October Full Moon Rising Over Cleveland 2014

This is from last years December Full Moon Shoot



Ok the first of the Full Moon Rising Over Cleveland Cool Photo Ops is 10/8, 10/9, 10/10, don't worry if you can't make this one cause there will be events in November and December too.

More info on this event can be found here: October Moonrise over Cleveland Cool Photo Op


Now the question is where is the best location to shoot from and where over the city will the moon rise? Unlike the sun, the moon rises at different times and different locations every night. We will be shooting over 3 nights, Wed, Thurs, and Fri. Each night offers something different, so pick the night you prefer or go on multiple nights. Now here's some info on each night.


Wednesday 10/8  Meet at Upper Edgewater or Perkins Bluff around 6:00pm

Sunset: 18:57 (6:57pm)
Moonrise: 19:11 (7:11pm) 99.6% full. The moon will rise to the south of the Terminal Tower
Good Location to shoot: Upper Edgewater Park
Better Location: The Bluff over Perkins Beach
Best Location: Lakewood Park, from here the moon will rise more toward the center of the city, however I'm not sure what time Lakewood Park closes at this time of year. Also not as many people can shoot from Lakewood as they can from Edgewater. Note you will also be a lot farther away from the city and may need a longer lens.

The lighting of the city and of the moon may be the best on Wednesday, since the moon will be rising shortly after the sunsets.  We will still have some light on the city as the moon starts to rise.

Upper Edgewater Shooting Location:

The light blue line shows where the moon will rise over the city from Upper Edgewater Park

Perkins Bluff Shooting Location:

Here you will get the moon rising a little farther North, but still south of the Terminal Tower

Thursday 10:9 Meet at Upper Edgewater or Perkin's Bluff around 7:15 to set up your stuff, get there earlier if you want to get the light of the setting sun shining on the skyline.

Sunset: 18:55 (6:55pm)

Moonrise: 19:50 (7:50pm) 96.9% Full The moon will rise at the horizon north of the Terminal Tower.  Please note that we may have to wait 10 or 15 minutes to see the moon since it has to rise above the skyline so we may not see it till it's south of the Terminal Tower. Again the light blue line is where the moon will rise.

Locations to shoot from are Upper Edgewater and Perkins Bluff

On Thursday the moon will rise well after sunset so the city will be dark, the Terminal Tower will be lit up in various colors

Upper Edgewater shooting location:

Friday 10/10  Meet at Upper Edgewater Park at around 7:45pm

Sunset: 18:53 (6:53pm)

Moonrise: 20:32 (8:32pm) 91.6% Full the moon will rise more toward the center of the city

Locations to shoot from: Upper Edgewater park

On Friday the moon will rise more toward the center of Public Square and again well after sunset. Terminal Tower will be lit up.

So there you have it, pick the night best for you, remember to keep an eye on the weather!

Remember we are meeting at UPPER EDGEWATER Park NOT Edgewater Beach, the entrance to Upper Edgewater Park is at the Intersection of West Blvd and Cliff Drive.

Here is a map where to park and shooting locations.

Cool Photo Ops Road Trip Checklist

Here's a Photography Checklist of things to bring along on a Photography Road Trip....

1. Cameras
2. Batteries and charger
3. Memory Cards, card reader and card holders
4. Tripods
5. Flash
6. Filters - Polarizer, ND Filters, Split ND filters, filter holders
7. Camera Bags or belt packs
8. Lenses - all lenses from wide angle to telephoto, macro, fisheye
9. Remote cable release
10. Flashlight
11. Rain gear - poncho, rain pants, rain cover for your camera
12. Hiking boots
13. Hat and jacket or sweatshirt
14. Computer, external Hard Drive, cables, power cords
15. Rocket Blower, Lens Pen, microfiber cloth, sensor cleaning kit
16. GPS, for the car, handheld for hiking, one for the camera if you like geotagging your photos
17. Sunscreen, Bug spray, sunglasses
18. Binoculars for spotting wildlife
19. Spare set of car keys
20. Water Bottle or for some people I know a flask!!!
21. Notebook, pen
22. Snacks

Well that's the list for now if anyone has anything to add let me know!

Now that you have your gear packed and ready to go, you may need ideas of fun places to take photos, a great resource is the Cool Photo Ops group on Facebook where we list fun places to take photos in Ohio and beyond. We also go on Photography Road Trips from time to time, the next big road trip is a trip to Blackwater Falls in WV on May 18 - May 22nd, everyone is welcome!  

Join in on the fun here:  Cool Photo Ops

Punderson Sled Dog Classic 2014 Cool Photo Op 2/22 and 2/23

Photographers, Get your cameras ready

Now for something different the 2014 Punderson Sled Dog Classic taking place on Saturday Feb22nd and Sunday Feb 23rd 2014!

A lot of photographer's in the Cool Photo Ops FB group will be going on Saturday February 22nd, if you can't make it then you can always go on Sunday February 23rd. Join us if you want, everyone is welcome including family and friends.

Note: The conditions have to be just right for the dogs to race, even if there is snow they sometimes cancel the race if it's not safe for the dogs or racers. 

Click the photo to go to Sled Dog Gallery

Hi Everyone a cool place to shoot this winter is the Sled Dog Classic at Punderson State Park on 2/22/2014 and 2/23/2014. The event is free for spectators. This should be a fun Photo Shoot,  a lot of us went in 2010 and had a great time.  You can see my photos at this link Sled Dog Classic Photos

Time : 9:00 am    Races start at 10am on Saturday and 9:30am on Sunday
Place: Punderson State Park
Park Map: Punderson State Park Map
Directions: Click on the camera icon to get directions from your location. To view a larger map Click on "View Larger Map" below.

GPS Coordinates
latitude: 41.46118938889867
longitude: -81.21947765350342


View Larger Map


Sled Dog Photo Tips

This will be the second time at the Sled Dog Classic for me, here are some photo tips I learned from 2010

1. The best shots are taken with the Sled Dogs running toward you.  Shots from the side are not as dramatic

2. Get down low at the dogs eye level.

3. Try and take some human interest shots of the dogs and their owners

4. Sled Dogs are cool, try and get some good portrait shots of them.

5. Try to capture the peak action.

6. Try to show how strong these animals are as they pull the sleds.

Well those are some of my tips, if anyone else has any tips to share, just click on "comments" below and leave your tips, comments and suggestions.

If you are going on the Sled Dog Classic Shoot or any cold weather shoot you want to keep your hands warm but still be able to use the controls on your camera so what do you do?

I'm going to try out my new Freehands Gloves, the index finger and thumb fold back so you can control the camera:

See a Sled Dog Classic Slideshow 

December Full Moon Rising Over Cleveland Cool Photo Op 12/15 -12/20

Hey Photographers are you ready to brave the cold weather and photograph the Full Moon Rising over Cleveland?  Well here's your chance, we had really big turnouts in October and November, now you'll have a chance to get some winter Full Moon shots in December. The Moon will be rising near Browns Stadium and moving over the city from Sunday the 15th to Friday the 20th. The best days for fullness will be Monday thru Thursday with the actual full moon occurring on Tuesday the 17th.  Everyone is welcome to join in the Fun!!! NOTE the shoot takes place at the Upper Level of Edgewater Park, the entrance is at West Blvd and Cliff Drive.  Go here to sign up and see who else is going.... Cool Photo Ops Full Moon Shoot

More Full Moon photos can be seen here: Hunter Moon Rising and here: Beaver Moon Rising

As stated above the actual Full Moon will be on Tuesday 12/17 but since a lot of people work it may be hard for them to get out of work and down to Edgewater on time for the moon rise, that's why this event will start on Sunday 12/15 and continue thru Friday 12/ 20. Go on the day that's convenient for you. The moon will rise in different places over the city and different times each which I'll list below. As an added bonus on Sunday we will have an added Christmas Lights Cool Photo Op in downtown Cleveland. This is optional, join in if you want to.

ALL OF THE MOONRISE SHOOTS TAKE PLACE AT THE UPPER LEVEL OF EDGEWATER PARK.  Do NOT put Edgewater Park into your GPS or you will end up at the main beach entrance. The Upper Level has a separate entrance at the intersection of  West Blvd and Cliff Drive.

Here's a Google Map..... 

View Cool Photo Ops December Full Moon Rise Over Cleveland in a larger map

Here's the Moonrise info:

Sunday:  The moon will rise near Browns Stadium  Meet at Upper Edgewater Park at 3:00pm
Sunset: 16:58
Moonrise: 16:01 The moon will rise about an hour before sunset, so on this night you will have more even lighting on the Moon and downtown buildings  Full Moon 95%

Monday: Again the moon will rise near Browns Stadium Meet at Upper Edgewater Park at 4:00pm
Sunset: 16:58
Moonrise 16:48  The moon will rise 10 minutes before Sunset Full Moon 98%

Tuesday: The night of the Full Moon.  The moon will rise again near Browns Stadium Meet at  Upper Edgewater Park at 4:30pm
Sunset: 16:48
Moonrise: 17:38  The moon will rise about 40 minutes after sunset so it will be dark and downtown buildings lit up.  Moon 100%

Wednesday:  The moon will rise over Lakeside Ave  Meet at Upper Edgewater Park at 5:30pm
Sunset: 16:59
Moonrise: 18:30  Moonrises an hour and a half after sunset Moon 99.7%

Thursday: The moon again rises near Lakeside Ave  Meet at Upper Edgewater Park at  7:00pm
Sunset: 16:59
Moonrise: 19:25 Moon rises about 2 1/2 hours after sunset. Moon 98%

Friday: The Moon takes a big jump here and rises over Public Square between the Key Tower and BP Building  Meet at Upper Edgewater Park at  8:00pm
Sunset: 16:59
Moonrise: 20:21  Moon rises about 2 hours and 22 minutes after sunset over the center of the city

So you can see while the sunset is pretty constant at about 5pm every night, the moon rise time and location changes a lot. From rising before sunset near Browns Stadium at 4:01pm on Sunday to rising over Public Square at 8:21pm on Friday.

Keep an eye on the skies and weather and pick the day or days that work best for you! Hope to see you there!!!!

Bonus Photo Op - Cleveland Christmas Lights - after the moonrise we will hop on the shoreway and into downtown Cleveland to photograph the Christmas Lights from various locations. Here are some photos from last year....  Click to go to the gallery



Moonrise Photo Tips and stuff to bring:
1. A flashlight so you can see what you're doing after the sun sets
2. A remote cable release if you have one
3 A sturdy tripod and DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT RAISING YOUR CENTER POST!!! Raising the center post is very unstable and will cause camera movement, its very windy by the lake and you will be using some long exposures, s I like to get a lot of the building and sometimes the Lake in focus so I like to shoot at an aperture of around F7 or F8, if you close down more you end up with some really long exposure times which would be ok and a still night, but o you want your camera to be as stable as possible.

For the best quality shoot at low ISO's of 100 or 200, if you want to keep the exposure times down you could go as high as 400 ISO.

if the wind is blowing it could cause some blurry photos. Shooting at wider apertures or even wide open is ok too, but you'll have less depth of field.

Anyway hope to see a lot of you down by the Lake for this Cool Photo Op!  Everybody is welcome to join in the fun, bring family and friends if you want!

And if you enjoy going on fun casual photo ops like this then check out the Cool Photo Ops Facebook Group, where we post cool places to take photos in Ohio and beyond, everyone is welcome to join in the fun from beginning photographers to more experienced photographers the only prerequisite is Ya Gotta Have Fun!!!!!

November Full Moon Rising Over Cleveland Cool Photo Op

Photographers are you ready to photograph the Full Moon rising over Cleveland? Well you'll have your chance 11/16 through 11/19.  Go on all the days or pick the day that best fits your schedule. I'm planning on going on Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th. I'll use 11/18 and 11/19 as makeup days if the weather doesn't cooperate on Saturday and Sunday




So how do we know where the moon will rise and where we should shoot from? We'll use the great FREE program The Photographer's Ephemeris, it's a great program for planning your photo shoots for Sunrise, Sunsets, Moonrise and Moonset. It's also great for seeing the angle of the sun during other times of day. The desktop version is free and there are apps for smartphones.

Here's when will meet up:
Saturday: 4pm
Sunday: 4:30pm
Monday: 5:30pm Optional
Tuesday: 6:30pm Optional

Note: Saturday and Sunday are the best night, and that's when I'll be there, Monday and Tuesday are optional and I'll be there if the weather was bad on Saturday and Sunday.

We will be shooting from Upper Edgewater park, the entrance is at the intersection of West Blvd and Cliff Drive.  DO NOT program your gps for Edgewater Park or you'll end up in the lot by the beach and fishing pier. I will have a google map with directions at the bottom of this post.  Here's a photo of where to park. Park where it says "Park Here". If the lot fills up then park in the Overflow lot. We will be shooting from the bluff where the red balloon is.

This weekend the moon will be rising a little north of the city and at different times each night, lets look at each night and see where the moon will rise and at what time....

Saturday 11/16
Sunset: 17:06
Moonrise: 16:40  97.3% Full Moon

    Saturday will be the day for the best balanced light between the moon the city since the Moon will rise about 26 minutes before the sun sets.  The moon rise is at 16:40 and sunset at 17:06 so there will be some nice sunlight on the city as the moon rises.  The Moon will rise over Lakeside Ave. which is a little North of the Key Tower, we won't see the moon exactly at 16:40 since the moon will have to rise above the buildings in the city. It will be twilight so there will be blue in the sky and the buildings lit with the last rays of the Sun. It should look something like this only the Moon will be to the left of Key Tower...

Saturday Moonise - Click for large view

Sunday

Sunset: 17:05

Moonrise: 17:21 Full Moon

Sunday is the actual Full Moon,  the Moon will rise over the RR tracks South of  Browns Stadium. The Moon rises 15 minutes after the Sun sets so it  will be dark when the moon rises.

Sunday Moonrise - Click for large view

Monday

Sunset: 17:04

Moonrise: 18:05  99.9% Full Moon

Tuesday

Sunset: 17:03

Moonrise: 18:53 98.2% Full Moon

On Monday and Tuesday the moon rises well after the sun sets and will rise farther to the North over Browns Stadium. If the weather is bad on Saturday and Sunday or if you couldn't make it over the weekend you could try and photograph the moon on these nights.

Monday and Tuesday Moonrise - Click for large view

Moonrise Photo Tips and stuff to bring:

1. A flashlight so you can see what you're doing after the sun sets
2. A remote cable release if you have one
3 A sturdy tripod and DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT RAISING YOUR CENTER POST!!! Raising the center post is very unstable and will cause camera movement, its very windy by the lake and you will be using some long exposures, so you want your camera to be as stable as possible.

For the best quality shoot at low ISO's of 100 or 200, if you want to keep the exposure times down you could go as high as 400 ISO.

I like to get a lot of the building and sometimes the Lake in focus so I like to shoot at an aperture of around F7 or F8, if you close down more you end up with some really long exposure times which would be ok and a still night, but if the wind is blowing it could cause some blurry photos. Shooting at wider apertures or even wide open is ok too, but you'll have less depth of field.

Anyway hope to see a lot of you down by the Lake for this Cool Photo Op!  Everybody is welcome to join in the fun, bring family and friends if you want!

And if you enjoy going on fun casual photo ops like this then check out the Cool Photo Ops Facebook Group, where we post cool places to take photos in Ohio and beyond, everyone is welcome to join in the fun from beginning photographers to more experienced photographers the only prerequisite is Ya Gotta Have Fun!!!!!

Here's a map of shooting locations and where to park:



View Cool Photo Ops Oct Full Moonrise Over Cleveland in a larger map

Great Places to Photograph Fall Colors in Ohio

Hi Everyone, well it's that time of year again that all photographers like, Fall Color season and the question always gets asked.... "Where's the best place to take fall color shots?"  I'm going to list some of my favorite spots and I hope you will contribute you're favorite spots as well. Best place to post your favorite spots would be on the Cool Photo Ops Group page on Facebook

The only other question is WHEN to go shooting, every year the leaves peek at different times, you can use this site to see when the best time is to shoot in Ohio

Ohio Fall Color Report

At the bottom of this post I'll have a Google Map with direction to all the sites posted, included will be GPS coordinates in the Decimal Degree format, if you use a different format make sure you convert before entering the info in your GPS.

Conkles Hollow in Hocking Hills

While the whole Hocking Hills State Park is great for fall colors, my favorite place is the rim trail at Conkles Hollow. When you enter Conkle's Hollow head up the stairs on your right to get to the rim trail, there's lots of cool overlooks once you get up there.

 Click on the photo to see more Hocking Hills photos

Mt Jeez

Mt Jeez is located across from Malabar Farms and offers great views of the farm and the valley below, it's located SE of Mansfield
Mt Jeez is located up a gravel road off Pleasant Valley Rd. RT303
GPS: 40.653240, -82.386633

Click the photo to see more of Mt Jeez

Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Cleveland MetroParks

There's lots of great place to take Fall Color photos in the CVNP and Cleveland MetroParks, I'll list a few of my favorites here:

Bridal Veil Falls and Tinker's Creek Gorge Overlook

Get great shots of the Tinker's Creek Gorge then head down the road and get some shots of Bridal Veil Falls


Click the photo to see more of Bridal Veil Falls

Tinker's Creek Nature Preserve

Don't confuse this with the Tinker's Creek Gorge above, this is a totally different park. The parking lot for the nature preserve is pretty small, it might hold about 8 cars and that includes handicap parking. The Seven Ponds hiking trail is great for fall color photos, with all of the ponds you can get some great shots of the leaves reflecting in the water.
Click the photo to see more of Tinker's Creek Nature Preserve

Well there's a few for starters, other great places are Blue Hen Falls, Brandywine Falls, Sylvan Pond, Rocky River Metropark, North and South Chagrin Metroparks and many more.

Here's a Google Map of the sites listed above:


View Fall Color Cool Photo Ops in a larger map

  I'll be posting more fun places to take Fall Color photos on the Cool Photo Ops Facebook Group so be sure and check it out. Everyone is welcome to join in the fun!!!

Cool Photo Op - October Full Moon Rising over Cleveland 10/18 to 10/20

Wanna get a great shot of the full moon rising over Cleveland?  Well you'll have you're chance from October 18th to October 20th. Last Saturday some photographer friends and I got the moon rising over Cleveland from the upper level of Edgewater Park, if you missed out on that Cool Photo Op you might want to meet up with us on one of the days the Full Moon rises over the city in October.

Here a a few shots from last Saturday....



If you'd like to try getting some photos like those then please join us for the October Cool Photo Op of the Full Moon rising over Cleveland, you'll have three chances to get the moon rising over Cleveland from Friday October 18 to Sunday October 20th each day the Moon will rise in a different spot over the city and there are better locations to photograph the moon from depending on the night. Once again we will use the great program The Photographer's Ephemeris to determine where the best location to shoot the Full Moon will be.
This program is great for planning your shoots and the desktop version is free!!!  Anyway lets look at each night and see where we want to shoot the moon from.

Friday 18th
Sunset: 18:40
Moonrise: 18:30

The timing of the sunset to moonrise is perfect on Friday, the sun will set 10 minutes after the moon rises, that means the city will be lit with low evening light as the moon is rising, remember the the moon rise time of 18:30 is at a flat horizon, we will have to wait a few minutes for the moon to appear from behind the tall buildings of downtown. Now where will the best location be???? Well looking at the Photographer's Ephemeris Map the best location would probably be the bluff over Perkin's Beach which is just to the west of Edgewater Park. As you can see from the map below, from Perkins Beach the Moon will rise to the North of the Terminal Tower.  If you wanted you could take some shots from Edgewater like we did last Saturday however the Moon would rise behind the Terminal Tower and by the time we would see it would be to the right of the Tower which is still a nice shot.  I'm going for the Perkin's Beach location on Friday myself.  The light blue line is where the moon will rise.

Location: Perkin's Beach on Friday Night

Saturday
Sunset: 18:39
Moonrise: 19:05

 On Saturday the moon rises about 25 minutes after the sun sets, so the city will be dark except for the lights in the buildings and you can get some cool shots of the Terminal Tower lit up. The Moon will rise further north on Saturday. North of the Key Tower to be exact. Best location on Saturday is from the Bluff in Edgewater where we took the photos from last Saturday. Since the moon rises more North of the city on Saturday we will have more hang time of the moon over the center part of the city. Here's the map:

Location Upper Level of Edgewater Park on Saturday Night

Note: You could also shoot from Perkin's Beach on Saturday, but the moon would rise a little farther North of the City about where City Hall is.

Sunday
Sunset: 18:37
Moonrise 19:44

I look at Sunday as the makeup date if the weather doesn't cooperate on Friday or Saturday. On Sunday the moon will rise a little farther North than it does on Saturday when shooting from the Upper Level of Edgewater Park.

So there you have pick the date and time that's convenient for you, I plan on going on both Friday and Saturday, the lighting and location of the moonrise will be different on both days so you'll get a nice variety of photos if you go both nights.

Moonrise Photo Tips and stuff to bring:

1. A flashlight so you can see what you're doing after the sun sets
2. A remote cable release if you have one
3 A sturdy tripod and DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT RAISING YOUR CENTER POST!!! Raising the center post is very unstable and will cause camera movement, its very windy by the lake and you will be using some long exposures, so you want your camera to be as stable as possible.

For the best quality shoot at low ISO's of 100 or 200, if you want to keep the exposure times down you could go as high as 400 ISO.

I like to get a lot of the building and sometimes the Lake in focus so I like to shoot at an aperture of around F7 or F8, if you close down more you end up with some really long exposure times which would be ok and a still night, but if the wind is blowing it could cause some blurry photos. Shooting at wider apertures or even wide open is ok too, but you'll have less depth of field.

Anyway hope to see a lot of you down by the Lake for this Cool Photo Op!  Everybody is welcome to join in the fun, bring family and friends if you want!

And if you enjoy going on fun casual photo ops like this then check out the Cool Photo Ops Facebook Group, where we post cool places to take photos in Ohio and beyond, everyone is welcome to join in the fun from beginning photographers to more experienced photographers the only prerequisite is Ya Gotta Have Fun!!!!!

Here's a map of shooting locations and where to park:



View Cool Photo Ops Oct Full Moonrise Over Cleveland in a larger map