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Moon Over Nubble

As one of the premier photographic destination in New England, and even the world, Nubble Lighthouse is a tough place to get an 'original' image. Last year, Michael Blanchette captured a stunning view of this lighthouse during a full moon that left us awestruck. Some could be discouraged following in the footsteps of brilliance, but I was personally inspired. It made me want to get down here and make a powerful moon image myself. 

The opportunity presented itself yesterday evening, with a full moon and predictions of clear skies. Since I've had use of a 400mm lens, it's been fun to getting the moon to appear larger by compressing scenes that are far away. Using the photographer's ephemeris, I saw that the moon would rise over Nubble from about 20 degrees southwest on Long Sands Beach. My photography buddy Adam Woodworth joined me, and we climbed through waist-high snow drifts to get into position.

This wasn't the image I had in mind. A bank of clouds obscured the horizon and blocked what I was hoping would be a moonrise directly behind the lighthouse itself, creating an extremely dramatic silhouette. What we got instead was perhaps even more beautiful, and definitely more believable. The moon broke through the clouds just above Cape Neddick, right where the ephemeris said it would, and Adam and I went to town trying to keep up with it's rapid movement across the sky. We would stop, make a few frames, then pick up the camera and jog a few yards to the left every minute or so until we had gone about 30 yards from our original location, all in that waist-deep snow. Haha! What a blast!

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Filename
Moon Over Nubble
Copyright
Benjamin Williamson
Image Size
3130x5069 / 9.6MB
Contained in galleries
Southern Maine, Archive, The Moon, Lighthouses
As one of the premier photographic destination in New England, and even the world, Nubble Lighthouse is a tough place to get an 'original' image. Last year, Michael Blanchette captured a stunning view of this lighthouse during a full moon that left us awestruck. Some could be discouraged following in the footsteps of brilliance, but I was personally inspired. It made me want to get down here and make a powerful moon image myself. 

The opportunity presented itself yesterday evening, with a full moon and predictions of clear skies. Since I've had use of a 400mm lens, it's been fun to getting the moon to appear larger by compressing scenes that are far away. Using the photographer's ephemeris, I saw that the moon would rise over Nubble from about 20 degrees southwest on Long Sands Beach. My photography buddy Adam Woodworth joined me, and we climbed through waist-high snow drifts to get into position.

This wasn't the image I had in mind. A bank of clouds obscured the horizon and blocked what I was hoping would be a moonrise directly behind the lighthouse itself, creating an extremely dramatic silhouette. What we got instead was perhaps even more beautiful, and definitely more believable. The moon broke through the clouds just above Cape Neddick, right where the ephemeris said it would, and Adam and I went to town trying to keep up with it's rapid movement across the sky. We would stop, make a few frames, then pick up the camera and jog a few yards to the left every minute or so until we had gone about 30 yards from our original location, all in that waist-deep snow. Haha! What a blast!
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