand lenses went to 3:1 (70-200). Now it's common to have 28-400 (14-1) lenses without any of the issues we had back then.

Again, back in the day I carried nothing but prime lenses. Today I'm too old to 'crop with my feet' and some of what I shoot is impossible to do so.

Photography is the only art form that requires viewing an image so close you can smell the ink. Water color, Oil, Acrilic or pen and ink is admired from a suitable distance. But photographs? Naaa, we have leave a nose mark on the print . . .

[CaliforniaPeggy]

17. Thank you for your detailed response.

I haven't studied the topic the way you have, at all. I'm sort of understanding you here. I shoot more instinctively than technically, I guess I'd say.

Thanks for the history lesson! I appreciate it.

[flamin lib]

18. Well Peg, I'm a much better technician than artist.

Make pictures, not war . . .

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Ah, I see. I am the opposite!

I got my mom's artistic genes in spades. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, but I have the 'eye.'