Sometimes all the elements come together perfectly and the final shot ends up being as simple as pressing a shutter thanks to a lot of prep work and a bit of luck…

Such was the case when the Hunter’s moon rose over Tinker’s Island on October 9th. I had planned out the rise of the full moon and had two locations in mind. This one at the end of Bass Rock Lane would offer the best chance for a larger-than-life moon thanks to the distance. With my longest lens on and pushed out to 400mm, I was able to compress the distance between Tinker’s and the rising full moon such that the latter appeared far larger. This did not require any tricks in Photoshop or composing two images together but relied on the physics of lens compression to make the moon appear huge behind Tinker’s.  With the location decided, I just had to hope for a clear night and was thrilled as soon as I saw the moon appear above the horizon.

For the simple joy of every element coming together and the final image exceeding my expectations, ‘Tinkering with the Moon’ is my second favorite image of Marblehead captured in 2022.