A Blue Moon Over the Newport Bridge

One of my primary goals as a photographer is to try to capture an ordinary scene in an extraordinary way. I strongly believe that there is beauty all around us, and that we just need to slow down and take the time to see the possibilities. For months I have been patiently waiting to create this one photograph. On Friday night the Blue Moon offered me the opportunity to create that photograph in the clear skies over the Newport Bridge.

Blue Moon Over Newport Bridge

I found this location in Jamestown a few months ago, and spent a few hours during daylight exploring the location. I love to visit a location during daylight to get a real feel for the spot. This allows me to know where I can park, what walking paths are available and understand what the waterline will be like under different tidal conditions. I will often take photos of the area to help understand how my camera will “see” the location. I will also take detailed notes with drawings to help me remember the scene later on.

After this it is a matter of waiting for conditions to be correct. Sometimes things work out and I only have to wait for the next sunrise/sunset to visit the location under ideal lighting conditions to try creating a new photograph. When I visited this location, I knew that I wanted to combine the bridge with a full moon. It was just a matter of time.

Friday night brought us a “Blue Moon”. A Blue Moon is not blue in color, but rather the second full moon to occur within a month. I fired up my favorite applications, “The Photographers Ephemeris” and “Hi Tide”. I use these 2 apps all the time, and absolutely love them! Hi Tide tells me what the tides will be like, and TPE tells me what time the sun and moon will rise and set. The one thing that sets TPE apart is that it also tells me WHERE on the horizon these events will occur.

I was pretty excited Friday morning to see that all the conditions I needed to create the photograph in my mind were lining up. The moon was going to rise right around sunset, the high tide would begin to recede an hour after sunset, and the weather was calling for clear skies. As soon as I saw this I hit up a friend and we made plans to shoot the moon!

Once on scene it was simply a matter of fine tuning the composition I wanted, and waiting for the moon to be in the right location. I hope you enjoy!