Sunset and full moon over the Isle of Arran

[thegman]

This was an attempt to capture the beauty of the sunset over Arran. All C&C would be great especially on improving shots 2 & 3.

#1. Sun setting over the Isle of Arran with nice Saltire cross.



#2. Seagull flying in front of moon, I was taking sunset photos and turned round and was lucky enough to catch this view. Any tips on how to sharpen the gull? This was shot hand held.




#3. First attempt to shot the moon, any tips would be great as I really struggled getting a shot worth posting.

[Marie Hass]

Nice shots all.

#2 would have been a difficult focus as was. The gull is too far gone to make it sharper. Still, I like the composition and the exposure.

Marie

[Shadowman]

2nd and third are fine, a bit of a distraction in the right hand corner of the 1st, perhaps a bird or spec. on your lens.

[thegman]

Thanks John, just checked 2nd shot again, it was a bird

[Benjy]

moon shot looks fine to me Gerry

[deetheturk]

Great captures Gerry,what lens did you use for the moon shots?

Cheers David

[thegman]

Hi David, it was a Tamron SP 70-300mm , on my Canon 700d,

[deetheturk]

Cheers Gerry,i thought it was a much larger focal length than that,well done mate!

David

[IzzieK]

David...To me, #1 is beautiful for its colour rendition...nice warm and the Saltire cross is an excellent feature. As for the foreground, I am glad you did not do this as a long exposure. In my opinion, it would have ruined the shot. I am not knocking back those who like them, but to me it is not natural...

#2 maybe you can try running this shot in Focus Magic to soften the blur a bit. I am not sure...

#3 I like #3...the position is just right there. But still can be looked at close up and still extremely sharp...if this is mine, it will be a good candidate for a composite, adding it and blending it to another magically inspired shot.

[thegman]

Thanks for your comments Izzie, always appreciated

[Donald]

Any tips on how to sharpen the gull?

Yep. Don't even try. It's great just as it is. Our attention is directed towards the moon, because it's in focus and the OOF bird flying across it works very well.

[thegman]

Thanks for your comments Donald, the shot was by luck, I had actually turned around to take a shot of the setting suns glow on some sandstone cottages but saw this above them,

[jkeohane]

Hi Gerry,

I hope it is fine, but I am using your image of the gull and moon for teaching a course in astronomy.
I thought it was way cool, and with the moon in it it allows them to find the angular size of the gull.

Thanks for posting which camera and lens you used.

A copy of my exercise is attached.

Jonathan

[joebranko]

The miin shots are great! I don't think the blurred gulk is a problem at all. I think it adds some mystery to the shot!
The sunset is awesome!

[Mike Buckley]

the shot was by luck

Take the luck and, as others have mentioned, don't change a thing.