September Moon

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 18 September 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

A full moon rises over the Diablo Range in San Benito County, California, just as a bit of a breeze spins the blades of an old windmill. Much of the credit for this image has to be given to my friend and colleague, Nick Lust. Nick spotted this potential image a month earlier while driving past and discussed it with me. Full moonrises generally look better photographed the night before the actual full moon as they rise prior to sunset. To find where a full moon will rise, you can either use an expensive GPS, or do it the old-fashioned-way, look down your shadow line. This particual moonrise began 25 minutes prior to sunset (these times vary and are based on a flat horizon; they can be found on the internet). We weren't quite sure how long it would take for the moon to appear over the mountains (it turned out to be 15 minutes). It took another 12 minutes to reach this location in the sky (2 minutes past sunset), thus allowing for the the purplish hue in the sky from the developing twilight wedge (this is actually the earth's shadow with some warm light mixed in). The dynamic range of this image matched the capture range of the sensor so perfectly, that very little post processing was needed. To see more of my images and learn more about my workshops, please visit my website at http://www.donsmithphotography.com

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