How I Got That Shot: Photographing the "Blood Moon" Lunar Eclipse

Early this morning, the moon took on an uncanny blood-red glow as the moon passed through the darkest point of the Earth’s shadow. For those of us in North and South America, the first eclipse of this four-part tetrad was pretty spectacular. So spectacular that our pictureline employees couldn’t help but break out those cameras and get to shooting.

"Blood Moon" Lunar Eclipse - April 15, 2014

"Blood Moon" Lunar Eclipse - 1:45 a.m. MST, April 15, 2014. Shot with a Nikon D5000, 300mm, f/2.8, ISO 600, 1/3 of a second. Photo by Mark Olson.

This stunning shot was captured by pictureline’s Mark Olson. Mark set up his Manfrotto tripod on his balcony in downtown Salt Lake City, carefully adjusted the settings on his Nikon D5000, and waited.

The most action happened in a 3.5-hour span during the partial eclipse, which began around 11:59 p.m. MST and ended at about 3:32 a.m. MST. The height of the action occurred at 1:45 a.m., which is when Mark got this shot of the blood moon in all its red eclipse glory.

"I had originally planned on going up to Ensign Peak since I thought the shot would be better in a spot that overlooked the Salt Lake Valley, but I decided just to stay on my balcony, which worked out perfectly. I played around with my camera settings a bit and was able to capture this shot with a Nikon 300mm. I shot the moon at an f/2.8, ISO 600, and shutter speed of 1/3 of a second. Shooting manual was key; there was no way I could have gotten a shot like this in auto mode."

Since Mark caught all the lunar eclipse action, he plans to make a time lapse with his blood moon images, as well as shoot the other upcoming eclipses. So in case you missed this eclipse, don’t worry—there are three more to come! This eclipse was the first one in the four-eclipse tetrad, which will conclude in September 2015. Therefore, you’ve got plenty of opportunities to get the gear you need and try out your lunar photo skills. Come in and chat with us or give these tips from Nikon a try on the next lunar eclipse in October of this year!