Perigee Moon

I decided to try to photograph the Perigee moon that was in the sky tonight. Fallon and I drove west on Hwy 11 to the top of the hill overlooking the city and found a vantage point where the moon would rise over the horizon just to the northeast of Red Deer. This moon is 50,000 km closer to the earth than it normally is, but its still 360,000 km away! Its also 30% brighter than normal as well. While looking through my viewfinder, I noticed a large moose slowly walking through the farm and managed to get a photo. These were all shot with a focal length of 200mm with an ISO of 400. After temperatures and wind chills in the -25 C range the last few days, it was sure nice to be outside taking photos and enjoying the warmer weather.

The Perigee moon just above the horizon.







A moose slowly makes its way through the farm with the moon starting to glow.






Illuminating nicely now.







Crop.

Eddie.

It's been awile since I've took some photos because when its -25 to -30 outside, I don't want to take my camera gear out in temperatures that cold, let alone be outside! I got a Canon 70-200mm F-4 L series lens for Christmas, so today I took some photos of my dog, Eddie. He was a challenge to photograph because not alot of natural light comes in my house because of its location, I didn't use a tripod since I needed to be near ground level, and I needed him to be still since I was handholding the camera. Since these shots are all handheld, and my L doesn't have an Image Stabilizer, I had to use ISO's of 400 and 800 and use a wide open aperture (F-4.0) to get enough light in to bump up my shutter speeds to the 80-100 second range. I got Eddie to sit in a spot where sunlight, that was coming through my porch door, was hitting the wall, reflecting some natural light onto him. So forgive the noise! I finally figured out to get Eddie somewhat still by using dog treats as you will see. Basically it worked out for both of us!

















Stay...







Go get it!







It didnt take Eddie long to scarf this down, after waiting patiently!