One of my favorite challenges is trying to take photos of the very new moon. The challenge in Western Washington is compounded by the frequent cloud cover. My view from my deck means that in order to avoid power lines and poles, I am limited to spring-summer-fall. Fortunately, that works for the weather.
This was July 24, 2017. The new moon was on the 23rd.
Camera: Nikon D810 Lens: Nikon 300mm ISO 400 1/60sec f/8
I was in Salem, Oregon for the August 2018 solar eclipse. This was my third total eclipse. The one in 1979 was right after I had my camera stolen … so no photos. The one in England in August 1999 turned out to be hidden by clouds… so no photos of anything but the crowd. This time I was prepared and lucky with the weather.
I set my camera on a tripod, using a 300mm lens with a 2x multiplier. I also had a right-angle viewfinder that kept me from having to kink my neck to check out the viewfinder or screen. I set my intervalometer to take a photo every minute. The tripod I use has a gear drive so that it is easy to keep the sun close to the center of the frame. Once totality was close, I canceled the remote and manually shot photos. I was able to feel comfortable enough about my process that I was able to enjoy the eclipse and not just be focused on the photo process.
This image was my favorite. It shows what is called “The Diamond Ring Effect” and along the right edge, some solar prominences and was taken just at the end of totality.
Camera: Nikon D810 Lens: Nikon 300mm with Nikon 2x adapter ISO 100 1/100th sec f/8.0
This shot was taken in August 2016 from Marrowstone Island … just SE of Port Townsend. I was visiting at a beach house that sits on a 70 foot bank with a good view to the north, east and south. I decided to shoot with the lights from Bellingham and Vancouver in the bottom of the image.
I set the camera up on a tripod and used a shuttle release to capture one image after the other. I knew that with a 14mm lens, I could take a 15 second exposure and not have noticeable star tracks (without a bunch of enlargement).
I sat up in a deck chair on the lawn and took one photo after another, starting about 1AM. There were lots of faint meteors, but not many bright enough for a good image. There were also some that streaked across the sky directly overhead. But I didn’t really want an image that was just a star field. I did get a couple… this was the best of them.
Camera: Nikon D810 Lens: Nikon 14mm ISO 1600 15 sec f/2.8
In early August of 1990, I was just about to leave on a 10 day backpacking trip into Olympic National Park, when I pulled a muscle in my back. It was unrealistic for me to carry a heavy backpack. The backup plan turned out to be to camp at Deer Park at 5000 ft and do what day hikes I could manage. I knew that the Perseids were peaking while we were there and I brought my camera, tripod and cable release.
We stayed up late every night and slept late in the mornings. On the morning of the 13th, I had the camera set up and was taking one hour time exposures, hoping that I could get a photo that showed a Perseid. I was using a 24mm lens and pointed it south into the central Olympics. During the night, fog was forming in the valley of the Grey Wolf River. I was skeptical about getting any faint meteor tracks, since there was a partial moon. But about 45 minutes into an exposure, there was an extremely bright meteor that streaked across the sky within the field of view of where I had the camera pointed. I was pretty excited. Then I decided to walk out into the foreground and lean against one of the snags that were on the hillside. I gave my flash to Jeff and explained what I wanted to do and when I said shoot, he hit me with the flash using the test button. I love the way it looks like I am standing oblivious to the metero behind me.
I was really happy when I saw how the image came out and sent a copy to Sky and Telescope … who printed it in the April 1991 issue. The amazing part of that was the way I found out about the photo being used. I was at home one evening when the phone rang and the guy on the other end asked if I was Allan Jones. I acknoledged that and he said that he had just seen my photo in the latest Sky and Telescope and wanted to say how amazing he thought it was. A nice way to find out …. since my copy came in the mail a couple days later.
Camera: Minolta XD11 Lens: Minolta 24mm set at f2.8 Exposure: 45 minutes Film: Kodacolor Gold 1600
In mid-March 2017, I was on a road trip to Death Valley NP. We got to Furnace Creek and got our camp set up … but the weather was unusually hot for that time of year. We spent a couple days, but it was too hot at night for me to sleep well. We went up to Lone Pine Campground just outside the town of that name… which is along the eastern approach to Mt Whitney. Much more comfortable weather.
In addition, there was a great view up the valley up to Mt Whitney and the sunsets were nice. Once the sun set, there was a fairly dark sky … except for a glow in the west from the urban areas on the other side of the Sierras. I set up my tripod and camera on the picnic table and started taking some exposures of the night sky. This was one of my favorites.
I used my Zeiss 21mm lens, which I like for its crisp images. Plus, it’s really handy when it’s dark and you can just set the focusing ring at infinity and not have to try and check the image through the viewfinder. And at 15 seconds, you are just barely starting to get any star streaking, if you are using a wide angle lens.
Camera: Nikon D810 Lens: Zeiss Distagon 21mm ISO 3200 --- 15 seconds --- f2.8