Last night, I shared an image of the Christmas full moon rising over Marblehead and illuminating the dinghy in Little Harbor with its perfect Christmas tree.  At the time, I had said that this wasn’t the shot I had intended and, maybe subconsciously, knew that I would be trying again so I titled that image A Christmas Full Moon.  This image is the one I had envisioned and am so glad I headed out again tonight to capture it.

After yesterday’s adventure, I rechecked the time and location of tonight’s moonrise and was pleased to see it would be late enough that the Christmas tree lights would be turned on (they hadn’t been at the time of the moonrise the night before).  Also, as the day progressed (and what a day it was!), the clouds dissipated and I held out hope I might be able to capture the Christmas full moon closer to the horizon.

I returned to my spot in front of Marblehead Lobster Company and set up in a slightly different position hoping to capture the moon with the orange glow that only happens near the horizon.  As the minutes ticked by, I started to see a faint orange glow and then the full moon appeared in brilliant light.  After taking the first shots, a car came down and illuminated the dinghy for a minute and I had an idea.  I ran to my car and returned with a high powered flashlight with which I could light paint the dinghy and its Christmas Tree while the Christmas full moon rose behind it.