I love to photograph the rising full moon with other subjects. Normally I do this the day before the full moon as it appears full yet rises about an hour before sunset so my subject is illuminated is attractive magic hour light. For November's supermoon, it was cloudy the day before so I went out the same day with moon rise at 4:20pm in NYC and sunset at 4:30pm. I chose to go to the Marine Nature Study Area in Oceanside, NY as there is a good view of the brant goose migration. I set up on the southmost bridge and waited for the moon to appear. About 15 minutes before moonrise, I saw a flock of brant geese land in the distance. I knew they would blast off once it got dark and waited with anticipation. There was nothing in the sky when I saw the moon so I composed an image with a tree to show how huge the moon appeared. Then I worked the subject taking photos as birds passed the moon. The sun had set and it was 15 minutes till the park closed at 5:30 so I started my walk out disappointed that the photo I previsioned did not happen. Then I heard a huge racket of geese honking at the flock blasted off. I ran to an opening and planted my tripod and quickly composed and captured a bunch of slightly tilted images as I did not have time to level my tripod. I corrected for this in post processing. I continued my walk out stopping to photograph a brant goose in the reflection of the rising moon. As I continued my walk out, I spotted the park manager driving the trails to make sore the park was empty before locking up. He offered me a ride and I hopped in and we discussed what I'd seen and photographed. He is a fellow photographer and friend and I'll share these photos with him to place on the park’s social media.
Comments and suggestions welcome,
Morris
1) 1 minute after moon rise
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens600mmf/8.01/1250s1600 ISO0.0 EV
2) 2 minutes after moon rise
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens600mmf/8.01/1800s1600 ISO-0.3 EV
3) 4 minutes after moon rise
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens600mmf/8.01/1500s1600 ISO-0.3 EV
4) 6 minutes after moon rise, sunset in 3 minutes
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens391mmf/7.11/1500s1600 ISO0.0 EV
5) 6 minutes after moon rise, sunset in 3 minutes
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens391mmf/7.11/1400s1600 ISO0.0 EV
6) 54 minutes after moon rise, 14 minutes after sunset
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens150mmf/5.61/1500s6400 ISO-1.3 EV
7) 64 minutes after moon rise, 24 minutes after sunset
X-H2SXF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR lens600mmf/8.01/60s6400 ISO-0.3 EV
As John said, great planning on your part you early riser! These have a wonderful feel to them, the moon is impressive in its size and such a nice glow! Great work, your efforts paid off.
Absolutely love this post Morris and thanks for sharing the information on the timing and planning. I always wanted to make a "big moon" shot like this but could never balance the foreground subject with the moon exposure which is so critical to give it scale! Learnt a lot from your post.
