Leon Turnbull Photography

As I biked down Fallen Leaf Lake Road I came upon this scene as the almost full moon was setting behind Mt. Tallac with a stellar reflection in the lake. Well, it was not a waterfall so I did not stop. Yeah, right. I could not not stop and take a shot of this glorious scene. The little bit of clouds coloring just prior to sunrise also added to the beautiful scene.

This was a semi half planned shot, actually. I knew the moon would be setting behind the mountains at sunrise, and I was thinking of shooting it as I hiked up to Glen Alpine Falls, but I was thinking of shooting from a different location, not behind Tallac. The scene at Tallac did not occur to me beforehand, though it should have because it is a much more magnificent scene then the one I had in mind. Well, it was a gorgeous morning indeed.

Well here is my take on this morning’s lunar eclipse. It is not great.

I thought I would try to do a couple things this morning, shoot two birds with one stone, so to speak. The first of these was to get up super early to shoot the eclipse. The second was to go waterfallin’ up in the Sierra. I got up at a little before 5AM, and made my way down to the American River and Folsom Bridge, a cup of coffee in my hand to help warm me up in the cold. I knew the moon would be in this position in the morning from checking The Photographer’s Ephemeris, and the day before I had taken my daughter down here to scout out a possible shooting location. I did not see those power lines! It was too dark in the morning to see them, and when I had scouted with my daughter I did not see them either (as we did not get down here until almost dark). So I did not see that they were in the shot until afterwards. I was bummed about it, as the moon is kinda right in the middle of them, but I figured it would be too hard to clone them out, so I just left them in there. Other than that though, I really like the shot. It turned out much better than I expected.

Anyway, I figure I’m much better at photographing waterfalls than moons, so after the eclipse I headed up I-80, and I got to a pretty cool spot as well. That pic will be coming up next.