Interesting Photo of the Day: Moonset Over Big Bend

Interesting Photos

When Andrew Takano drove all the way from Austin to Big Bend National Park, he was expecting to spend five full days there, taking photos around the remote and little-visited desert. Instead, he arrived the first morning at 6 a.m., and his car began to break down. He spent most of the day fixing it and wound up staying only a single night before heading home with just one shot he was most proud of—this crystal-clear moonset (like a sunset, but, you know, with a moon) over the rocky Texan mountains:

With a long enough exposure, a moonset looks as dazzling as a sunset. (Via Imgur. Click for larger image.)

Takano shot it with a Canon 6D with a 2.8 aperture, ISO 1600, and a 20-second exposure to maximize the light and color. The timing is great, because he couldn’t see very well in the darkness and the framing, following the traditional rule of thirds, is spot-on.

“This photo was just from a consolation session I gave myself so I wouldn’t feel too terrible about having to go home so soon. In actuality, I took about 70 photos that night, many of them trying to get the exposure and framing right. It’s unbelievably hard to frame foreground elements in photos when it’s so dark you literally can’t see the ground beneath your feet.”