On a spur-of-the-moment decision, I went outside to photograph the moon a few weeks ago. Alas the low temperature of the air prevented me from taking as many pictures as I would have liked.

The 10x optical zoom on my FujiFilm Finepix s6000FD came in handy, though, revealing many of the moon’s surface features. At first I thought it was even capable of beholding Mars, but the zoom magnification power proved too weak. In order to photograph the small red dot, the camera had to be slightly out of focus. At least I was able to capture the dot of Mars. (I’ll take what I can get.)

A few things I learned about night astronomical photography:

• Get a tripod. Use it! This is very important.
• Buy a zoom lens if you want planetary detail
• Low ISO speed is actually preferable for a Full Moon

Amazing what one can find in the tiny details of nature.

Photos from this trip are in this album. All photos in Byteful Photos can be used as desktop wallpapers because they are high resolution (1920×1440) just as the fullscreen & widescreen wallpapers are.

As you may have noticed, I returned to the riverbank not long ago. Time and time again, I have realized that one can always learn from returning to a place one has photographed before because almost everything has changed:

• The light (caused by the time of day, season, and cloud cover)
• The temperature (which gives way to other interesting effects)
• Placement of objects themselves (by animal life or even human intervention)

On this occasion, the cold had struck and much was frozen. After approaching my old photographic subjects, I began to realize just how much the light had changed. It seemed colder, grayer, and perhaps sadder. I did find a few gems, though, such as a Tiny Pine Twig on the yellow bench. Rest assured I did not put the twig there – I only photograph what I see. The rainbow rocks in the sand didn’t look colorful this time, but those on the edge of the river were beautiful. A tiny ice shelf formed a veil over some pebbles, and reminded me of Saturn’s rings.

Amazing what one can find in the tiny details of nature.

Enjoy.

Photos from this trip are in the Frozen Rainbow album.