Have a look at my latest. Took it at about 6:35 last night! I hit the balance point between ambient light and the moon's light, such that there's nice contrast but also detail on the surface of the moon and detail in the landscape (the corn stalks etc.).
It's of the so-called "super moon" (when the full moon is at perigree, closest to the Earth) rising above the hills outside of Penn Yan. I got lucky on this shot; I scouted locations the day before and got there at 6:22 when the moon, a ghostly pink, broke the horizon. But I misjudged the direction of the moonrise, so I had to extemporize, gunning the car around on the empty roads like a madman to find a good viewpoint in time. I have a lighter version with the moon closer to the horizon and I was going to post both, but as I mentioned in the writeup of "Composition in Black, White and Gray," I have a thing for dark pictures at the moment and I ended up liking this shot the best.
"Supermoon Rising" would have made a lovely color picture as well; the moon was a pale, pure orange and there was still a fair amount of blue left in the sky. It was the end of an absolutely clear-sky day, without a trace of cloud anywhere. I recognized it was my chance to get the moon close to the horizon, and came prepared.
Taken at ƒ/16 to get sharpness from the corn stalks all the way to 226,000 miles away. The rendering of the dry corn stalks is very nice too, when enlarged.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Thomas Paris: "Every couple of weeks, I try to photograph the moon here. Both when it's full or almost full and when it's almost new, the last and first crescents. The point being that then there will be some light in the foreground when the moon is close to the horizon, giving me a chance to capture both in the same frame. But because the foreground is so busy, visually, here, I want a big moon, so I use a telephoto lens for that. Meaning I have to find a viewpoint with both a clear view on the moon and an interesting foreground. Not easy to find, in a big city. And the moon is seldom visible here anyway, because of the pollution and clouds. But when it does work, it's magic!
"Yours is very different from the ones I make because you're using a much shorter focal length than I usually do. And often in these, with a shorter FL, the moon feels lost to me. But it doesn't in yours, thanks to that peaceful foreground. And you beautifully balanced your composition. Lovely! And it sounds like you had fun making this, which sounds ever better to me."
Pictures like this, no matter how nice, always miss the feel of a rising moon because a person experiences that illusion where the moon just rising over the horizon looks much larger than it is. It's that apparently huge moon, often yellow or orange, that has the magic.
Posted by: Tom Passin | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 09:02 AM
That's a great photo, reminiscent of Ansel's Moonrise, Hernandez. Love it!
Posted by: Ian Christian | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 09:45 AM
Very nice!
Posted by: Jim Kofron | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 09:54 AM
Nice job! Like other of your recent more abstract work, it may not knock my socks off as a Picture, but it's still interesting as a study of light, tone and texture at a specific place and time. Intrigued where all this is going. Having said that, I must mention (again?) that "Farmyard with Pickup Truck" is a lovely Picture. It's got drama and subtlety on multiple levels, rewards looking, offers both harmony and characterful moments.
Posted by: robert e | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 10:00 AM
That was not the Moon shot I was expecting, but maybe the Moon shot I needed? The Moon is too bright for my liking, but god-damn that corn is perfect.
Would love to see the colour version as an "outtake" 😊 Although I'm a B&W lover, I do appreciate the subtle colours of dusk and dawn.
Posted by: Miserere | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 11:57 AM
Lovely!
Posted by: DB | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 12:04 PM
That’s a fantastic shot, Mike. Full moonrises are spectacular to witness, but so, so hard to capture nicely photographically.
I speak from a lifetime of experience when I say that, reinforced by my experience yesterday. I’m in the south of Portugal at the moment, and last night I witnessed a beautiful sunset over the Atlantic Ocean, and about 20 minutes later and 100 yards down the road I saw the spectacular (super) moonrise over the town of Carvoeiro, which was still bathed in just-set sunlight.
I shot both quickly with my old Fujifilm X100 but I won’t get to process those until later next week or so (and I don’t have high hopes). But I also grabbed some shots with my iPhone (XR so not great). The phone shots make for fond memories, but will not go down as fantastic photographs for multiple reasons but mostly due to lack of detail in the Sun and moon. (Both are just washed out dots in the sky, unlike the beauty seen with the naked eye.) But what a glorious half hour in my wee life! (Diptych posted on Flickr, here: https://flic.kr/p/2qozRAn )
[Don't sell your shots short, Ed. I think they're very nicely done. --Mike]
Posted by: Ed Hawco | Friday, 18 October 2024 at 06:35 PM
Hey Mike, nice shot. I recommend www.mooncalc.org and www.timeanddate.com/moon for catching the moonrise and finding nice locations to do so. I used these sites for moonrise timelapses a couple of years ago, with semi-successful results.
Posted by: James W. | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 02:28 AM
I try to shoot the Moon a day before the full Moon. It's usually about 97-99% illuminated so it looks full. By shooting a day before there is still some light to illuminate the foreground and it's easier to balance the ambient light and the Moon's light.
Posted by: DavidB | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 10:48 PM
And a day or two after full for morning when the sun is rising behind you.
Posted by: John Payne | Tuesday, 22 October 2024 at 01:03 PM