ergoedbo Loc: Glenshaw, Pennsylvania

At the end of a recent fishing trip up to Erie, my buddy & I realized that the impending Super Moon was going to be rising that evening, and I wasn't going to be able to capture it as I had originally planned to. All I had along with me that day was my Nikon, but NO tripod :(
Even so, we decided to stay until the moonrise, and to attempt to capture at least a few acceptable shots, if at all possible. These images were taken from a Presque Isle beach, using the Old North Pier Lighthouse as the main foreground subject. And even though everything I shot was totally handheld, I was happy enough with the uniqueness of my final moon/lighthouse images. I do hope that others had some better, tripod-assisted luck with their "moon-shots".

North Pier Lighthouse 3


North Pier Lighthouse 4


North Pier Lighthouse 5


North Pier Lighthouse 6


North Pier Lighthouse 7


North Pier Lighthouse 8

djmarti Loc: cape cod,

Not too bad for handheld, Did you use a high iso then post process to get rid of some of the noise.

ergoedbo Loc: Glenshaw, Pennsylvania

Thanks DJ. And you're right on the money. Out of sheer "non-tripod desperation", I boosted my Nikon's ISO to 6400, and then afterwards, washed away much of the resulting noise using Adobe Lightroom. I did one or two other minor retouches to enhance the contrast, etc. But mostly I was just very grateful simply to have been able to capture some acceptable images of that rare Super Moon event!

djmarti Loc: cape cod,

That's when it's nice to have a camera that iso goes that high, in emergency situations like that. My xsi only goes to 1600. And if you used a telephoto lens your even more lucky to even be able to make out what it is nevermind what you were able to get. Great job for no tripod.

ergoedbo Loc: Glenshaw, Pennsylvania

Thanks for your kind compliment. One of the reasons I bought my Nikon D5100 was its extreme available ISO shooting range. Many things I like to shoot are low light situations. For the D5100, ISO 6400 is child's play.. it can shoot much higher range ISOs than than. It even features a Night Mode that can get you an image (B&W, and grainy, but still an acceptable image) at a ridiculous ISO of 102,400! That was no typo.. ISO 102,400!! Along with its 16.2MP, Expeed2 processor, reticulating color view screen, etc., and using the Nikkor 18-200mm lens, well, it's simply the very best danged camera I've ever owned for the sheer variety of the wild kinds of shots that I like to shoot!
BTW, if you haven't seen them yet, you might get a kick out of seeing some of my other stuff done with that D5100. They're posted in the Photo Gallery under the subject MORPHOGRAPHY (or just search postings by ergoedbo)

djmarti Loc: cape cod,

Wow, Very creative. You have to do stuff like that with photography so common these days. My favorite two are mushman and the best is the sinister mushrooms, That one really stood out, and the funniest was the sign that said eye with a random eyeball. Keep up the great work.

ergoedbo Loc: Glenshaw, Pennsylvania

Thanks much, DJ!

Searching for the "not-so-obvious" with the camera, and then making it into something obviously wacky is great fun for me, and keeps my 66-year old mind sharp, too. :)

djmarti Loc: cape cod,

I was sitting here thinking you were a young guy, Now i'm even more impressed, lol.