Gray Peak and the Moon

Nice to see a plan come together. A few years ago I was at Glacier Point at sunset. Unbenounced to me it was also a full moon. If you’d ever tried to photograph the full moon and see some details in the foreground elements, it’s near impossible. That evening it didn’t go so well. Fast-forward to 2016. Using The Photographer’s Ephemeris, you can see when the sun/moon will be in relationship to the Earth. I planned on going up to Glacier Point on Wednesday afternoon (August 16) to photograph the (near) full moon as it rises over Gray Peak.

Just as expected around 7:15pm I started seeing a white spot rising over Gray Peak. I used my 5D, tripod, 300mm and 1.4 teleconverter for the first few shots (this one). Unfortunately I forgot to turn off the Image Stabilizer (IS) so they have a little “shimmy”. Once the moon was higher I switched to my 70-200mm lens (doesn’t have IS) and got clearer shots. The good thing is I’m close enough to go back next month…darn!

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Mike is a Central Valley California landscape and nature photographer whose subjects include scenes from Merced County, Yosemite, SeKi, and the eastern Sierra. He is currently living in Atwater, CA.

The text and photographs are © Copyright Mike Matenkosky (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Mike Matenkosky.

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