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Mungo Moon

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 27 July 2018 in Landscape & Rural.

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Full moon rises over the sand dunes of Lake Mungo lunette in New South Wales, Australia. A simple photograph for today but one that hopefully speaks of the calmness and silence that surrounded us that evening just about in the middle of nowhere. Not that we would rather have been anywhere else.

Not having a long lens in my equipment armoury can sometimes make shooting the moon a little tricky. It always makes me think how to give it enough prominence and presence in the composition when I know that it will end up being rather small. Seeing a full moon rise over the dry bed of Lake Mungo once again raised that exact question.

I do not know if I went the right way about it but my reasoning was that it would be best to give another subject a prominent role in the scene and for the mood to act as a secondary but complimentary focal point. I scanned the area around me for a suitable rock formation that could be used to that effect and I think this one works quite well as the sharp peak and grass counter balance the moon in a way that makes the scene well weighted for me.

There is something special about colours in the eastern sky during a cloudless sunset and especially so in the desert and also round the coast. The sky usually has lovely pinks and purples to begin with with deeper magenta and blues appearing later in the evening. These tones made for a great background to the rock and allowed the mood to be clearly visible too. There was still a beautiful after sunset glow that cast soft light onto the dunes and with a little dodging and burning I was able to accentuate the detail.

Just in case you are wondering I used two frames in this photo. One focused on the rock and one on the moon, taken one right after the other. In hindsight, I should have take another exposure with focus on the middle ground just behind the rock. Something to keep in mind for next time.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/5 second F/8.0 ISO 100 240 mm

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