Supermoon and Thorns

Earlier this month on March 19, as most of you probably heard on the news, the Moon reach its closest distance to the Earth in 18 years. This perigee coincided with the "full moon" phase, giving stargazers a chance to view a supermoon. In the days before, I did some research into moon-photography and preset my trusty DMC-FZ35 in preparation of capturing the supermoon. In times like this, one can really appreciate the 18x zoom lens on the FZ35. Here are a couple of shots from that chilly night:

The photography above was actually taken by accident since the camera focused on the tree branches rather than the moon. Accident or not, I still like how it came out. Below is a full-zoom view of the supermoon. While the FZ35 was not able to capture all of the details of the moon, it performed quite acceptably for a small-sensor camera. With the 18x lens, I effectively had 486mm of reach in terms of 35mm equivalence.

Perigee-syzygy goodness

Over here in NY, it still feels more like Winter than Spring. Just a couple of minutes ago, the news mentioned snow in the weekend weather forecast! Nonetheless, with a bit of wandering around in the backyard, there are still things to be found as subjects. Below are some close-up photos of thorns from a rose bush:

It was hard trying to get the autofocus to lock onto the thorns since it there was a breeze causing the rose bush to sway. I'm not sure why but the thorns fascinated me so I spent some time trying to get the best focus I could.

This concludes today's entry. Spring is upon us so there will be a lot more things to photograph. Stay tuned!

Winter Snowscapes

So it's one week into Spring and only now did it just dawn upon me to post some photographs I had taken over Winter, which hadn't been all that eventful in terms of photographic opportunities. Nonetheless, Winter has its moments, usually when there snow all over the place and heck, did we have some snow in the Northeast this Winter!

First up are ice-tipped trees, the beautiful product of the January 25-27, 2011 North American Blizzard, which was the third major snowstorm in three-months time. My flight to the PRC was actually on the day before the Christmas Blizzard, which grounded flights throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions.

Ice-tipped treetops

The ice from the overnight snow encased tree branches all over the neighborhood and were simply beautiful. By the time I had finished shoveling the driveway, the sun had emerged from its slumber and the ice had begun  to melt slowly, creating a delicate symphony of shattering ice as the branches broke free of their freezing confines. The photo below is of icicles suspended from the overhang of my abode after snowfall about a week later. To me, icicles have a certain grace of their own. I remember one time at school, there was one that actually reached the ground from its perch over 50 feet above!

It's hard to believe that Spring is already here and just a week ago, it was even harder to imagine so. Why? Well, Mother Nature threw a curve ball and surprised everyone with several inches of snow overnight. That morning I woke up and did a double-take after stepping outside because everything was covered in snow.

Snow-covered trees are just as beautiful as ice-tipped trees, no? This day's snow was there in the morning and gone in the afternoon. Temperatures then were tens of degrees higher than in the morning, betraying no evidence of the day's earlier snowfall. Admittedly, I was unsure of how to best capture the snow-covered trees. I tried some shots and decided to zoom in on a magnolia tree in the photo below, which induces dizziness if I look at it too long...

This was probably the last snow of the 2010-2011 Winter. Soon, flowers will be blooming left and right and I'll be reaching for new SD cards to fill up with photos. This year, I'll be venturing out to botanical gardens to find exotic flowers so stay tuned!