Early morning cacti

[GB1]

Tucson, Arizona. Same as previous post, I used the DEE shadow adjustment on my scanner to enhance the somewhat underexposed foreground. Fuji Velvia.

I personally think the moon adds a lot here. Only wish I could have somehow gotten it to be larger in the frame: but to do so I'd have to use a telephoto lens and move way back to still get the cacti into the photo, which may have been difficult. Telephotos also compress the DOF and make the picture look flatter. Suggestions?

GB

[jar_e]

Nice shot and beautiful colors. The one thing I would've changed is the angle of the tall cactus in the foreground. It's aligned with the moon, so it makes everything linear on that one side. Nice shot though,

Love the colors,

Jared

[drg]

The moon when closer to the horizon will, because of atomospherics, appear larger. Of course the blooming flowers and all might not agree with the best time of year and so on to acheive the "easy" big moon.

I'd play with a selective increase in color saturation and brightness of the cacti and ground cover. But leave that sky and the silhouette of the range alone. It is wonderful!

-CDP

[Dzerzhinski46]

I think you could have gotten away with just a silhoette of the cactus and hill. After all, the main focus of this image is the moon and the colors. Just a thought.

Dzerzhinski

[GB1]

Thanks for the feedback. Jared, you're right - the pic would have been better if the large cactus wasn't almost directly under the moon... Live and learn. Dzerzhinski46, it was pretty much silhouetted, I used a scanning tool to get back the foreground. Might be an interesting reshoot idea to get more of the moon with a smaller percentage of the foreground in the shot, but the foreground silhouetted with a big cactus. As DRG mentioned though, might have to wait on these shots: the moon was near full and was setting in the west right as the sun was about to rise (on east), so it was perfect. I need to get me a prediction (calculation, actually) of the moon location some time to plan all this.

GB

[Dzerzhinski46]

Thanks for the feedback. Jared, you're right - the pic would have been better if the large cactus wasn't almost directly under the moon... Live and learn. Dzerzhinski46, it was pretty much silhouetted, I used a scanning tool to get back the foreground. Might be an interesting reshoot idea to get more of the moon with a smaller percentage of the foreground in the shot, but the foreground silhouetted with a big cactus. As DRG mentioned though, might have to wait on these shots: the moon was near full and was setting in the west right as the sun was about to rise (on east), so it was perfect. I need to get me a prediction (calculation, actually) of the moon location some time to plan all this.

GB

Moonrise/set times at any good astronomy site. Try the Naval Observatory website. They have moonrise. Not sure about moonset.

Dzerzhinski