File:Nocturnal Transitions (15493655485).jpg

This image is a chronicle of Wednesday morning's lunar eclipse captured from a very urban area of Stockton, ca. Making this image happen was a bit of fantasy mixed with astronomy, photography and knowledge of fine art landscape shooting techniques, brought together to create a sureal scene, An eclpised moon during totality in transition over my neighborhood during the quiet hours of morning.

I shot a series of shots of the moon with my 200mm telephoto lens at F9 2.5 secs on ISO 800 allowing me to capture the reddish moon in full detail as it reached totality, then quickly switched lenses to a much wider focal length which adds a terrestrial element.  
In post, the scene was carefully processed in a way which blended the lunar phases and movement with the street view, including light trails from passing vehicles. Then, I resized the moons during the layering process to better represent the scale in a more natural way, relative to the scale of the large full moon as it began to set in the night sky in my neighborhood. The result is this unique view of the city with an ethereal astronomic twist. Enjoy! 

Shot Details: Sony Alpha a390 DSLR Sony 55-200MM F4-5.6 SAM telephoto Rokinon ultrawide 14mm F2.8 prime lens

moon Images: 2.5 secs 200mm at F9 ISO 800 Foreground image: