Photographing Richmond Park in London, how to shoot EPIC MOON SHOTS, graduated filters, composition.

thanks for joining me again all of the world's most iconic photography locations I've got another action-packed show lined up for you so let's go [Music] coming up on this month's show we join pro photographer James McCormick as he documents one of London's best-kept secrets we kick off our ambitious mission possible series and we continue our countdown of our top ten views on sky welcome to our February edition of photography online coming to you this month from a tranquil Scottish woodland setting having only just thought out from last month's show the reaction to our first show by the way has been amazing so thank you so much for all your support if you missed it you can of course still check it out on our photography online YouTube channel now every month we were bringing you a photography quote and this month's comes from the legend himself Ansel Adams who once said a good photograph is knowing where to stand with that in mind later on in the show we're going to be looking at viewpoints one of the most important aspects of your photography but let's get things kicked off with our first feature on location where we're following a london-based commercial photographer as he undertakes a personal project in this local area [Music] wherever you live anywhere in the world there will always be an ideal photography project to undertake right on your own doorstep whatever you choose as photographic subject it's best to pick something which interests you as this will give you more incentive and enthusiasm to see it through to completion in my case I wanted to document the wildlife I see on a daily basis as I walk the dog in my local park as this changes so much throughout the year I knew it'd be a minimum four 12-month project so it was a big undertaking but one which I was determined to complete [Music] your project doesn't have to be such a commitment but regardless of whether it is several years or several hours in duration one thing you need to make sure is that you don't put yourself under too much pressure to begin with don't rush out and take loads of photos right at the start force yourself to slow down a bit and try to get a comprehensive understanding of what it is you're trying to achieve [Music] before you even take a picture it's great to get to know an area this is my local patch my local park and I've been walking here with dogs for over 20 years and I know every nook and cranny of this particular area this was key as had I just arrived somewhere unfamiliar and just started snapping away I wouldn't have been able to capture a character or piece of behavior I hadn't yet become aware of for example these shots were only possible because I had built up knowledge of where these owls and this Kestrel regularly roost regardless of the season dawn is a great time to take photos not only because the light is often at its best but there are fewer people around and as a result more wildlife [Music] personal projects are all about developing your own personal style varying techniques experimenting using different focal lengths different lenses and seeing where your photography goes [Music] planning is also key as each time you go out to take shots you have to have a target as to what you want to achieve sometimes this might be ambitious in which case you need to be prepared to try many times and on many different occasions before you are finally successful but at other times your target might be less ambitious in which case you can probably get the shot in one visit working with the conditions you find many of the shots I've taken over the year might appear to be amazingly ambitious but if you know your subject and can predict what it's going to do then you're over halfway there being in the right place at the right time is critical none of the shots you see here are grab shots each one was planned and I often had to try on many different occasions before I got a final image I was happy with for example right now in autumn time I know these chestnuts fall to ground and are harvested by Jays Magpies jackdaws and particular deer that come in here to feed upon them which means I can predict what's going to be happening and then I can make a plan for it and work around the weather and varying other factors to get the image that I really want [Music] one important aspect of having the project is to have an end goal there is no point in just taking photos for the sake of it otherwise you won't be compelled to get out of bed on that cold and wild and windy morning in my case it was to publish a book giving readers a glimpse of the carats of a world I see every morning whilst walking my dog [Music] setting yourself a project is a great way to incentivize your photography but it doesn't have to be as involved as making a book shooting images for calendar is a far more achievable goal as obviously you would only need 12 for example your project could be themed on an urban environment you can still access pockets of wildlife in these areas if this is what interests you more all the shots are shown here have been taken within sight of the very center of London right under the flight path of one of the world's busiest airports I'm still putting the final and finishing touches to my book but for me it's been the perfect personal project as I chose a topic that I was passionate about and in a venue which I could access easily and daily for me this particular project was not about taking more pictures as a working photographer I take far too many pictures every day as it is it was all about taking images and creating a project that I wanted to do a subject matter that I was interested in one of the problems that a non-professional photographer has is the actual reason to take a picture why are you taking a picture personal projects are a great way to incentivize you to get up in the morning get out and about and start taking more pictures and that is the greatest way to enjoy your photography and the best way to learn [Music] thanks James I love that I think the idea of a personal project is just what a lot of us need to get out there with our cameras now in the upcoming months we're looking to start a brand new feature here on the show called the photography online surgery where our experts try and give your photography a clean bill of health to be involved you can send an images for critiquing or you can send it in questions you want answered there are links in the description below on just how to do this just press the show more tab or if you're using a phone or a tablet press this arrow speaking of new features this month were kick-starting a new series we like to call Mission Possible it's all about realizing those epic or ambitious shots if maybe all the start a boat but never quite got around to making happen this month Marcos drags me through a boggy field to explain one such idea he has in mind [Music] okay so this is why we're here if you look up there on the skyline see that tree idea I was driving along the road well several times and have always looked up and seen that tree and it's just because of its isolation its position it's crying out to be photographed but it needs something else to it and one day I came down and the moon was up there way off to the right I thought if the moon had been behind that tree then that would be a shot and it will probably happen at some point it's just working out when it will be so we need to find the perfect location and then work out take a bearing from where we are to the tree and then we can go and look online and see when the moon will be behind it in that position so we'll walk through here and we'll go and try and get as far back as we can [Music] all right so if we start about here we can't obviously go any further left because otherwise we lose it behind the trees if you just hold that for a minute and you get this set up so there's our tree the first thing we need to do is just check what focal length we need so can you see how big the tree is on the frame there so when you look with your eyes it's quite small but because we've got such a long lens it's taking up but no quarter of the frame but the moon is going to be much bigger than that tree so when the moon comes up it's going to be kind of that size there I would imagine so it will look very dramatic and you'll just get the silhouette of the of the tree in front of the moon so it's got the potential to be a fantastic shot so the next thing we need to do is get a compass reading on that tree that's just this will take a little while to calibrate itself but I'm pointing the phone straight down the axis of the lens there so that there from where we are that's saying 41 degrees which that's just not going to happen that would mean we'd need the moon to be rising at about 25 degrees in order to get that high we need to cheat this angle and we need to go as far as we can that way to try and get that angle up nearer well certainly about 50 to stand an outside chance otherwise its mission impossible no we're going to make this work somehow we're going to make it work but it's going to look over here then all right [Music] the further back this way we go the lower the tree appears in the horizon so you know earlier on we were saying it's between 15 and 20 if we go back far enough that will be below 15 and the lower we can get it the better as well but obviously all the time we're getting further and further away from it so it's going to be getting smaller and smaller in the frame which means it will be smaller in comparison to the moon but there'll be a point where it becomes so small that it starts getting detrimental are your feet still dry definitely not well that's good because you've got nothing to lose then here it looks fantastic from here oh it does you see right to the bottom of the tree and this might be a silly question but is there any reason you can't just go up to it and you know get a shot from coarser up rather than coming down of the tree yeah yes because the reason why we're all the way back here is because we want to use a really long lens because we're called to a million miles away from the moon doesn't matter whether we're standing here or up on that hill we're still cool to a million miles away so the moon doesn't get bigger and smaller as you walk closer to the tree but the tree gets bigger and so if we go close to that tree in order to fit the tree into the frame we're going to have to use a much wider angle lens and then use a much wider angle lens and the moon becomes tiny so we want the moon to be much bigger than the trees that's why we've had to come so far back so we're I don't know it's impossible to tell how far away that tree is but it's probably between one and a half and two kilometers away so but this will give us the right size moon so let's just take a shot for reference anyway while we're here come all this way and see how much this cameras move many tapping that ring yeah because the lens is so long that it's magnifying all the movements so you're still mate as was you know if it's windy then yeah forget it because there won't be a lot of light around so the shutter speeds going to typically be about one hundredth one two hundred thirty second so if it's windy and the cameras doing that in the wind then that's not going to be any good as well so you're just narrowing down the odds here aren't you trying to yeah trying to avoid coming back going through the bog so you want the composition somewhere so I'm gonna put the timer on now it's 1/6 fortieth of a second I'm gonna put the timer on because I don't want to be touching the camera when I take the shot so there's our shot so let's just zoom in on it and just check it is sharp it should be it's nice looking Trey imagine the moon so big behind that I mean that would the moon would actually take up all the frame there and you see the craters and the detail on it so that would make for a spectacular shot yeah so that's why we're here so we've envisaged the shot we've got an idea of what we want to get now we just need to achieve it we just need all the conditions to fall into place yeah that's what Mission Possible is all about and you know if this was easy then you know it wouldn't be a challenge with it but this is a very very challenging shot cuz you need all the elements to come together at the same time but if we're patient enough we'll get it [Music] as the last thing to do before we go is we need to mark our position and take a photo of it just so that when we know I'm talking about on my phone here so the phone the phone will find where we are so that's that's exactly where we are now so if I take a picture of that just so that later on we know exactly where we were standing so that we know where to come back to but so when we look at the photographer's ephemeris online we can see exactly what angle we need to memorize good job you asked because that's where we're going now okay okay let's go [Music] now if like me you've never heard of the photographer's ephemeris stick around later on the shore market is gonna be showing me just what I useful tool it can be now we started the show off of the courts from Ansel Adams a good photograph is knowing where to stand but there's a bit more to it than you may think we sent Harry off to Ellen donan castle one of Scotland's most iconic castles to talk us through this most important part of the photo staking process today I'm going to talk you through something called viewpoint now viewpoint is the most important element of composition but it's also something that often gets overlooked what do I mean by a viewpoint well it's the exact position of the camera now it's important that we get this as right as we can while we're shooting because it's one of the few things that we can't change in post-processing viewpoint deserves investing as much time as possible if we get our viewpoint rights then all the other compositional elements should fall into place really easily [Music] when trying to identify the best viewpoint for our subjects we want to work in three dimensions so firstly we want to try and find the best angle on our subject then we want to find the best distance and finally work out the best heights to shoot from [Music] so it's not really working that well from here we're a little too flat on and the line of the mountains is kind of interfering with the outline of the castle at the moment so we can do one of two things we can either get closer to the castle that would involve some slippery seaweed and and an inevitable full or we can go further away so I think I'll try that one so then you come about 100 meters from my original position there I've come literally as far as I can in this without falling off into the water now it's almost working but at the moment I've got a really nice line above the castle there but one tiny little convergence with the chimney and the top of the mountain so we're going to try and find another spot an easy mistake to make is getting too close to your subject here the castles right up into the sky and though it looks quite dramatic to our eyes it doesn't really work as a photograph ideally we want to show this within the amazing surroundings that we've got here so we're gonna go further away and see if we can show the mountains and the hills above the castle [Music] so I've invested a really good amount of time exploring all the viewpoints at ground level around the castle here within reason I haven't gotten the water yet or maybe save that for the summer months so I'm pretty confident that this is the best viewpoint that I can get now the reason for that is that as you can see behind me 1 we've got quite a nice reflection today it's nice and calm but crucially the castle sits below the mountains so we've got a nice outline up above it and we can also see daylight through the arches of the bridge here as well once you've figured out your best angle and your best distance we need to figure out the best height which to photograph our viewpoint from now if you're using a telephoto lens light kind of becomes irrelevant as we don't tend to include anything close to the camera if we're using a wide angle lens however our height becomes quite important as from eye level we won't include much of the foreground but at ground level it becomes much more apparent well I'm going to do is I'm just gonna take one shot from eye level and then by crouching down you will see that the foreground becomes a much stronger part of this image so unreasonably confident that I found the best viewpoint down here but as you might notice I've got a great big hill behind me that might allow me to get some elevation and get a slightly more unusual viewpoint down onto the castle so let's go have a look now [Music] as you can see it does work quite nicely importantly we're up high enough so that we can see water all the way around to the top of the castle if we were down any lower than this then we would have for the top of the castle clipping into the bottom of the hill just up behind it there another advantage of our elevated viewpoint is we get a much better sense of the setting around the castle which makes it so photogenic now once you're confident that you've found the very best viewpoint for whatever subject you've chosen you can move on to focusing on all the other elements within your photograph we'll be covering these in future episodes of essential camera skills so make sure you like and subscribe to photography online to make sure you never miss another episode thanks Harry as you can see understanding viewpoint is very simple it doesn't matter whether using a large format camera like Ansel Adams did or just a mobile phone the exact same principles apply it's all about slowing down and exploring all the options before taking that shot now it's time for this month's sixty second editing skills this is the part where our photography online experts have just one minute to explain some of their favorite editing techniques last month Marcus came in a write on the Bell this one let's see if Nick can be just as good with his time keeping this month I'm going to show you how to apply a graduated filter in Lightroom so here I have an image where in the field I didn't actually need to use a graduated filter because all the detail was retained within the dynamic range of my camera however the sky is a little bit too bright for my liking so I'm gonna apply the graduate filter in Lightroom so to do this we go up to the toolbar which is just below our histogram and we select the fourth icon along which is a rectangular shape and looks like a filter so once we're all in the image you will see our cursor has now changed to a cross here what we need to do now is click and hold the left mouse button to where we want to start the filter and then drive all the way down to rerun the fill to end now on the screen you will see we have three lines anything that sits above the top line will be affected 100% by the settings we have on the right here anything below the bottom line will have no effect whatsoever the distance between the top line and the bottom line is the fade from 100% to 0% now if I widen that distance you will see we have a much softer gradient if I close that distance up we have a much harder gradient now to see the area affected by this filter all you need to do is move your cursor over the center circle here and the screen will turn to red showing the affected area like so now there's a lot more we can do with graduated files in Lightroom but that's another time for now my 60 seconds is up well these guys aren't leaving much room for improvement thanks Nick and no pressure Harry now you're continuing on with our top 10 locations of Sky series last month we visited a location right next to the road glad I got to do that one this month we need to venture a little further afield number 9 on our top 10 list of views on sky is the lesser known location of Rahu nish or punished point located right in the very north of the island it requires about a 45-minute hike to access [Music] there are a few routes you can take to get here but the easiest to follow is by parking the small designated carpark on the road to Sheila's turn turn off the a 855 at the phone box and you'll see the carpark round the next bend this is the farthest north you could drive in sky but you can't actually go further north but you need to walk there luckily there's a footpath just over here leading exactly where we want to go just go the trail can be very muddy and boggy in places especially if there's been lots of recent rain so make sure you have suitable Footwear the path is otherwise good and is mostly flat for the first mile until you reach a gate from here it gets a little steeper but nothing too strenuous so though we can't see it from here we're heading to the toilets point on the horizon and when we get up there we'll find something quite interesting this building is the most northerly building on Sky and was originally a Coast Guard lookout Hut giving 180 degree views over the water around the north of the island standing here and panning around the horizon you've got the Isle of Harris over to the west you have the Isle of Lewis to the north and you can see mainland Scotland to the east this is the very definition of a panoramic view once you've had your fill of views from the Lookout Hut this location is far from over in fact things are about to get a lot better although it doesn't look like it from here is actually quite easy to get down to that lower peninsula over there and that's where we're going to go to see the number-9 viewpoint on our top 10 list following the clifftop to the west will lead you down into a shallow ravine at the far side of this ravine is a gate next to a rock from here the path gets a little steep so you want to have at least one hand free to grab hold of rock so I'm just gonna put my camera back in my back to give me that free hand [Music] from here a steep but easy to navigate path zig zags down the cliff face eventually bringing you out at the base of the cliffs [Music] once down on flat ground it's time to explore this seldom visited Peninsula one of my favorite shots to take in this area is the C stack which can be perfectly framed by the foreground I love the shape of this rock it looks like something out of Thunderbirds when the waves are crashing around its base a long exposure can create some dramatic and atmospheric effects heading a little further around the coast reveals a sea arch which during the summer months is nesting with sea birds such as fulmar shags and kittiwakes a view from here back towards the cliffs is well worth taking before moving on this is the most northerly point of sky I can safely say that there's no-one on sky that's further north than I am right now although the coastal views are very special it's the view from the middle of the peninsula that we've really come to see so this is it view point number 9 the reason why I love this so much is because it's so untypical of sky it looks more like Australia or New Zealand or maybe even somewhere in South Africa if you want to take the best photos here you need to time your arrival with the end of the day when the Setting Sun out over the Outer Hebrides will illuminate the cliff face which can often take on an orange or a red hue if you get calm conditions to allow a reflection to be had on the water then you'll be rewarded with an amazing image be aware that staying here until sunset will mean walking back in the dark so make sure you bring a good head torch with fresh batteries you could of course consider sleeping in the bothy which will put you in the perfect location to watch the sunrise in just a few hours [Music] if you do find yourself in remote locations in the dark then next month we're going to be speaking to Scotland's leading expert on outdoor safety as she tells us how to keep safe when you're out in the hills if you want more information on places like Grenache then don't forget we've got this it's the photographer's Gator sky which contains information on the top 50 locations and is available in both hardback and digital download just follow the link in the description to the video now earlier on in the show Marcus talked me through an idea he has for a photo which quite frankly is stupidly ambitious and as we're about to see it might take a very long time to achieve so I said I will show you the photographer's ephemeris yes okay so there we go that one there and basically when you're on the home page it gives you lots of options so we'll click on the open web app which is the free version so what we've got is a pin here showing my location but you can move this around anywhere you want to but leave it there for now and basically you've got all these different lines so this yellow line shows you the angle of the sunrise and it tells you down here sunrises at 6:08 at 69 degrees so this is for today's date which is August 26 if you want to choose a different date then you can just clip through this what you can see is as I'm clicking through the different dates you see the angle of the light changing and if you go all the way down to the end of the year this is sunset this is sunrise so the further towards the end of December you go the closer these two are going to come to each other towards the south which is why the days of social nights are so long so what we want to do is we want to get find a date when the moon is gonna be in the sky 65 degrees could you remember when we were on location I took a couple of screen shots on my phone so from our position pointing directly at the tree it's my phone said it was 65 degrees whether that's accurate or not we right now until we turn do try and narrow that that's what we can go so we're looking for a date at a time when the moon is at 65 degrees and about 10 degrees above the horizon I've already done a bit of cheating it to save going through day by day January the 9th next year so you can see the moon is is rising at 44 degrees so it's way further round to the left and we need it but obviously that's when it's on the horizon so we wouldn't even see it because there's a big heeling away and as you can see as we're moving the timeline forward the moon is moving around we want it to be 65 degrees so there are 65 degrees and that puts it at 10 degrees or ten point five degrees above the horizon so that could be perfect yeah all we can do is go there on January the 9th and have a look and see if the moon is too high too low too fast the left too fast the right and then at least we'll have a bearing on where it needs to be so if we miss this date I've gone through the next day is ok on the 10th so we've got two chances of it on genuine duct and then nothing until February the 7th or the 8th so if January the 9th and 10th that completely cloudy and we've none the wiser after going there we can go there the following month and then it doesn't happen again till December because this is basically a winter thing that the moon never rises that far to the north doing the same if that's still too low let's just say that the tree is 65 degrees and the is 12 degrees above the horizon we're gonna have to wait two more years there's something called a lunar standstill which only happens every 12 or 13 years and that's when the moon rises further to the north than any other Tonica and that's not gonna happen until 2023 so start with those dates and see how we get on but this could turn into a three or four year project yeah exactly but it's just trial and error at the moment and we'll see how we get on keep watching to see what happens when we make attempt number one no that does take us till December 2023 hoped it wouldn't but if it does to make that shot who knows what camera will be taking it on already in 2020 Canon and Nikon have made some big announcements brand-new DSLRs canons flagship camera the 1dx mark 3 is about to hit the shops but is available for pre-order now and Mekons latest full-frame offering in the d7 80 also looks like it will be in demand we hope to be testing both cameras in future episodes which brings us on a plea to this month's kit corner [Music] this is the world's first 10 x telephoto zoom and photos for dslr's which reaches 600 mm how could we just do this in my normal voice please as I was saying this is a sigma 62 600 mil F 4.5 26.3 it's got a whopping focal length all the way from 60 mil which is roughly what our eyes see all the way through to 600 mil to pull in the most distant of subjects although it's from Sigma's sports lineup of lenses that doesn't just mean you have to shoot healthy people clad in lycra it's the ideal lens for wildlife photography too because you can't always predict how close you're going to get to your subject there's been many occasions when I've been out photographing otters when up in shooting we've say a 500 millimeter lens and the officers have ended up way too close for me to even focus on them so being able to zoom out to 100 mil even to 60 mil is a really big advantage this is also the ideal lens for shooting other distant subjects such as airplanes that air shows the moon or even solar eclipses talking of the moon this lens has got so many buttons dials and switches it will keep even an astronaut occupied to start off with we've got three different focus settings so we've got full autofocus we've got a really useful manual override setting and then a purely manual focus setting we can also limit the distances that the lens focuses on so we can keep it at full or we can limit it from six meters to infinity or we can limit it from the closest distance to six meters now that's useful because if we're only photographing something that's very far away then being able to focus at just those far distances means we'll be able to focus far quicker and minimise any focus hunting we also have two stabilization modes one for general use and two for panning we've also then got a whole series of custom presets which we can pre-program using the Sigma USB dock the lens also has a lock switch on the zoom that means that we can lock the lens out at different focal lengths that's really useful for if we pointed the lens straight up for example without a lock on it's just going to slide all the way back in but if we lock it out jobs are Goodin also slips off when we turn the focus ring and that just means we've got different options for when we're zooming if you're a traditionalist you can use that to zoom in and out like that if you're trombone player give it an old push pull [Music] I've been testing this lens on a variety of wildlife subjects let's have a look at what I got first off I tried a slow-moving subject such as this water Morel strolling across the ice taken under maximum 600 mil the lens had no problem in locking onto the subject and resulted in a really lovely crisp sharp image retreating into the thick of the reeds this made autofocus nearly impossible luckily the lens has a manual override which allowed me to grab a sharp image of the rail surrounded by vegetation [Applause] [Music] the next level up was to try some fast-moving subjects these geese in flight prove no problem I was really impressed with how quickly Lenz found focus and tracked them through the air something slightly trickier was a duck splashing around in water as a mix of tones throws up challenges forward to focus once again I didn't have a problem getting sharp images having tested the telephoto and lens I was keen to try out the wider angle focal lengths by getting up close very close with my subject I wasn't expecting great things from the shorter end but once again was really impressed with sharpness and versatility of the lens [Music] so they start off with the positives first really for a lens of its size it's a really nice compact shape I liked the image quality it's really quite a nice sharp lens and it focused quickly I also really liked the fact that we've got a built-in Barker Swiss plate on the tripod collar that means we don't have to faff around with putting on extra plates and we just want to put it on a gimbal head now there are going to be things I didn't like I'm not a big fan for the lens hood for me it actually isn't quite big enough it doesn't really cover the front of the lens if you're out shooting in rain I also think it's slightly over complicated we've got a lot of switches and all these presets and things I'm never going to faff around with any of that another downside it does go to F six point three now obviously if we wanted something wider than that we're gonna be spending a heck of a lot more money so I think for the amount it costs it's very good value so I'd like to leave you with a final thought although this is quite a heavy lens it's 2.9 kilograms with the lens and the hood attached it could actually end up saving you space and weight in your bag how does that work or if you're already using a couple of lenses like a 70 to 200 and 100 to 400 or maybe a 300 mil Prime all of those focal lengths are covered by this lens so you could get rid of those and just have this for a lens of its price as well it's available for about 1700 pounds in the UK I think it offers really good value so if you're in the market for a big zoom I definitely think the Sigma 60 to 600 mil is worth considering and this is the lands here which sadly has to go back to Sigma this week but not before I get a chance to play with it hopefully I record I could skip the gym this week now let's head back to the middle of a field to see if we can line up three objects with a mere 240,000 miles between them at a specific time of day with no wind oh and a clear view through the clouds what could possibly go wrong [Music] [Applause] so here we are it's the 9th of January and we've waited for this day for six months now time yes so the weather's looking 50/50 I would say there's quite a bit of blue sky we basically need a clear patch up in that direction here so we're wander to our spot that we found last time we'll assess the situation so just to put this into perspective I've done this similar kind of thing before uh-huh where I got a friend of mine to stand on a hillside about two kilometres away from the camera I had the moon rising behind him but that was much easier because out of the three things he got the moon my friend and the camera I had the ability to move two of those things obviously I can't move the moon but I could move myself and I could also move my friend and of course managed to get that pretty easily but what we've got to do today is slightly more ambitious because we've got three objects the camera the moon and the tree we can't obviously move the tree I can't move the moon and we're very limited to how we can move the camera as well yeah so Mina's Earth's first attempt was your chances of getting well look at the sky I'd say we've got 50% cloud cover but then we've got the slightly bigger task of getting the moon in the right place now last time we were here we calculated that the tree was a 65 degree bearing okay and about 10 degrees above the horizon exactly 422 today is when the moon is going to be at 65 degrees and 10 degrees above the horizon so it's just a case of whether we're good with our estimations or not so the moon rises and in the right position at 4:22 million what time is it know how long we've got it's 22 for now so you got two minutes to get in position so we were just over here I think this looks familiar and oh look there's the tree it's good to see that no one's chopped it down it's kind of half expecting a rival photographer to have come with a chainsaw and locked it off a big good trick with them oh why it's a let's set up camp here this tripod yeah so I looked it up and guess when the last time the moon was 65 degrees from north and ten degrees above the horizon I'm guessing years 10 years 10 years tonight the first time in 10 years that it's happened on a full moon ok ok it's quite regularly on other phases of the Moon but not on the format and it will happen about 4 or 5 times over the next three or four years and then it won't happen again for another 18 years I am NOT coming back here in 18 years so hopefully we'll get tonight but I guess I've got options but this is what Mission Possible is all about this you know earlier in the show we saw James McCormick saying how important personal projects we're having a reason to go out and take photos you know if we didn't have this as a challenge then we wouldn't be here today we be out taking photos but it's not us out and it's given us a reason to get out of the house learn a few things yeah exactly so well that's the key I mean as long as we see where the moon is even if it's if it's over there then we're in trouble if it's over there then we're all right so let's get this all set up so put this on yeah that's a little camera on the back [Music] is that the moon up there now just above the tree no surely not it's too early isn't it well I don't know because it's all guesswork but it's hard to tell because there's too much cloud there but it looks suspiciously round and white so they manually focus this because I don't trust it to get it as sharp as you ask you get it see about hate pays even though it's one degree still doubt the atmosphere moving it's not windy like well if it was windy then that would be doing that okay that is the moon look just up to the right are mine so we need to move quickly they need to go down there and then we've got got it behind the tree [Music] right so we failed at this time because we can't go any closer than this because as we know from last time as we go that way you lose the tree yeah and so we can't get any closer and we need to get closer to get the tree higher but what we can do is if we look at this we can work out exactly where that moon is at the moment so the time is exactly 4 o'clock we're back on the photographer's ephemeris yep so at the moment the moon's at sixty one point seven degrees yeah so we need I don't know 60 or 59 degrees and it's saying that it's 8 degrees about the horizon but it's probably 2 degrees above that tree right now so we need it to be I'd say five and a half degrees so remember that five and a half degrees at 59 degrees 50 that'll give us the right berries in that tree coming down anyway yep so we've learned a lesson we've got our photo here but the moon's not in the right place it was tracking over the top of the tree my concern is that it was going to come underneath the tree in which case we wouldn't be able to do much about it but the fact that it's going over the top of the tree that gives us more opportunities so check back with those difference numbers the next day it's gonna be well the next date is actually tomorrow but we know that the way there's not going to be Goods there's nobody coming here tomorrow so February the 9th I think I see you next time so for now pizza probably [Music] so it's a case of patience and persistence for another few weeks possibly even another few years I must admit though I am enjoying the challenge and learning a lot in the process if we've inspired you to undertake your own personal mission possible projects feel free to get in touch and let us know the details you never know we might even come along and film you now if you watched our last show before the competition deadline of the 12th of January you may have entered to win this filter set these are the filters that all of our experts have in their own bags and so they're well worth having we had hundreds of entries to the competition but there can only be one winner and so I printed out all the names and the only fair way I could think of drawing this is to chuck a dart at them so I put having a wee bit of target practice and I've got to shut my eyes just so this is totally fair I am a rubbish shot so let's see if we can do this oh she hits it congratulations to Hank yarn something bare mayor I'm sorry Hank yeah I have done something to your name hopefully you can make it out there we will be in touch to the hope to make sure that these filters are on their way to you if you're one of the hundreds of unlucky ones next month in our March edition of photography online we're actually giving away a carbon-fibre travel tripod from king joy again a brand all of our experts use so do make sure to hit subscribe and the bell icon so you're notified as soon as that show is available speaking of next month's show I am so looking forward to it because we are coming to you from the city of romance it's Venice I can see it now drifting gently don't quiet canal being serenaded by a handsome Italian guy all while tucking into terms fear [Music] but until next time take a care but most of all take good photos [Music]

Channel: Photography Online

Views: 152,962

Keywords: photography, isle of skye, camera tips, photography trips, landscape photography, photography show, photography online, highlands, scotland, photography tutorials, wildlife photography, photography news, digital photography, adobe lightroom editing, adobe photoshop editing, learn photography, how to take better photos, photography skills, camera skills, photography programme, Richmond Park, Sigma 60-600mm lens, photographing the moon, photography tips, royal parks, composition

Id: OZrDis__mOw

Length: 48min 10sec (2890 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 26 2020