Here’s another photo of Amber in Joshua Tree National Park. The photo was made not long after I made the photos of Amber with Candace Nirvana that I displayed two postings ago.

By the time I made this photo it was getting pretty dark out. As I recall, these photos were the last ones I did for the day and I then had to get out my flashlight to help illuminate the way back to the car.

Consequently, being that dark, it was very difficult to focus properly with any certainty. I could have increased the odds by stopping down the lens to a smaller aperture, yielding greater depth of field and getting more in focus, but that would have increased the shutter speed beyond the point at which Amber could hold still.

Of course, as you can see, I was trying to do more than just get a sharp focus. I was also trying to maneuver Amber’s hand so that she appeared to be holding the moon in her palm. This also wasn’t easy, as she couldn’t see what I was seeing and I had to shout out directions to her for moving her hand – a little bit up, more the left, etc.

The photo is not perfect. I had tried to get Amber to move her hand so that the moon is more in the middle of her palm rather than by the heel, but it had taken a lot of effort to get it to this point and with the sky rapidly getting darker, I didn’t want to wait any longer.

Not only was I not sure if I got it in focus (and I may not know for certain until I try to make a large print), I was also upset at myself after we had finished and were heading back.

Why? Instead of only using a long, late day exposure that would show Amber normally as in daylight, I should have also made an exposure for the moon. That would be a normal, sunny day exposure as the moon is, of course, lit by sunlight. Amber’s figure would have been underexposed, yielding a silhouette, but the moon would be properly exposed and showing details.

Looking at the photo now, I don’t know if I missed that much by not exposing for the moon. After all, the moon is fairly small in the image, so any details might be lost except in a very large print.

As it is, if Amber is out of focus, I may have no choice but to print it down to a silhouette, anyway. The difference is that the overexposed moon, as you can see, is a glowing sphere – and perhaps that’s not a bad thing, after all. ******************************************************************************

I’ve added another blog to my blog list at the right – that of Bill Ballard, a photographer based in Savannah, Georgia. I’ve followed Bill’s blog for a while and finally decided to put him on the list.

As it happens, I also spoke with Bill on the phone this week. He commented on my last blog entry, as he’s done from time to time, so I decided to take a look at his website, which I hadn’t seen for a while. Noticing a phone number on his contact page, I decided to try calling to thank him for his interest in my blog and perhaps find out more about his photography.

Needless to say, phoning somebody out of the blue can be a risky proposition. I once called a woman who I had corresponded with on a photography forum in order to talk photography – something that I don’t get much of an opportunity to do, to be honest. Well, it was clear before very long that that conversation would go nowhere fast.

Still, I let the dice roll and dialed Bill’s number. Fortunately, things went much better this time, and I think we spent close to an hour on the phone. Bill does some good art nude photography, I think, and I invite you to follow his blog along with the others on the list.