Missing Moon Photos
Published on Oct 3, 2006 at 8:37 pm.
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Filed under astrophotography.
When I went to the airshow this weekend, I took lots of photographs. I used several rolls of film. Yeah, I know. Everyone else has gone digital. Well, I still like film for various reasons. I took most of the film to be developed at a place near my house right away. That is where some of the photos came from that I posted here. But, there was one roll still in the camera when it was all over. I had about 1/3 of the roll left. I guess that I could have gone around and taken more photos. However, I got the bright idea of taking the camera home and finishing off the roll by taking some shots of the Moon. That’s what I did. I took some photos with two different telephoto lenses and several different exposures. One thing about film as opposed to digital, you don’t get to find out how you did until you develop the film. Hmm. I never did like that. Of course, digital cameras are so good now, that I really don’t have any excuse not to get one. I can just get a good digital SLR and use my existing lenses. The college bought a camera for use with the astronomy classes, and I can use that for astrophotos, of course, but it isn’t really right for me to use that for my own personal photos.
So, anyway, I take the moon photos and finish of the roll of film. I dropped it off at a place near campus on my way in yesterday. This afternoon, I had to go to the doctor, and on my way, I stopped off to pick them up. Well, I get ready to pay for them, and I look in the packet. “Hey! They aren’t all here!” None of the Moon photos were printed! I look at the negatives. Yep. They are on the negatives. OK, some were WAY overexposed, and some under. But a couple came out. So where were they. I show the person behind the counter the negatives and ask why they weren’t printed. She takes one glance and says, “Because those photos didn’t come out. See, all you have on them is a half moon thing.” “That’s the Moon,” I say. “Huh?” she replies. I explain that the half moon thing actually is the Moon. The Moon is supposed to moon shaped! “Oh,” she says. So, she goes to print them. Anyway, I had to leave to go to the doctor, and I didn’t have time to go back afterwards. I am not holding out hope that she’s going to get them printed right.
So, this is a lesson that I learned a LONG time ago, and I am kicking myself. When you take astrophotos to a processing lab, make sure that you take them to someone that you know, and explain that they are astrophotos. There are a couple places right near where I live that I’ve used with satisfaction. This place was convenient to campus, and I thought that I could run over there on a break and pick them up. The person I left them with didn’t print them, and I didn’t leave written instructions. Silly me thought that they could figure out that they were astrophotos when they saw the Moon on them. After all, the Moon is quite distinctive in appearance, right?
Apparently not.
-Astroprof
