Luck and a Lesson

Luck - Serendipity had me visiting family in central Florida the night of a recent rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. They often see launches but I hadn’t yet and didn’t know what to expect, especially given their 60-mile distance from the launch site. As luck would have it, I had my camera, tripod and a 100-400mm lens with me, in hopes of capturing water birds during their courting and nesting season.

I planned for light conditions ranging from daylight to twilight to dark, as the launch window was 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Almost to the second, at 7:00 p.m., a large plume of smoke emerged from a low bank of clouds. The rocket emerged from the smoke, streaking upwards. There wasn’t much detail through the view finder but I followed the streak until it disappeared into another bank of clouds. I’m not sure 60 seconds elapsed before it was all over!

Lesson: Thankfully, I remembered to set my camera for high-speed continuous shooting. Unfortunately, I was so excited, and it went so quickly, that I forgot to zoom in!! I totally didn’t take advantage of a lens which would have effectively taken me 4x closer to the rocket. The end result was that I got a decent shot, but it was so far away I had to crop in significantly to even see the rocket, making for a less than crisp final image. Next time, I’ll remember to zoom in…

Behind the Lens

Lift Off and Smoke Trail – Project Kuiper (KA-01) Atlas V 551, United Launch Alliance, launched Monday, April 28, 2025 from Cape Canaveral, FL and photographed from Winter Park, FL.

Shot with: Canon EOS 5DMark IV, ISO 200, f/4.5, 100 mm, 1/800 second

P.S. Geek out like me and go to www.spacelaunchschedule.com for launches, viewing locations and live video for Florida and California rocket launches.