Cape Town Lens: The Rising Moon (explored)

A Cape Town Castle of Good Hope tagged image from photographer – gustaffo89 as published on Flickr.

The Rising Moon (explored)

Image by gustaffo89

I can’t take full credit for this photo. I was inspired a while back by this photo, and knew that one day I’d have to replicate it. Browndog, thanks for the inspiration.

So I’ve had this one planned for a while. It’s not one that comes along very often though – you need a full moon, rising in just the right place, and at just the right time in the evening so that the lighthouse is still illuminated but the moon is red. The weather has to be good too.

Using a fantastic piece of freeware called The Photographer’s Ephemeris, I penciled this one into my diary a while ago, and had been hoping for good weather. Well, it pretty much worked as I wanted. Unfortunately there was a big haze today, which meant that the shot that I wanted, with the Moon right behind the lighthouse, didn’t work. In fact I didn’t even notice the Moon rising for a while it was so hazy.

I was all set to give up on the shoot but decided to persevere, and things got better. I think this was the best one of the night. After this the moon got too high and the sun sank too low, so the effect began to be lost. But a success on the whole I think.

Made it to explore, #82. My first photo in almost a year, which makes me happy! Thanks!

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