Chasing the Moon
March 1st, 2013
On the very last evening of my trip to the southwest, I spent the night in Valley of Fire State Park. I knew the full moon would be rising 10 minutes after sunset, and I planned to catch it coming up through Elephant Rock just after sunset. I was up on White Domes shooting sunset and after finishing up quickly hiked off the sandstone and drove to Elephant Rock. I was happy to see that the clouds on the horizon were still picking up a little light from the twilight glow as the moon made it’s way up over the mountains. I quickly scrambled up the hill and behind the arch looking due east. This is a single exposure at 8 seconds @ F8, ISO 800 which not only picked up the glow of the moon and the color in the clouds, but also the brightest stars in the sky as well. To be honest, those stars were barley visible to the naked eye, but captured well at the high ISO. In post, I did basic tonal and color work in Lightroom V4 before moving the image into Photoshop for some advanced luminosity masking for dodging and burning. The image was finally brought back into Lightroom and I used the adjustment brush to paint the sky, removing any noise that built up from the exposure and processing. The resulting image is clean and can be printed very large to over 60+ inches! Man I love the quality and dynamic range of the new D800.
We have several opening for a few upcoming workshops this spring and early summer.
CHARLESTON & SAVANNAH PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
WEST VIRGINIA PHOTOGRAPHY BOOTCAMP
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Joseph Rossbach has been photographing the landscape for over fifteen years. Joe’s photographs and articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars and magazines including Outdoor Photographer, The Nature Conservancy, Digital Photo, Photo Techniques, Popular Photography, Blue Ridge Country, Mountain Connections and many more. Joe is also a staff course instructor for Nature Photographers Magazine, and writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer Magazine online edition. Joe is also a co-author and contributing photographer two print books, The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography (Mountain Trail Press) and 50 Amazing Things You Must See and Do in the Greater D.C. Area, The Ultimate Adventure Guide. Joe continues to travel extensively producing new and exciting images of the natural world as well as leading several photography workshops and photo tours each year.
Very nice Joe, Too bad you didn’t plan ahead and take us there the night before.
Yeah, sorry about that Carol. I didn’t realize it was gonna rise in-between the arch until after we watched it come up the night before. If we would have had another day on the workshop, I definitely would have! I enjoyed working with you and I hope you had a great time! Stay in touch, Joe.
Great pic Joe, one we all were hoping for knowing there was going to be a full moon both rising and setting in the desert during our workshop. We were told we were going to do star trails which were not possible with the beautiful moon. Don’t you have one of the many celestial programs enabling advanced planning?? Do appreciate the tech info included in the photo.
Hi Laurie,
Thanks. I usually use the Photographers Ephemeris to plan shoots for sunrise/sunset times and angles. It also has the moon rise and set as well. I need to remember that for next time! I don’t usually do a whole lot of nighttime work and this was sort of an after thought while shooting sunset and seeing the moon beginning to rise. It was a pleasure working with you and I hope you had a great time! Keep in touch, Joe
The world is not all poverty and war, thank you for sharing the better parts.