Painting with light: By the light of the silvery moon

In a departure from my usual type of photography, I have just tried some Painting with light. I have seen plenty of long exposure night photographs over the years (in fact I’ve taken a number myself), but they have generally been the light trails from cars, illuminated architecture, or spinning balls of glowing wire wool. Then I came upon Dirk Ercken, who previously inspired some of my flower photography (see April showers may bring flowers), and who also does Painting with light photography, often on a small scale – sometimes the interior of buildings or small woodland scenes. This is much more appealing to me, so I thought I’d give it a go.

At the time of writing (30th August), the UK was due the brightest and largest moon of 2023. This full moon is referred to as a Blue Moon; but it has nothing to do with its colour, it is just the name given to the second full moon of any given month (there is an excellent explanation of the names of full moons on the Royal Museums Greenwich website). However, it is also a Supermoon because it occurs at a period when the moon is closer to the Earth, making it appear larger in the sky than normal. To have both a Blue Moon and a Supermoon at the same time is quite rare and, on average, only occurs every 10 years.

I therefore decided to make the most of the occasion and capture a Painting with light whilst including the Supermoon. Of course, the moon is nowhere near as large as you imagine when photographed, but at least it adds an interesting background to the shot, even when partially hidden behind the trees.

There is much more to Painting with light than it first seems and it has certainly stimulated my photography. I have therefore decided to write a series of blog posts following my ‘journey’, just in case someone else wants to give it a try during the long Winter months ahead. You will be able to spot which ones they are because they will all have the word ‘light‘ added spuriously somewhere in the title. Keep checking back.

And finally….