Moonrise Behind East Mitten

Moonglow behind East Mitten ~ © Royce Bair
Canon 5D MK3 • 70-200mm lens @f/4.0 • 4 sec • ISO 320

I just returned last night from a two-day pre-workshop scouting trip in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. As the rising of the moon overpowers the stars, this was my last photo of the evening (not to mention the increasing cloud cover).

"Blue" moonlight hue conversion

A rising moon adds a dramatic touch to astro-landscape photos. Although moonlight is about 135 times brighter than starlight, and quickly subdues all but the brightest stars, capturing its early advent mixes nicely with the stars. I can't wait to show these NightScapes and others to you in future posts.

Note: This really was the color of the sky, as the moon rose that night. At some point, I'm going to process this image through the raw converter (ARC) and produce a more traditional, "blue" moonlight image. Until then, here's a quick 'n' dirty hue conversion.

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com
Featured Post: Shooting Stars eBook Review — How to Photograph the Stars and the Moon