I’ve relaunched my Digital Night website. It’s greatly expanded, with tips, techniques, and geographic sections. This site is an archive of my stories about photographing the landscapes of the night. The geographic sections are for Point Reyes, Yosemite, San Francisco, and Marin Headlands.
Check it out: www.digitalnight.us.
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As the full moon rose behind the Golden Gate, I quit trying to photograph the moon beneath the bridge. The broader context of the landscape showed the beach at Kirby Cove with a hint of the surf flattened by the time exposure and the skyline of San Francisco in the distance.
This six second exposure was the shortest exposure I made in the sequence of photos I took from the fortifications just behind the beach. The moon itself is still blown out at six seconds, but the general landscape is pleasing.
Related stories: Moon Shines Bright; Towers of the Moon; Rose Moon Rising. To learn more about exposing landscapes that are lit by a bright moon, check out Taming Extravagant Dynamic Range on the O’Reilly Digital Media blog.
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On Saturday I knew the full rose moon was coming up at 9:29PM. I decided to try for some photographs of the moon rising from below the Golden Gate Bridge, so I headed for Kirby Cove. The beach at Kirby Cove faces the channel of the Golden Gate on the north shore, with the bridge to the east. My thinking was that I would be in a good position for the moon and bridge.
At about 8:30PM in the gathering dusk I headed down the trail for Kirby Cove, and by a few minutes after nine I was in position. The moon came up right on schedule. I made this exposure with the shutter open for 10 seconds (ISO 100, f/5.6), with the moving lights of the small cruise ship centered under the moon an unexpected bonus.
Looking at the lights of the bridge, city, and cruise ship you can figure out that the photo must have been taken in the dusk. If it had been the sun, there would have been more ambient light. So this is the moon, not the sun. But this moon shines bright. This moon shines bright as the sun.
As the rose moon rose, it lost its rose coloration, but lined up nicely with the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Top exposure at 1.6 seconds and f/5.6, bottom at 1/13 second and f/8, both at ISO 100.
Related story: Rose Moon Rising.
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