I can say I’ve never been a moon photo chaser per se. However, being in the field almost once a week provides the opportunity to catch a full moon off and on mostly unplanned at the time.
This was one of those takes near the Oak Tree Tank area. Not too much to add beyond stating it was an evening take with a rising moon. Usually my moon takes are setting moons during sunrise.
Mamiya RB67 ProSD - Mamiya “C” 65mm - 3 stop soft grad - Velvia 50
Paul, this is wonderful. The composition is excellent, and the color and contrast are spot-on. You have excellent detail in the moon, and especially like the light on the rocks and the foreground. No nits from me.
–P
Beautiful, Paul. I’d love the image without the moon, but it adds a very neat final touch and you placed it perfectly.
A beauty for sure Paul. I’m especially impressed with the handling of the light range. Plenty of rich detail in the darker, shadowed foreground and still the transition to the sunlit rocks and the perfect, pretty blue sky is all excellent.
And to think folks are still balancing luminosity with graduated filters in the field… kudos. Impressive!
Not nits or suggestions from me either!
Lon
Excellent, Paul. Great light and a fine desert scene and the moon is the perfect topper for this one. No suggestions here.
@Preston_Birdwell @Dennis_Plank @Lon_Overacker @Harley_Goldman
Thanks guys for the kind comments on this scene. Very much appreciated.
I think I’d mentioned in the past the term “Tank” in this area is all about storage of rain and rain runoff. There are several in the area. In this case the “Oak Tree Tank” is actually located behind this large rock formation. The dry-wash in the RH middle ground is the main conduit for this tank’s location. The flash flood runoff gathers over a few miles behind the camera here travels along the dry-wash toward the base of the rock formation. Then it takes a hard right just behind that large oak tree just visible in the scene. At that point it descends very quickly on a long chute of bedrock with a hard left turn at the base of the chute behind the rocks into the tank area. The tanks were very functional in the earlier days when there was rain a plenty in the area. Not so much these days.
Paul, great timing on this, getting a kiss of sunlight and the full moon showing cleanly. The setting is great as well, with a fine collection of cacti and shrubs in the foreground. There’s a fine sense of being there with all of the details in the large view.
No nits whatsoever, this is one of those images that I dream to catch for a long time. Joshua Tree is one of those locations that is so close yet so far. I need to correct that. The glow on the rock is just perfect and you have captured a perfect moon.
Nice one, Paul! The sunset light on the rocks really makes the shot. Like you, I don’t really chase the moon either but when I do get the opportunity to include it in a landscape it almost always happens to be an evening shot with the moon rising against sunset light (as you’ll see by my first post in this challenge).
This is quite beautiful, Paul. Superb job managing the dynamic range with Velvia no less!
