Nothing new under the sun?
Written by John MacphersonHow about this then. Moonrise.
Mark Gee did his homework and this is the result:
Full Moon Silhouettes is something that I’ve been wanting to capture for a over a year now. The video is a real time capture of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in the capital city of Wellington, New Zealand. On the evening of the 28th January 2013, after a lot of planning and many failed attempts, I finally managed to pull it off.
There were numerous factors I had to consider and get right to capture the footage. The weather, moon phases and finding a suitable location where I could actually get the moon rising directly over the lookout. Finally it all came together – I found the perfect location, and the weather in Wellington was amazing! Luckily there were people watching the moon rise from the Mount Victoria Lookout. I didn’t know what to expect with the performance of everyone up there, but I couldn’t have directed it better myself, even though they had no idea I was filming them. I shot 8 minutes of footage between 9.14pm and 9.22pm and the finished edit shows about the first 3 minutes of that.
Technically, getting the shot was quite difficult. I was 2.1km away from my subject, and there was no room for error. I only had one chance of getting the shot right on the night. Thankfully it all came together, and what I ended up with was this wonderful performance of total strangers silhouetted against the full moon as it rose above the lookout.
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.
Discussion (7 Comments)
It’s close to being the most perfect thing I’ve seen in a fair while. It’s amazing that in it’s ongoing simplicity something as familiar as seeing the moon can make you catch your breath.
Yes, it’s a terrific example of pre-visualising, working at it, and succeeding, and the result exceeding expectations. Simple and beautiful.
Wow. Thanks for that.
Yes “wow” is the word! Real feeling of looking off the edge of the world and seeing a moon appearing.
You’ve come up with another gem, John. Ta very much.
Hi Tony – when a photog produces such sublime work as this he deserves a big shout.
True John, true.