The biggest, brightest moon of 2022 came on July 13th when it reached its perigee of 222,089 mi from Earth, the closest distance on its trajectory. This Supermoon is called the “Buck Moon” because it purportedly occurs when antlers of male deer are growing most rapidly. I shot this from Kerry Park, which is probably the best overlook of the Seattle city skyline with Mt. Ranier behind it.
I visited Seattle on a non-photography trip, but of course I wouldn’t come to the Emerald City without my camera. I arrived at Kerry park for a simple sunset shot, unaware of the impending Supermoon. Droves of people gathered in the small park as darkness neared. Amazed at the crowd, I asked a photographer who set up beside me if this happened every night here at sunset. That’s when I learned that the Supermoon would crest over Seattle at about 11:00 pm. Glad I got here so early to claim the perfect spot.
My goal was to capture Seattle with Mt. Rainier in the background; no guarantee in this frequently overcast city. The Buck Moon was an exciting bonus. Mt. Ranier rises 14, 411 ft. above sea level and is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 by prominence (its actual height from base to peak, not elevation). It’s an active volcano with a high probability of erupting in the near future.
The Moon it seems, was a clever calibrating tool that God used to fine-tune the Earth to support life. It happens to be just the proper mass for its gravity to dampen the wobble in Earth’s axial tilt, allowing a relatively stable climate in which life can flourish. The Moon is used by humans and animals alike to navigate, and it influences the general physiology, birth rate and reproductive cycles of many, if not all Earthly lifeforms to some degree.
I shot this with a Sony 100-400mm G-master lens @ 100mm, married to a Sony A7r IV body. The base exposure was f/5.6 @ 1.6 sec @ 400. I bracketed 5 shots (2 above and below base) with an exposure differential of 3 stops each. I chose the best exposures for the mountain, moon and city, and blended then manually.
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