Romanticism, a cultural movement that emerged in Europe in the first decades of the 19th century, had a strong expression on drawing and painting. The characters, generally represented from behind, contemplate landscapes that unfold before their eyes. Solitary figures or in small groups, looking at the horizon, are placed before the unstoppable force of nature. Colour prevails over the drawing, and the artist explores light/dark and colour contrasts. The light is focused on the point the artist wants to highlight. The painter interprets the objective world in his own way and presents his vision to the viewer. German painters of romanticism were inspired by thinkers such as the philosophers Johann Fichte and Friedrich Schelling and the writers Johann Tieck and the brothers August and Friedrich Schlegel, who distanced themselves from the powerful 18th-century Enlightenment and Rationalism.

In terms of landscape photography, the work of Caspar David Friedrich, one of the exponents of German romanticism painting, is a source of inspiration. He paints wild and wonderful landscapes where the characters appear as if observers from outside the context, a kind of immersion in nature as a mystical experience. The work of art intends to engage the viewer's mind and lead it into a "soulful" mood. Among the themes covered by Caspar David Friedrich, twilight and moonlight stand out and are some of my sources of inspiration for this landscape photograph. In the watercolour painting "Figures Contemplating the Moon", dated between 1794 and 1798, three characters near a lake contemplate a full moon that, even behind clouds, is strongly reflected in the lake's water.

A large church and two big stone crosses, one of which is partially toppled, give a metaphysical, fantastic and nostalgic tone to the landscape. "Moonlit Landscape", a watercolour on paper from the Thaw Collection dated before 1808, displays a full moon that radiates a mysterious power touching a character in the middle of two large trees, who appears ecstatic in front of the vibrant planet. In the "Moonrise by the Sea", an 1822 oil-on-canvas painting, the rising moon, even behind clouds, radiates a light so powerful that it illuminates the sea. Three characters sitting on a large boulder near the seaside contemplate the landscape, in which two boats with unfurled sails appear to sail calmly. The horizon line is placed exactly in the middle of the scene. Complementary colours - yellow-blue dominate and give great tranquillity to the scene. "The Northern Sea in Moonlight", dated 1823-1824, shows the moon hidden behind clouds, illuminating a coastal landscape with a boat in the foreground.

Blue dominates the entire picture, harmonizing perfectly with the yellowish reflection (complementary colour) of the moonlight on the sea. A similar but more dramatic theme is presented in the canvas "Seascape by Moonlight", dated 1827-1828. The blue is darker, it seems like it's nighttime, and in the centre of the moonlight reflection on seawater, Caspar David Friedrich places a boat with its sails unfurled. In the oil-on-canvas painting "Two Men Contemplating the Moon", one of the best-known canvas of the artist, the third version being dated ca. 1825–30, two characters with their backs turned, the smaller one resting his arm on the back of the other, next to a large tree partially uprooted and fallen, but full of leaves, observe enraptured a Waxing Crescent moon, powerfully luminous.

A few days ago, during July's full moon, I was walking at twilight through olive groves in the Ribatejo region of Portugal when I saw the moon rise, huge, marvellous, with orange tones (it looked like the September Harvest Moon). A light breeze ruffled the tree branches. Caspar David Friedrich's drawings and paintings immediately came to mind, in particular the watercolour "Moonlit Landscape". The character in the scene was supposedly me, who unfortunately couldn't be retained in the shot because someone had to activate the shutter. The use of a small lens' aperture enabled the medium plane and the moon to be in the background, both in focus. Focusing was manual on the moon. As I used a relatively low shutter speed, some branches of the olive tree were not perfectly sharp. The use of the RAW format allowed us to recover details from the shadows.