Description — This is a full moon rising over the White Sands Desert in New Mexico. The photograph was taken in March 2005, after sunset.
Camera Nerd Info — Linhof Technika V 4×5 view camera, Nikkor-M 300mm f/9 lens, Fuji Astia 100F film, 1/4s @ f/22, no movements.
Commentary — The hazy appearance of the desert is due to the strong winds that occur this time of year at White Sands. I believe that the dark desert floor adds to the mystery of this scene. But as the sun goes down the place gets a bit scary– it is hard to find your way. There is a trail marker at the lower right of the image; I made sure to keep it in sight so I could find my way back to the car. People get lost and die of exposure in the White Sands Desert on occasion, and I didn’t want to be one of them. As with many other photos on this site, a lot more detail can be seen in a large print.
I exposed for the sky, so the desert sand is necessarily dark. I tried to lighten the image a bit in post-processing while keeping the detail in the moon, but it was tricky. I used Fuji Astia film on this trip as an experiment, as some photographers like it for landscape over Fuji Provia. But I didn’t, so I didn’t buy any more Astia. Fuji quit production of Astia several years later.
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