Balancing Rock
A tighter crop of the moonrise over Mt. Hood one day before the Aug. 21 full blue moon.
Shot from the Pittock Mansion in Portland's west hills during another PDX Nightowls photo meet-up. Thanks again to Victor for arranging it, and to The Photographers Ephemeris that showed the moon would line up for this shot precisely here.
Processed to bring out the alpenglow-lit glaciers on Hood and the lunar surface details.
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*Edit: Recently (as of the end of Nov. '12), there has been a some questioning the "reality" of this image, due to their being some tell-tale adjusted pixels around the moon. As detailed with images in the comments to the right, I took a wider shot with the moon balanced just like this, and then a minute and 7 seconds later I took a vertical that was zoomed in and had more detail, but the moon had risen about half the moons size to the right. In full disclosure I have Photoshopped the moon "back in time" to it's position at the tip of Hood where I had photographed it in the wider, less detailed shot.
I realize with the number of views and the Tumblr blogging (see below) it was bound to attract this kind of scrutiny. Hopefully you don't feel deceived if you viewed this before the clarification. I don't really feel this is faked, as all the elements come from within the image as shot, and if I has shot the tighter frame a minute earlier I would have gotten this exact view and alignment all in camera.
The editing story is now told and thankfully my photostream can move on...
*Thanks to the Tumblr folks for the huge number of views and re-shares of this image. I was not the person to post this originally to Tumblr, and it would maybe have been nice to have been asked if it was okay to. But most of you are respectful enough include the link here to the original image, so I guess continue to Tumblr away...
Comments and faves
Phijomo, defaultuser, treeffe2000, David Wang Photography, and 73 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Phijomo (9 months ago | reply)
this is really cool! again, the timing of the alpen glow with the moonrise, and to get the positioning like this – great shot with terrific detail!
David Wang Photography (9 months ago | reply)
It just doesn’t get any better than this; an enlargement would look great on any wall.
pitsimeister (9 months ago | reply)
Lovely capture!
Terry Frederic (9 months ago | reply)
This is really great, Jason! You got the perfect moment captured here. Beautifully eye pleasing and a masterful photographic image.
Art ~ 4ThGlryOfGod (9 months ago | reply)
Beautiful, especially in Light-box...
Marcello_14 (9 months ago | reply)
De toute beauté !
Eve Livesey (9 months ago | reply)
Oooh I was hoping for a close-up and here it is! FANTASTIC!
Massimo1989 (9 months ago | reply)
Absolutely stunning image.
victorvonsalza (9 months ago | reply)
Love your vertical comp here allowing/encouraging the eye to travel from hills in the city up to the mountain and moon.
D3IM0S (9 months ago | reply)
me too! Beautiful.
'The World Through My Eyes' (9 months ago | reply)
Amazing photo
Lumase (9 months ago | reply)
Exceptional, I'm really jealous of this fabulous picture!
This photo was invited and added to the My Selfish Room (invited images only) group.
◄CayeAlphα► (9 months ago | reply)
Excelente fotografía, muy buena composición!
sandnfoam (9 months ago | reply)
wow! awesome composition!
Jeffery P. (9 months ago | reply)
Nice treatment. Great comp.
Bernard l Hermite (8 months ago | reply)
natural lamp
kasimbasma (8 months ago | reply)
You captured this scene beautifully.
pretty-nifty (8 months ago | reply)
What an awesome shot. Great timing.
Tom Frit (8 months ago | reply)
wow.. Fantastic Shot
Chick'sPix (8 months ago | reply)
ANOTHER Epic shot! This is fantastic! Love the crop, and excellently done on the processing. It enhances the details perfectly and makes it pop even more.
sermatimati (7 months ago | reply)
Found in My Selfish Room
Jason (Audrey's Dad) (6 months ago | reply)
Below are two straight out of camera views from that evening.
This is the most zoomed in shot of the mountain from a sequence of over 20 shots. Main image above cropped from this one. it has the best mountain/moon detail but the moon had risen higher than the peak in the few seconds since it was right at the tip:
Wider image taken a minute or less before the one above showing the moon did indeed "balance" exactly as presented (this is just to show the alignment occurred, all elements in the final image came from the frame above):
I could have just cropped the vertical out of the second image and it would have been 100% optically true. Instead right or wrong (in a subjective judgement) I used the tighter shot with more detail and moved the moon back where it was only seconds before. This was only because the image is presented as a work of art. If it had been asked to have been published in an editorial manner, hell even if it ever gets picked up as stock, I would re-crop out of the frame where everything aligned in camera.
It was an awesome event to see with my own eyes and shoot with other Portland photographers (yes, there are a half dozen or more images of the same moonrise from here on Flickr if you search, all showing the moon at the tip of Hood). I'm cleaning up the mess of bickering comments this generated and moving on. Lesson learned: be clearer when an image has been manipulated, even if I consider it a slight adjustment.
ann7106 (6 months ago | reply)
i still love the image....
morris 811 (5 months ago | reply)
awesome work!
BHCMBailey (4 months ago | reply)
Cool. Well done. And obviously real -- especially if you look at full sized version.
kernowseb (4 weeks ago | reply)
What an awesome sight! Well done!