MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2023 #9 - MOONRISE, SUNSET, AND AFTERWARDS

Mississippi River, Mines of Spain, Dubuque, Iowa

It wasn’t full moon today, this will be tomorrow night, but the waxing moon was at 98.3%, good enough for making photos over the Mississippi River. The overlook on top of the bluffs at the Julian Dubuque Monument in the Mines of Spain, just south of downtown Dubuque, was the place where I put the legs of the tripod in the ground. The moon was supposed to rise at 7:26 PM over ”Island Two hundred Twenty Eight” on the left side of the big river. Sunset was 7:42 PM and my hope was to have a hint of daylight on the water at moonrise. The photo below was shot exactly at sunset time but the moon just became visible from behind some haze at the horizon. Moody, but not dramatic.

The photo above was shot at 7:53 PM. It is important to change the white balance to a colder temperature for the feeling of the blue hour during the time after sunset. I underexposed up to 2 f-stops so the moon is not blown out and brought the shadows in the foreground back a little bit.

At sunset time, the moon just became visible in the haze.

As already mentioned, tomorrow is full moon. Sunset is 7:40 PM and the moon will raise at 7:56 PM. It will have its largest size 39 minutes later. The moon will raise 9º further to the east, which means it will be much higher above the water from the same vantage point in the Mines of Spain and I’m not sure if the reflection on the water will work the same way.

All images: Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,

1.   @ 170 mm, 1/8 s, f/8, ISO 100

2.   @ 112 mm, 1/13 s, f/8, ISO 100

BEAVER MOON

November’s full Beaver Moon coincided last night with a full lunar eclipse. I didn’t set the alarm for this event but woke up early enough to see it briefly between the trees this morning. The photo was made earlier, shortly after moonrise, from the balcony on the east side of the house. Nothing, but a romantic look through the trees here on the bluffs above the valley…

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head,   @ 67mm, 0.6 s, f/8, ISO 2500

COMPROMISE

Moonrise over Green Island Wetlands, Iowa, Nikon Z6II, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, FTZ adapter,  @ 340mm, 1/1000s, f/8, ISO1600, 4 images merged in Adobe Photoshop

Last Saturday the moonrise was less than half an hour before sunset. While I was out in the Green Island Preserve, hoping to get a glimpse on some Short-eared Owls during dusk, the almost full moon illuminated the landscape, with a little bit of light left from the sun that had just disappeared behind the horizon line minutes ago. Unfortunately no owl showed up this time. An ISO setting of 1600 would still have allowed to freeze some owl action at about 1/1000s but some luminance noise in the picture was inevitable. The trick was to shoot 4-5 subsequent pictures while handholding the long lens. Later at home, in front of the computer, the 4 pictures were merged (stacked) in Adobe Photoshop into one image. Since luminance noise is randomly distributed in each picture, it would disappear in the final photo. I liked how the vertical lines of the tree trunks at the bottom were emphasized, but overall the impression of a dreamy landscape was still left. Shooting this from a tripod is probably the better way to do, but how would I have caught a Short-eared Owl in case I had seen one? Photography is often about compromise…

YEARS IN THE MAKING

Moonrise over the Mississippi, Mud Lake, Iowa

Today’s photo was several years in the making. I had this shot in mind for a long time but quite a few things had to be true for this image. First I wanted the Mississippi River with an ice cover and with a fresh layer of snow on top. Of course, I needed a full moon and time of sunset and moonrise only a few minutes apart from each other. It was important to me to have a little glow on the rocks of the Wisconsin side of the river and also still some light left that filled the valley and gave the snow some structure. And last but not least it required a clear sky to make it all happen. As a bonus this evening there was no wind and the temperature was balmy -10 ºC / 14 ºF. What I didn’t expect, but really like, is the fact that the moon lightened the snow patches on top of the bluffs and make them stand out.

I have scheduled and tried this shot several times before over the years but quite often clouds were in the way or something else didn’t work out. At one time a few years ago I showed up a little bit early at bitter cold temperatures. Some moisture must have built up in the camera and about when the moon showed finally up over the horizon line, the shutter mechanism was probably frozen and the camera failed to do the job. Back home and after bringing the camera slowly back to room temperature and let it dry out, everything worked just fine again. I learned my lesson and today I made sure the camera didn’t undergo any sharp temperature changes (like from heating in the car) before the actual shooting.

Here is an app for your phone I can highly recommend for an event like this. The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) is a great planning tool and shows you exactly on a map where the moon or sun will rise or set and when the time is right to be ready for the shoot.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, Vello cable release,   @200 mm, 1/8 s, f/8, ISO100

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2018 #07 - MOONRISE OVER THE RIVER

Moonrise, Mississippi River, Mud Lake, Iowa

Yesterday we had a full moon and finally I found the time and weather conditions that allowed to photograph the moonrise over the bluffs on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River. Sunset was about half an hour before moonrise, not enough to have a red glow on the bluffs but still good to have a little bit of ambient light. When I planned the shooting I actually had a composite in mind. First a shot that was exposed for the ambient light and second a shot that would be exposed just for the moon with some details on the surface. Both would be merged in Photoshop to make a picture that shows close to what the eye really sees. The contrast is too high to have it both with just one click. I did all this and then, last night at the computer, I didn’t like the outcome. Instead of, I present you a photo that was shot right when the moon showed up on top of the bluffs, still during the civil twilight period that can produce some amazing blues. No, it doesn’t show the details of the moon for said reason, but they were not really visible anyway because of that hazy cloud around the moon. Love the role of the clouds in this image, it makes all the difference to some of my other trials.

I set up the tripod at Mud Lake, right at the entrance to the little marina. When the daylight faded away the buoys that mark the access to the marina started blinking, a fact I totally forgot and first wasn’t too happy about. But looking at the results on the camera screen I saw that it had some potential to be part of the story telling.

So how did I know exactly where the moon would appear over the bluffs on the other side of the river? I’m using THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S EPHEMERIS®, an app on my phone that shows exactly, for example, where the sun goes down or the moon comes up, with times and a lot of other helpful data for landscape photographers. Highly recommended! There is also a free web version that can be used in your computer browser, which I think is good for planning a photo shoot at home. Here is the link to the website: https://www.photoephemeris.com .