January 30, 2009 Omaha Skyline from Lewis and Clark Park
I recently barrowed a 300mm lens, and thought I should make some use of it. I had seen Mike Hollingshead's attempt at the moon and downtown Omaha zoomed in, and thought I would give it a go. So I left my house at 4:30 to Lewis and Clark Park, in Council Bluffs. I got there at 5:10ish, the view is pretty sweet there, its basically a 180 degree flat horizon to the west, facing Omaha. The moon wasn't supposed to set until 10:30, so my plan was to shoot up here through twilight, then head back into omaha, grab some food, and shoot in Downtown, then at 9 head back for moonset. Anyway, I started with the sunset...
I think the one above is at 70mm, this lens was 70-300mm. The next one was at 300mm, but I cropped in a bit.
After the sun goes down, there is a period where you are waiting for the good twilight optics. So I was kinda bored (I forgot binoculars by the way, had I brought those I wouldn't have been bored then) and tried some HDR. This one is looking north, along the bluff, there are a lot of trails there, I think people mountain bike here in the summer.
Then once I noticed the lights come on, on first national tower, I moved my attention back to the skyline. I spent all of twilight shooting, I panned the tripod so I could make good Panoramas (scroll down for sweet panoramas)A few people came while I was there, I was suprised though, because EVERYONE that came only stayed for 10 minutes, and a lot of people left before 10 minutes. I have never seen a better view in Nebraska/Iowa. Before the really good optics I framed one up with the little "deck" thing, It was lit, so I knew I could light up myself and the skyline, and not have either one overexposed. I had a ton of fun messing with this lens, thats probably not good because it's $700 and I still need to buy the sigma 10-20mm for storm season.
Then the really good optics came, where I could have one shutter speed that equally exposed both the sky and the skyline, in such I way that it would look just as it did to the naked eye. I have never done this with one frame before.
I took 5 shots at 300mm and panned the tripod on the horizon to create this panorama
Link to high resolution image
Also did one more panorama, a wider perspective, showing Omaha Eppley airport.
I noticed the moon would set too far to the north and wouldn't line up with the skyline, so I drove south looking for a spot that might, but couldn't. The above is just a shot from a neighbor hood on a bluff (sweet view out your backyard!)
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