Moonrise

In the days before I was paid to make the most boring subjects look somewhat interesting my photography was about 80% oriented around a amazing event that occurred everyday, the sunset. Much to my mother's chagrin, I would climb the chimney onto the roof every time it looked like there would be a nice cloud formation to the west. Our neighbor's palm trees would form a nice silhouetted frame for the photo. Even though the clouds would be different each time the routine got a little monotonous. So one morning I decided to shoot the sun on its way up instead of going down. I headed out to the marsh near our old home in Suisun to shoot the sunrise. As far as I can remember this was my first official photo expedition, where I went out and about with the sole intent of taking photos. Just coincidentally there was a full moon that morning that was setting at the same time. A few cattle grazing on a rolling hill in front of the setting moon became one of my favorite all time photos. It turned out to be a major catalyst in my path from a potentially wealthy chemical engineering student to a starving artist.

So when I noticed a few trees set on a very gentle hill (if you can even call it that) on my way to an assignment outside town last saturday I knew I had to come back there for the rising/setting of some celestial bodies. And luckily a full moon was on the horizon a day later. Even better, the current tilt of the earth on its axis lined up the trees to give me easy access to see the sunset on one side of them and the moonrise on the other. And so, about 14 years after my first simple trek outside town I headed out again, just at a more reasonable hour this time.

Sunset behind trees


There was a half hour break between the sunset and moonrise so I showed Miranda the old Stevenson's graffiti bridge. Just south of it was a young walnut orchard. I tried to get her to walk down a row for a photo but heals and mud don't mix. So just the trees


Finally, the moonrise. I ruined what should have been the best shots, when the moon was just peaking over the clouds, by trying to use a monopod instead of the tripod. The moon is also blown out compared to the trees. I might try some HDR blends to see the man in the moon but don't have the time now.



Looks like walnut trees in black and white might become a more frequent subject.