Oh man, what a day. I just want to go home, relax, turn on my fan, sit in my comfy chair and watch something on television.
No cooking today. I’ll stop at Mr. Subb and get a Neba or something.
Wait… why is Mr. Subb closed? And the Dunkin’ Donuts next to it is closed? It looks like the entire shopping plaza on Green Island is dark. No power.
Oh crap. That storm that came through must have knocked out power to part of the Town and Village.
I kept driving. The traffic light was out. The street lights were out. And sure enough… when I got to my apartment…
No power at all. No lights, no air conditioning, no television, no nothing. Aw, crumbs.
Oh well, maybe I should just go to bed.
Night, all…
Wait a second. This is a golden opportunity for me, and I can’t waste it by snoozing.
Let’s take stock of the situation. Where’s my camera gear? Nikon Df – got it. Nikkor 50-300 f/4.5 “Rachel” telephoto lens? Got it. Tripod? Yeps.
I have an idea and I hope it works.
See, years ago Green Island’s biggest employer was the Ford plant on the north side of the Island. It’s the same plant whose generators provide cheap municipal power for Green Island’s residents. And since the lights are out all over the Town and Village…
I wonder if I can do some astrophotography tonight. At least without having to schlep all the way into the Adirondacks or the Helderbergs or the like.
I drove over to the Ford plant. Aces. Nobody in the parking lot.
I set up the tripod, strapped the longest telephoto lens to my camera, and started shooting.
Now mind you, this uncut and unprocessed photo is the closest my camera can get to the moon.
Not exactly a bright spot, is it?
With a little post-processing, however, I came up with this.
Damn, I can see craters there!
Okay, this is a nice shot of the moon – a moon shot, if you will – but I’m going to definitely need to pick up a teleconverter or two to allow me to zoom in tighter to the moon and get more detail.
Well, the lights are still out… and I’m just hanging around… why not see if I can do something with this 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt SS and maybe take a couple of glamour shots? I figure an ultra-long night exposure would really set this jet-black GM beauty off.
I parked the Blackbird so that it would be parallel to some trees. And just as I was about to take some 30-second glamour shots of my badass ride…
The street lights came on. Guess the Green Island Power Authority moves faster than I expected.
Oh well. So with the lights on…
I got this shot.
Not bad… again, I know I can do better, but I was initially shooting for NO artificial light. I guess sometimes you have to “make do” with the available situation.
And with that, it was time to end my photo experiment. At least I know what to do the next time I want to photograph the moon with my equipment. I need a teleconverter.
In order to make the best use of this teleconverter, I need to purchase it by at least October of this year.
Why?
Well, that’s when the next lunar eclipse is scheduled. And I’m planning on photographing it.
Blackout or no blackout.
Ha.
Chuck The Writer 
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