A setting crescent moon at twilight usually can be best captured about 3 days after the New Moon. I went down to the Reflection Pool last night to see if I could catch it with the Lincoln Memorial. The timing on this composition is a little tricky because you need the moon to be close to the Memorial shortly after the sun has set. This doesn’t happen very often. There is about a 15 minute window when the building’s lights, the twilight sky, and the brightness of the moon are in balance. The moon was a little more to the left of the Memorial than I would have liked, so I compensated by moving to the right (northeast) corner of the Reflection Pool.
Photographed at 8:23 PM
The photograph above is a merge of two images so I could include the reflection of the moon in the water.
Photographed at 8:36 PM
The sunset was at 8:01 PM and I appreciated Mother Nature’s positioning of the clouds to add interest without obscuring the moon. There was very little wind, so the surface of the Reflection Pool was almost mirror-like.
For those with a technical bent, both images were photographed with a Nikon D0800E on a tripod. The first image was captured with a 24-70m f/2.8 lens set at 62mm, 1/5 sec. @ f/9, ISO 1600. The second image (also a 2-shot photomerge) was captured with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens set at 105mm, 3 sec. at f/13, ISO 1600.
Absolutely STUNNING! 🙂
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Thank you! I’m glad you liked them.
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Both are exquisite!
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Thanks, Laura. That is really nice to hear you say.
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Fantastic Robin, I wish I could get to Washington to take photos, might have to try for another trip.
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Thanks, Leanne. It would be great if you could come here sometime. Lots of places to photograph, depending on the season and what’s being renovated (e.g., the Capitol dome is under scaffolding at present and will be for a while).
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Such a pretty shot, Robin! Made me smile 🙂
Thanks for your visits to mine and sorry I ‘m a bit slow getting back to you.
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Not a problem. Always happy to see you visiting.
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