Timing is Everything

At twilight, just a few minutes can make a major difference in the image that you can capture. The image above was taken on October 5th, the night following a full moon. I knew from checking the US Naval Observatory’s website that I would be able to capture the moon next to the Lincoln Memorial while shooting from the walkway on the Arlington Memorial Bridge. The image above was taken about 3 minutes after the “official” moonrise time provided by the USNO, but it was blocked from my view by the trees next to the Memorial. Although the twilight blue of the sky (about 30 minutes after sunset) was starting to darken, there was still sufficient ambient light to illuminate the side of the bridge and the Potomac River below. I chose a longer time exposure to trace the tracks of automobile lights on the bridge and the road along the riverbank below.

The second image was taken only 10 minutes later when the moon had almost cleared the trees, but the sky was now darkened and there was no ambient light to illuminate the side of the bridge or the river below. I moved my shooting location to the middle of the sidewalk so the right half of the image would not be a completely black void. The result is acceptable, but it would have been better had the moon shown up ten minutes sooner.

The question naturally arises about the possibilities for a better image on the previous night, when the moon was full and would have been above those trees sooner. Unfortunately, on that night, the moon would have been too far to the right of the Lincoln Memorial to be included in the frame.

The next full moon will be on November 3rd and from this position on Memorial Bridge it will be much closer to the Lincoln Memorial than it was on October 5th. In fact, it may well be obscured by the Memorial for a few minutes. Nevertheless, the timing of the sunset and moonrise indicates that there will be a better possibility of capturing the full moon in the picture before the twilight period fades.

Technical data for these images: Both images captured with a Nikon D-200 and an 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens and the ISO at 200. The first image was shot with the lens extended to 82 mm. The exposure was set at f/20 for 5 seconds. The second image was shot with the lens extended to 132 mm. The exposure was set at f/18 for 1.5 seconds. Both images were adjusted in Camera Raw and Photoshop.