Surprise Lunar Eclipse

Tonight I was blessed to witness my first lunar eclipse. I have been in a deep flow building my website and finally broke away to go for a walk around 9 pm. That's when I noticed the moon looked strange. Not long after, my friend, Nati, messaged me saying "lunar eclipse, lunar eclipse!!!" I suggested we get together and watch it so I could break out the ol' camera and tripod. It was late, and I still had website on the mind, but it was worth it.

This moment is when I learned that Instagram has built in a long exposure camera

While we were sitting on the concrete pad in my backyard in Belize, watching the moon slowly turn red and look like the man was wearing a beret, I learned something about myself. I suddenly understood why I photograph insects and flying things that move quickly and keep me on my toes. When I've got my camera out, I'm looking for action, for noticing moments and capturing them before they're gone.

Taking photos of the moon means you do a whole lotta sitting around and waiting. 

I took 38 photos total, one every minute or so, and watched it travel across my screen at an unexpected rate, so that was interesting.. but still my mind was looking for something else to do.

I wasn't particularly attached to the photos either as my lens is not the ultimate moon zoom lens, and even with the right exposure, it was rather unfocused. From afar it looks cool, but when you zoom in, the moon doesn't have the crisp quality I look for in a subject.

Eventually the monkey mind remembered something.

Alas! A reel I watched the other day that showed some long exposure and zoom lens tricks. I don't remember the creator unfortunately.

With 27% battery left, off I went, into a new world of play.

The shutter was at 8", iso at 350 and aperture was around 7.

I would feel out or count out loud to 3, then move the camera in some way, or zoom in, or zoom out. Allowing a second or two for the camera to focus on the moon again after the movement stopped (ideally).

This is where I really started to get loose with my camera movements, and afterwards, the editing.

I turned the highlights way down, but raised the whites up, which gave this distinctive glow, and added a little dimension that the previous doesn't share.

That's the best of the stills. I find them quite fun. It gave me something cool to do for a little while that wasn't sitting on the computer trying to understand design, lol.

Oh right, and you might be wondering about the 38 photos I took of the moon traveling across the night sky and slowly disappearing.. Well, instead of posting 38 mediocre photos, I did my favorite thing to do ~ Make a GIF!

It keeps starting over at the bottom left because i was zoomed in and it kept traveling across the night sky that fast.

I had my camera on a tripod and planned not to move it at all, but the moon would leave the frame so quickly I'd have to readjust and start over. Thought I consciously chose not to

zoom out to give it more space to move since I felt it looked cooler up close.

Well, that's all from me folks!

Thank you, Nati, for messaging me about the eclipse and getting me out of my computer cocoon! I am so grateful for this experience, and for the inspiration to write the first blog post in this chapter of my life.

Happy Lunar Eclipse 2026

August 27

Samantha Bergdahl

Eco Sam

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Followed The Calling