A Lunar Eclipse in Three Exposures
Credit & Copyright:Stephen Barnesskyoptics.net
Used with permission

There will be a total lunar eclipse on the night ofMay 15-16, 2003. It will be visible across all of North America, and at dawn on the 16th, in the U. K. and Western Europe. You can read all about it and some suggestions on how and where to photograph it in my tutorial titledCrimson Moon.

Because this is a subject that any photographer can tackle I’ve decided to create a competition so that we can all see how different photographers in different places handle this opportunity. Here are the rules…

The Rules

1 — All photographs submitted must be of the May 15-16, 2003 lunar eclipse. They may be taken with any equipment, anywhere, and in any style using any technique. Only ONE photograph may be submitted to this competition.

2 — The submitter must be the original photographer or have the photographer’s permission to submit. The photographer retains all rights to their photograph but providesThe Luminous Landscape Inc. the right to reproduce the photograph submitted on this web site. The photographer agrees to have their name published along with their submitted photograph.

3 — The submitter / photographer agrees to accept the prizes as awarded. The prizes have no equivalent cash value.

4 — Submitted photographs MUST adhere to the following rules.Submissions that do not follow these rules will not be accepted.

— The submitted photograph should be a JPG file at 72 DPI. The longest dimension (height or width) must not be more than 600 pixels.

— The image should be attached to an email which also contains the following information, in the following order…

— Photographers NAME, Country / State or Province / City or Town

— A brief description of the equipment and techniques used. (Do not provide a complete EXIF list. This is boring.)

— Any brief additional comments about the shooting situation that you think others might be interested in.

The Challenge

Don’t just take a photograph of the moon (though even this won’t be technically easy because of the low light levels). Try and include an interesting foreground, as seen below, or do something creative, such as seen in the example at the top of this page.

Mt. Tremblant Moonrise — Quebec. January, 2003

Canon EOS 1Ds with 300mm f/2.8L and 1.4X @ ISO 250

The Prizes

There will be three prizes awarded.

First Prize:A one year subscription (or renewal) toThe Luminous Landscape Video Journalalong with 5 back issues worth $185

Second Prize:A one year subscription (or renewal) toThe Luminous Landscape Video Journalworth $100

Third Prize:AThe Luminous landscape Video Journalback issue of the winner’s choice, worth $30.

Additional submissions may also be published and given honourable mentions.

What to Do Next

Re-readCrimson Moonso you have an idea of the technical challenge that faces you. Re-read the rules. Plan where you’re going to be to shoot the eclipse. Submit your entry.

The contest opens for submissions onSaturday, May 17thand closesSaturday, May 24nd. The winning submissions will be announced and published here on Sunday, May 25th.

Enter your submission (butnotbefore Saturday the 17th) by sending an e-mail with the JPG file attached toThe Luminous Landscape. Please put the wordEclipsein the subject line.

Have fun andgood luck!

— Michael