Last night, approximately 30 photographers lined Front Street hoping to capture the rise of August’s super blue full moon only to be skunked by cloud cover. I managed a few shots of an unexpectedly nice sunset before packing up and heading home. It dawned on me later that night the moonset may be a much better opportunity given the predictions for cool dry air to be approaching Marblehead overnight.

I set the alarm for 5:30am and made my way out to Chandler Hovey Park where I saw one other photographer who appeared to have realized the same thing. I took turns shooting the sunrise coming up over Childrens Island and the moon as it slowly descended in a cloudless sky over Marblehead Harbor filled with boats.

As the sun rose, it lit up Abbot Hall and houses across the harbor as well as boats on their moorings. The wind made this a tough shoot and I had to constantly adjust settings and apply as much pressure as I could muster on the camera and tripod to keep it still for 1/250th of a second.

The end result was a picture perfect moonset with the moon positioned in just the right part of the sky to balance the tower of Abbot Hall and with a mix of blue water and golden light on the boats in the harbor. This is already a top contender for the August page of my 2025 Marblehead Calendar.

Speaking of which, I have opened up Pre Orders on my website for the 2024 Calendar. If you visit my site, there is a helpful popup to direct you to the calendar with a preview of each page. I am waiting for Meta to sort out issues on FB/IG for me to be able to offer Pre Orders there as well.