Moonrise-Sunset at St. Marks

Click on an image for a larger view - then use your Back Button to return to this story.  Enjoy!

April 17 the full moon was scheduled to rise at the same time the sun was to set.  I drove to St. Marks on a clear-sky evening... well, except for the no-see-ums and skeeters - they were thick in the air.

Armed with a new compass and info I'd researched online, I set out to predict exactly where the moon would break over the horizon.  One of my beloved sculpted snags would serve as my global line-of-sight.  Wow, was I impressed when the moon came up in exactly the right spot!  This could be a powerful tool for future photos.

I was there early enough to need distractions from the biting bugs.  Here is another snag catching the last rays of the sun.  (The weird background colors just happened that way.)

Behind me, the sun was creating a fiery horizon behind the pines.

And just before moonrise, a pair of grackles posed briefly on the perch on which I has my lens focused - making easy my favorite shot-of-the-evening (above).  The moon popped faintly into view a couple minutes after the birds left, and rose into the bowl of the snag.

As the light fell, I made a few more images, including one with another grackle... and then packed up for home.  But as I was driving out, a silhouette scene in the western Afterglow stopped me.  What a beautiful place in which I live and love!