Friday, May 4, 2012

Super Moon Shoot at Marblehead Lighthouse plus Lakeside Daisy Nature Preserve

Hi everyone, as you know the Super Moon will be happening Saturday May 5th and a lot of people are wondering just where they should go to get a photo of the Super Moon. Well using the free program The Photographer's Ephemeris  I searched for places to get a good photo of the Super Moon. What I was looking for was a good foreground subject and I wanted it to be near a Lake so I could get a nice reflection of the Moon. The moon is going to be rising in the southeast at an azimuth of 114.4 degrees.  First I looked to see if I could get a good shot of the Cleveland Skyline with the moon behind it, to do this I would have to go down to the East Bank of the Flat's and shoot up at the city. This didn't look that great to me. Next I thought of Hinckley Lake, this would be ok, but there wasn't a very interesting foreground. I finally found what I think is the best opportunity to shoot the Super Moon and that is the Marblehead Lighthouse.

If you look at the photo below, the red balloon is the photographer and the light blue line shows the direction of the moonrise, and the orange line is where the sun will be setting behind you. As you can see the Moon will be rising behind the Lighthouse and will be front lit by the setting sun. The Moonrise at this location will be a 20:24 (8:24pm) and the sunset will be 9 minutes later at 20:33.  If you want to get the moon nice and large behind the lighthouse you will have to move back as far as you can from the location in the photo and use a telephoto lens to compress the distance between the lighthouse and the moon. I'm not sure how clear of a shot you'll get cause there are a lot of trees lining the walkway, but it might be worth a try. If you use a wider angle lens and move closer to the lighthouse, the Lighthouse will appear larger in the photo and the moon smaller. If you just want to get the moon rising over Lake Erie you can do that to from the rocks surrounding the lighthouse.

 Anyway this is where I'm going to shoot the Super Moon. Join me if you want!!!

Marblehead State Park looks like the place to be to get the Lighthouse and the moon lined up!  The Light Blue line is where the moon will rise. You might want to stand back farther from the Lighthouse and use a long telephoto to compress the distance between the Lighthouse and the Moon.


Since the Super Moonrise doesn't happen till 8:24pm I'm planning on getting to Marblehead around 2:30 to 3Pm and checking out the nearby Lakeside Daisy Nature Preserve,
So here's my schedule of events:
 2:30 or 3PM Explore Lakeside Daisy Nature Preserve

 4:30 or 5Pm Get something to eat

 6PM Meet at Marblehead Lighthouse and scout out places to shoot the Supermoon

 8:24pm Supermoon rises
 8:33 Sunset

 Google Map Click the Blue Icon to get directions to Marblehead Lighthouse, Click the red icon to get directions to Lakeside Daisy Nature Preserve

 
View Marblehead Lighthouse and Lakeside Daisy in a larger map