Three lights at Paritutu, New Plymouth. 9.36pm, 10 September 2011 I have memory, which is the idiot’s talent. –  Francisco Umbral The three lights are moonlight (at sea), nearby industrial lighting and flash for the foreground. This shot has a cool feel because the incandescent (tungsten) setting was used to cool the light on the […]

Somehow to capture the constantly evanescent quality of existence. – Tennessee Williams, on his goal in writing It can be a pain to wait for the moonrise on those nights following full moon – although you do get some quality time with undimmed stars and the odd cloud capture. Eventually the eastern horizon lightens and […]

Good sense travels on well worn paths; genius never. –  Cesar Lombroso The skies were clear but the wind was howling as I set up on the cycleway, across the way from the fertiliser works near Napier. Any shot that I failed to shelter from the windgusts was useless, so I hovered as close to […]

Never confuse activity with action. –  F. Scott Fitzgerald 28mm, ISO 2000. 2.5 seconds at f2.8. Incandescent light balance, flash

[The object of art is] to make eternal the desperately fleeting moment. –                    Tennessee Williams The trick with any arc of headlights is to minimise the full-on glare of the lights, something likely to occur at some point in your frame. Here in the second frame from a moonlight sequence you see a short space […]

Everyone complains of his memory; nobody of his judgement. –  Francois de La Rochefoucauld When setting this up I wasn’t certain I was on a public road, but according to Google this is Cook Road, overlooking Waimarama on the coast. No vehicle came by the whole time, but traffic was regular on the main road […]

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise. –  Tacitus You do not have the whole evening to shoot the crescent moon – it retires early. While it’s going, though, the crescent obliges the moonlight photographer on western coasts with some great reflections. The actual light from a crescent appears to be […]

I say have patience, and shuffle the cards. –  Miguel de Cervantes, 1615 From the 153 m (502 ft) summit of Paritutu, the volcanic landmark backing Port Taranaki, the coastal outlook to Oakura is affected nightly by industrial lighting. Here we look down on Beach Road, leading to a well-lit tank farm but with little […]

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view; While all the women came and went, their foot-servants too.  – Bob Dylan The surreal song lyric [misquoted on the web] fits this enigmatic view from the waterfront pavement at Kaikoura, in the South Island. The scale is ambiguous and the light unusual, but at least more […]

Tomorrow we shall set out once more upon the vast sea. –  Horace Moonrises after dark indicate the moon is past full, and these moonrises, especially, need a frame of reference. They benefit from foreground interest, in this case from outcrops alongside the wharf at Kaikoura, on the east coast of the South Island. It’s […]

Out with some Scottish friends under a brilliant moon – the best since 1993 – we legged a good stretch of the Waiwhakaiho walkway, on the New Plymouth outskirts. Having noted this viewpoint along the way, it was surprising how long it took to re-locate it on our return. On the wild uplands of Tibet […]

You can boost minimal moonlight by using its reflection for a silhouette – another way to employ the wan light of a slender moon. “Moonlight photography” for me means not photographing the moon itself (another subject entirely), but rather making pictures by its light. The term is freely abused by amateur photographers. For a sharp […]

North Taranaki this week has been clear and mild for night photography by the  crescent moon. These slender new moons might give only the feeblest of light but if you can see your shadow by them then there is enough for moonlight photography! Nature also provides some magnifiers for moonlight, the best being its reflection […]

A companion piece to no. 107. Twilight tractor (and taken 6 minutes later), this electric call to good order conveys another mood. Existentialists may freely dwell on it. Outside the Waikanae boat club 45 minutes after sunset, the balance of light was changing in favour of artificial light. A star is visible in the nightfall. […]

This took around 15 minutes at a small aperture, on Fuji slide film. It was a perfect summer’s evening at Paritutu Centennial Park, and I spent the interlude chatting with a friend. I’m only guessing that the stripe is Venus, but as she often accompanies the early moon it’s a good bet. For trails like […]

The vacated frame and its variables: ghosting by pure moonlight

Inshore study in gold and aqua under a full moon; ideal exposure and post-process rescue

Heavy haulage outside the boat club; beast and beauty of the tripod

Moonlit abstraction on the square; Light balance selection with mixed sources

Palms, balm and moonlit calm; the issue of personal safety and the usefulness of a lighting assistant

An unexpected colour at second quarter; a wild coast made easy for the townie

Moon and artist’s cloud over no. 2 shellfish processing factory; wide angle and mixed lighting

Dramatic study in amber, green and blue; composition using the foreground in a classic thirds

Full moon, full cloud; adding foreground highlights with Incandescent and an LED torch

The female form revealed on film; a summery advent of moon rays