Full Moon, Rodeo Beach 2019

This photo was one I wanted to take for a long time. It looks like a comet or some other light source in the sky, but it is actually a representation of the moon’s movement across the sky over a long period.

It was very tricky to produce. When shooting long exposures like this with a film camera, there is really no way to know whether the proper exposure has been made. It was only after completing a series of tests that I was able to arrive at a reliable exposure estimate.

The image was taken on Saturday, October 12, 2019, at Rodeo Beach in Marin County. The exposure began when the shutter opened at 2:50 a.m. and ended when it closed at 5:15 a.m. I used my Hasselblad 501 CM camera with a moderately wide 50mm lens. I set the aperture to f/11 because previous tests indicated that this should produce a good negative.

The moon was 98.5% full. After opening the shutter, I lay in the sand and listened to music on my phone. It was a warm night, and it was wonderfully relaxing to hear the waves and the music while the exposure slowly unfolded.