I took this photograph on February 2, 2026, at 7:34. The result reflects two fundamental elements of photography: careful planning and familiarity with one’s gear.
As mentioned in a previous publication, I used The Photographer’s Ephemeris to identify local vantage points that I could reach in less than twenty minutes. The weather forecast was favourable, and moonset was at 07:48. The night before, I captured this full moon. As a challenge, I had the idea to capture this beauty again early the next morning.
I arrived near the Rivière-des-Prairies sector 30 minutes before moonset. The moon was amazing. When I saw this beauty approaching the distant trees, I safely parked the car on the side of the road.
Handheld, I took my camera with a zoom lens and set the metering to spot shadow mode. I composed and framed the image using 260 mm (35 mm eq.). I focused and metered on the moon.
To obtain a perfect exposure (ETTR), I intentionally overexposed the scene by 4.3 stops. Using an f/4.5 aperture and ISO 200, this gave a 1/400 s exposure time. With such settings, I was not afraid of not using my tripod.
Behind the camera, I was amazed to see this unbelievably lit scene. Behind me, the sun had risen 20 minutes earlier. I triggered the shutter at 7:34. In post-production in LR, I set a mask on the moon and set the texture, clarity, and dehaze effects to 90. LR took care of all lighting adjustments. I did not manipulate the colours!
Honestly, to have the full sun at my back while facing a full moon was an amazing moment to capture.
