Moonrise

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Moonrise

I pulled off the road on my way home from work the other day to get this shot of the moonrise as it was coming up between a couple dead trees along Excelsior Road in Sacramento County, California. Behind me the sun was setting and the warm lighting gave the trees a eerie feel that I like. Someone told me the image “makes me think of Halloween.”

I drive past these trees everyday. Each time I wonder what kind of a shot they would make and what elements would improve the scene. Sometimes hawk can be seen in the upper branches, but until now I had never stopped for a shot. On this evening I had the element I wanted. The moon.

The composition for this moonrise wasn’t hard to come up with. Just move around to position the moon so it was framed by the trees. I thought about moving to get it in the empty space above the short tree, but one – I would have had to wait and possibly lose the light from the setting sun behind me, and two – the moon would have seemed to detached from the rest of the scene. Where it is brings the moon pulls all the elements together, and if you let yourself go there it looks like the short tree is reaching out to it.

I guess that makes on think of Halloween.

About the Shot

I shot this using a Canon 60D (an after Christmas gift to myself) an the EF-S18-153mm kit lens that came with it. The focal length used was 52mm. To get the depth I wanted I shot at f/11 and 1/200 sec. at ISO 200. For whatever reason, I didn’t bother to grab my tripod out of the trunk and shot handheld. Not something I would recommend. I mean, if you have a tripod available, use it when you can.

Thanks for spending some time with me and looking at this image. Feedback is appreciated, as long as it is constructive.

ARBayne Photography