As mentioned in my last blog on this project, I had used the Photographer's Ephemeris to determine the time of the full moon rising over The Humber. As mentioned November was a wash out but the situation occurs monthly at full moon. i.e. the moon rises at twilight. December also turned out to be a washout but also Boxing Day so not the easiest time to get out. The full moon in January was yesterday (27th January) and miracle of miracles the sky remained clear. All was looking good but unfortunately the sun set at 4.36 but the moon didn't rise until 5.26 so twilight was really over and it was more or less dark. The moon rise was stunning. It was virtually red as it peeped over the horizon and rose majestically above the sea as an orange ball. Magnificent. As it was virtually dark and the light level from the moon was very low I could only get 1/4 of a second at f4 with my 500mm lens even at ISO 1600. It was also very winy and despite using a tripod, mirror lock up and cable release there was some camera movement and, of course, the moon is moving surprisingly fast. Like Ansel Adams I had previsualised this image and the resulting photograph was all that I could have wished, but sadly not pin sharp as I would have liked. I include it below.
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| The Full Moon rises above the shipping in The Humber. |
What Have I Learned
At moon rise it is possible to use a long lens and have the moon appear huge against land (or sea) based objects. It also has a wonderful orange colour caused by the large amount of atmosphere its light has to travel through. As the re is so little light provided by the moon at this time the shot needs to be taken at twilight after the sun has set but well before it is totally dark so that the remaining daylight enables a fast enough shutter speed to keep everything sharp. In future months moonrise and sunset are closer together so I shall try again and hopefully be successful before I complete this course.
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