Last night I saw a beautiful almost-full moon as I was driving home from work, so I got up early this morning with hopes of seeing the moon setting before sunrise.
The moon was bright in the cold pre-dawn sky. Although it was partially obscured by clouds, the moon illuminated my way along the darkened path to the boardwalk of my local marsh. There were geese sleeping in the fields just off the boardwalk and I attempted to photograph them (I’ll post a photo or two of them later). I tried photographing the moon itself, but the overcast sky prevented me from getting any details of the moon, which looks like a blob of light in all of my photos. I had somewhat greater success in taking photos of the moonlight reflecting off the water. I had my camera on a tripod for extra stability, but focusing in the dark was difficult and I couldn’t see the dials of the camera, so my settings were not always right.
Here is my favorite image that shows a pathway of reflected light from the moon. The subject that I photographed is pretty mundane, but I really like the overall atmosphere of the photo.
Moonlight in the marsh
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
You captured the atmosphere of the experience. Beautiful
Thanks. It helped justify going out early on a frosty morning in the dark. I think tonight is officially the full moon. If the night is clearer, I might make another try tomorrow.
We’re in the middle of another winter storm. We had 14 inches snow day before yesterday and have ice and snow for tonight. Ugh.
Focusing in the dark can be an adventure! I like this shot. The reflection seems to mysteriously disappear into the upper left.
Thanks, Lyle. The only way that I was able to focus at all was has having something with sharply defined edges in the image. I also learned interesting things like the fact that 30 seconds (the longest exposure I can get from my camera without going to bulb) may not be enough if I use settings of ISO 100 and f20. It was a fun experiment, though I was literally and figuratively in the dark most of the time.
wonderfull how you start capturing mood in your photographs.
I love this picture! This is a scene that is not often seen and photograqphed even less and i think it’s beautiful. I’ve learned (the hard way) to carry a small penlight when I’m doing night shots.
Thanks. A small light is definitely going into my bag. I should have anticipated the need, but I too learned the hard way. It’s definitely more of a challenge for you to get night/early morning shots at this time of the year. I was cold, but it was only 30 degrees, which must be considerably warmer than it is in NH. Like you, I enjoy trying to get shots of the moon when it is rising during daylight, as well as when it is in the dark sky.