Marvelous Moons - April 2023
Marvelous Moons is a series where I share some of my favorite moon photos from other photographers and talk a bit about them. It’s a way for us to all learn concepts and techniques from the best!
Partial eclipse with lone tree, by John Fox.
I’ve long wanted to capture the moon with a good looking lone tree, but after years of searching, I only just recently registered my first photo in the category. John Fox, however, is a master of this type of shot. You’ll find his gallery full of amazing moon\tree images, but for me this one stood above the rest due in part to the fact it was during a partial eclipse. No doubt the exact positioning of the moon in relation to the branches was thoroughly planned out. Timing is more important than ever here, as just because an eclipse is visible at your location doesn’t mean it occurs when low enough to the horizon to catch it with a terrestrial subject. In other words, it’s not just a matter of waiting for an eclipse, it’s waiting for the right eclipse, which in many places will be a wait of several years, if you’re even lucky enough for it to be in your lifetime. There’s definitely some extra finger crossing going on for clear skies when you have a shot like this in the works.
Fortunately, we still have the plenty of other opportunities to capture the moon with trees aside from when there’s an eclipse, but regardless of the ‘when’, there’s more to it than simply finding a tree that might line up with a moon rising or setting, there’s also the question of aesthetics. As long as it does line up, there aren’t really right or wrong trees, however here are some things you might consider in a search for a good one to capture with the moon:
--When you’re out and about, always be on the lookout for trees on tops of cliffs, ridgelines, and hills, where you could position yourself to the East or West to be able to line it up with a moonrise or moonset. Higher from your position is generally better, since if the tree is down at the level of the horizon, the moon won’t be as clear, or even visible at all, depending on atmospheric haze.
--Trees with bare branches work well, as in John’s here, since you can see the moon more easily through them, as opposed to simply near a tree, or partially behind one which mostly obscures. This is not a requirement of course, but can produce a more dramatic image.
--Trees with unique form are also not a requirement, but unusual bends or scraggly branches often work well compared to what we might call a basic tree. Think bonzai-esque.
—After finding a suitable potential tree, you’ll need to use a planning app to see what options there might be in the future for an actual alignment. PlanIt Pro and PhotoPills are both great apps for the job.
—Consider how your distance from the tree will affect the apparent size of the moon compared to it. You can read more about moon size in photos here.
—Think about the timing as well. If it’s while the sun is still up, your tree and landscape will be illuminated, but if it’s after dark you’ll likely only have the silhouette of the tree, unless you do a long exposure, but then you’ll lose the details of the moon. You can see my blog post on timing for moon photos for more of an in depth look into timing considerations.
While there might be lots of photos of the moon rising over Los Angeles out there, this one by Niaz Uddin brings several elements together for a superb image. The moon perfectly lined up with the Bank One building, the last sun rays of the day hitting downtown for great color and depth, and the snow-capped mountains in the background combine for a killer capture. City shots with the moon also fall into the category of ‘Not as easy as you might think’. For the moon to appear large with a cityscape, you need to be far several miles away from the buildings. This presents a problem though, since pollution in big cities will almost always diminish the visibility of the moon when it’s lower to the horizon, and the farther away you are, the more smog you have in the way. So on top of the question mark of interfering clouds, you have an essentially guaranteed obstacle of pollution. The only thing you can do is hope visible pollution is low that day. It is good to know that cities usually experience worse air quality in the winter, mostly due to the cold air trapping pollutants. I recommend searching for your city or state’s department of air quality online, which will often have a daily or even hourly report, much like the weather forecast. When I lived in Phoenix, I frequently visited this site from the air quality division, which not only gave an hourly forecast for air quality, but has various webcams pointing in different directions around the valley. I used this to check on smog or clouds getting in the way on days I was doing moon photos, and also to check on storms and general conditions for landscape photography. I recommend finding reliable webcams around your city, and also do a search for “Air Quality” plus your city name to see if you have a daily forecast for your area. At the end of the day though, if you’ve gone through the effort to plan the shot, you might as well go and see what you can come home with, even if the conditions don’t look great.
