Tag Archives: Pinprick Moon

County Road, Pinprick Moon
Near Carr, Colorado, 2015

Last summer, I realized that I’m not very good at leveling the camera when I shoot a photograph.  I would rely on my eye in order to judge the level of the horizon, but invariably I would get it wrong and would have to correct the rotation of the image later at the computer.  So, I bought a simple bubble level that slides into the hot shoe of my camera to solve the problem.

It’s worked out quite well.  After a brief break-in period of getting used to using it in my workflow (“I’m not going back to the car just for that!”), most of my images come leveled-out just fine.  In fact, I’m astonished at just how bad my judgment really is.  More often than not, I’ll compose the image, check the level, and realize that I’m substantially off.

So, imagine my surprise when I opened this image file on the computer and saw that the level of the horizon was off.  Except that it’s not.  If you look closely at the road, especially where it crests over the horizon, you’ll see that the image indeed is level.  It’s the slope of the landscape that’s tilted.

At first I found this a bit disconcerting, but having lived with the image for awhile I think it adds a certain pleasantly off-kilter appeal.  Anyway, at least I know my bubble level works, no image rotation required!