On the same night that I captured Monday’s image of the frozen harbor at sunset, I also managed this image of the full Worm moon rising over Marblehead Neck. The original plan was to shoot this moon as it rose over the lighthouse. I arrived at the location I had scouted with too much time to spare so I drove across the causeway and photographed the ice along the harbor as the sun set. Given the clouds on the mainland side, I had little hope for the moon rise. As I packed up and drove back across the causeway however, I saw this great moon in my rearview mirror.
I quickly decided to head down Commercial Street to get the shot before the moon rose too high and the light faded too much to capture the houses along Marblehead Neck. I set up as fast as I could and bracketed the exposures to balance the moon’s bright glow with the dwindling light falling on the houses and lighthouse. In the end, the light differential was too broad to be captured by the camera sensor. I tried to decided on using a single image (and leaving the moon as a white orb) or creating a composite by painting in the moon from a darker exposure. In the end, I went with the latter and I think the image is stronger for it.
