I have the absolute best people in my life. My sister and her husband originally told me about this natural phenomenon. Then, a couple weeks later a couple of good friends asked me if I heard about it. Finally, a few days before the occurrence, my mom sent me a text telling me about it. Seriously though? How cool is that? I have such an amazing support system for my photography. Whenever something cool is happening, I know that I will hear about it one way or another.
The Planning
When my sister told me about it, obviously I began researching it. When is it? What is it? Where to see it? I mean all the things 😊 If you want to learn a bit more about all the details make sure to check out my recent post on ‘How to Photograph the Super Blood Wolf Moon’. This blog will give you probably a bit more information than you were expecting about this awesome show that the moon put on.
My original plan was to head out into the foothills of my hometown to get some pretty images; however, that plan got thwarted when the weather called for rain. I’m not talking a slight drizzle either. I’m talking about a down pour. As I started to search for places to go and check the weather, it seemed like the majority of the State of California was going to be cloudy during the Super Blood Wolf Moon. Northern California was calling for thunderstorms and Southern California was calling for full cloud coverage. So, I got a little discouraged and figured I wasn’t going to be able to see it. Then I found the spot! The spot that might have a potential to be partially clear during the Super Blood Wolf Moon…. Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills.
The Adventure
The question was, do I want to spend all the time, money, and effort to head over to the Alabama hills with pretty good odds not to see it? Well, I’m somewhat of a gambling girl, so I hopped in the car on Sunday to go and take my chances.
The drive to Alabama Hills is about 5 hours from my town. Not too terrible, but leaving on a whim left me in a little bit of a hurry. The moon was supposed to rise around 5:30pm and I left at 11:30. The eclipse wasn’t supposed to happen until 8pm or so; however, I really wanted to get an image of the Super Moon coming up over the mountain tops.
I rolled into Alabama Hills about 4:30. PERFECT Timing let me tell you. I was super stoked because I also got to get some amazing sunset images. I mean seriously though, I took way too many sunset pictures. The clouds kept changing and things just were getting better and better. It was absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could share all the images with you.
Actually, I got so caught up in taking sunset images, I didn’t leave much time to set up for the moon rise. Luckily, I was able to get both sunset and moon rise! YAS!
The sky was partially cloudy, which made for some amazing sunset pictures, but it sure made me nervous for the moon. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to see it at all.
Since the Blood Moon wasn’t supposed to begin until around 8pm, I had plenty of time to go grab some dinner. After dinner I headed back out. Let me tell you friends, it was freaking windy and cold. Like cold, cold cold. I had my down jacket on, a beanie, and hand warmers, and man it was cold.
Getting the Shot: The Super Blood Wolf Moon
As I sat in my car, I looked up at the sky to only see clouds. You could see portions of the clouds lit up due to the brightness of the moon, but no moon! I sat there for a bit with the moon peaking out and then hiding behind the clouds. It played this game for almost an hour. As it started to peak out, I noticed that the eclipse had stated.
“Well I guess I am not going to get the shot after all”
The most frustrating part of this whole thing was that the clear sky was just at the edge of the moon. Yas, it was inches away from being visible. How frustrating is that?!
So, I figured, I would get all my stuff set up just in case. I opened my door, and the wind almost tore it off. To the East was the clouds and the eclipse occurring right before my very own eyes, being hidden by the clouds. To the West there was a lightening storm. Where I stood was open skies with the wind whirling around me.
As I set up my tripod, in the dark, the wind wanted to blow the entire set up over. I tried to get a few shots of the moon with the cloud cover and was completely unsuccessful. Eventually, I moved the car to block the wind. I sat there… waiting….
I could see the moon beginning to turn red, but the cloud cover was just barely too much that all my images were turning out blurry. All of them were blurry!!! I got a couple mediocre shots and the moon went completely behind the clouds for what seemed like forever. It was over, I was packing up. No reason to sit and stare at the night sky hoping for something to happen.
I packed up all my things and sat in my car. Checked my phone, and just tried to get a bit warm. Then, out of no where, the MOON!!!! The full blown MOON!!!! I scrambled, cursed a little, and then jumped out of my car, set my equipment back up and BOOM! I FREAKING GOT THE SHOT!
It was awesome and I am so dang thankful that I didn’t drive away when I was thinking about driving away!
What Gear Did I Use:
**see my full gear list here
What Were My Settings for the Moon Images?
I played around quite a bit with my settings and eventually settled on
Shutter Speed: 1 second
ISO: 2000
Aperture: 5.6
I hope you all enjoyed this blog. Were you able to see the Super Blood Wolf Moon? Did you photograph it? If so leave a comment below . I would love to hear about your trip!
Wishing you nothing but amazing adventures and pretty pictures!
Bessie
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