Photographing the blood moon


On Sunday, May 15, 2022, most of us within the Western Hemisphere (and beyond) were treated to another beautiful full-moon eclipse. The full moon eclipse occurred over a period of a few hours from about 9 pm till well past 11 pm. Cloud cover in our area here in Northern California was a big concern for seeing the moon, luckily, Mother Nature didn't disappoint.


After quickly settling on a location to shoot the eclipse, I focused my Sony A7RIII with a 200-600mm lens on the moon itself. After a bit of trial and error of trying to get focus at night (the most difficult task!) I was finally able to capture some unique shots of the evening Astro spectacle. Camera settings varied from f11 at 1 min exposure time to f5.6 at much shorter exposure times, like 10-15 seconds. This of course was all dependent on the brightness of the moon at the time. Regardless, it was a fun evening spent in a parking lot watching an incredible display within our solar system.