17 Sep
2010

Posted in: Mt. Rainier
By Ian Plant    4 Comments

Moonset and Earth’s shadow, Mt. Rainier

Turning back to my Mt. Rainier photo series, the following image was taken on a clear, windy morning. The light over Mt. Rainier was unexceptional, and this, along with persistent winds, made wildflower photography unappealing. While hiking along one of the trails in the Paradise area, I turned to see the full moon setting through the shadow of the Earth. Although I have seen earth shadow many times before, it takes on a whole different look when something as big as Mt. Rainier is part of the landscape. Instead of the narrow blue horizontal band near the horizon that I am used to seeing in the eastern U.S., I witnessed a diagonal band across the western horizon. That diagonal band is the shadow cast on the atmosphere by the slope of Mt. Rainier as the sun rises behind it. How cool is that? 

"Rainier's Shadow" - Mt. Rainier National Park

I knew I only had a few moments to get the shot right. I quickly zoomed in as far as my longest lens would allow, in order to keep the moon large enough to easily discern (I wasn’t packing any large glass, so 105mm was the best I could get). Because the moon was very near the horizon, it took on a pink glow, its light scattered through the Earth’s atmosphere. I used a 2-stop reverse neutral density filter to balance the light of the sky and the foreground. Then, I waited for a moment when the wind died down and triggered the shutter. Click on the image or the following link to see a larger version of this photo.

During a full moon phase, you can often capture the moon rising in the evening or setting at sunrise through the earth’s shadow. Finding earth shadow is easy: on a clear day, it usually becomes apparent in the sky opposite the sun, in the minutes following sunset or preceding sunrise. Look for a deep blue band on the horizon below a larger bright reddish-pink band above where the twilight air is still lit by the sun (called the anti-twilight arch). Earth shadow will rise in the sky after sunset (descending before sunrise), eventually fading into the darkening night sky.

Tech data: Canon 5D Mark II camera, 24-105mm lens (@105mm), ISO 400, f/8, 1/15 sec.

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About Ian Plant  (275 Posts)

Ian Plant's photographs and instructional articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars, and magazines, including Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography. Ian writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer online, and he is the author of numerous instructional eBooks and digital processing tutorials. Ian leads several photo tours each year.