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Moonrises and Vespas

Photographer Norman Silverstone photographs the moon in its fullness.
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Photographer Norman Silverstone captures a moonrise over Mt. Arrowsmith at dusk.

You know by now that my electric train fascinated Ollie the cat. Well, he has another fascination and that is with fire; from his special chair he regularly prays to the fire god that resides in the woodstove downstairs.

We have a gas stove/fireplace in the living room upstairs so of course Ollie lies in the front of the gas stove when it is operating and worships the gas fire god. Now it seems that is not close enough for Mr. Ollie to commune with his gas god so he decided to jump on top of the stove and lie down, with occasional peeks over the edge to make sure that the fire god is doing his job.

I shot Ollie with my wife Les’s Nikon P7100 using fill flash. The ISO was 400, the aperture was f4.2, the shutter speed was 1/60 of a second. In Photoshop I straightened the image, lightened it a smidgen as well as slightly increased the contrast using levels.

I wanted to photograph the moon in its fullness. So on the next cloudless full moon sky, off I went to the front yard gate armed with tripod, Nikon D300S with a 70-200 f2.8 lens, and remote shutter release. The specs were ISO 2000, aperture f7.1, shutter speed 1/200 of a second, using the electronic shutter release.

In Photoshop I darkened the foreground so that the houses would not be prominent, and  burned in the moon (made it darker) so that it would pop in the sky.

Now that the days are longer and warmer I have insured the VV (Vespa Virgin). So far I have been to the new beach (driving through the mill grounds), Harbour Quay, the fishing boat marina, Victoria Quay and the Cancer Society office. Using a wide-angle lens, I got some very different photos at the fishing boat marina, and some boring shots of people standing around at the new beach.

If you see someone riding a white Vespa with a camera slung over his chest in a racing slouch ( just kidding), that is me.

Last month I put on the workshop Computers and Security: What you Need to Know at the Port Alberni Library (part of the free one-hour sessions at the library). It was very successful; we had 17 interested people watch the Power Point presentation.

On April 15 the workshop will be The Unfear of Digital Cameras: What you Need to Know. Call the library and reserve your spot.

Any questions?  E-mail me at nsilverstone@telus.net.