moon – Seite 3 – by GG – Fine Art Photography

Crescent Moon

“I with borrow’d silver shine,
What you see is none of mine.
First I show you but a quarter,
Like the bow that guards the Tartar:
Then the half, and then the whole,
Ever dancing round the pole.”
—Jonathan Swift, On the Moon, 1853

One rotation of the Moon around its own axis takes as long as it takes the Moon to orbit Earth once. From Earth therefore, an observer at any given location always sees the same side of the Moon. The side visible from Earth is called the near side and the unseen side far side.

The Moon does not glow by itself but is only visible when illuminated by the Sun. As Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits Earth, visibility of the Moon observed from Earth varies. The shape of the visible part of the Moon is called the phase of the Moon or lunar phase. A full moon is when an observer from Earth can fully see the near side of the Moon and a new moon is when the Moon is completely invisible. In between these lunar phases, the visible part of the Moon either increases (waxing) from new moon to full moon or decreases (waning) from full moon to new moon.

Lunar phases occur at slightly different times depending where on Earth they are observed. The shapes of the waxing or waning Moon also differs depending on from what hemisphere it is observed: in the northern hemisphere the Moon waxes from right to left and in the southern hemisphere from left to right and wanes vice versa. Near the equator, the moon waxes from bottom to top and wanes from top to bottom.

Supermoon

A supermoon’s bright light illuminates the clouds over Germany, 2018. As the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is slightly elliptical, the Moon is sometimes closer to Earth and sometimes farther away. When it is closer to Earth, it seems bigger and brighter. And when it is closest to the Earth at full moon, it is called a supermoon.

The Moon today is also at full moon, but it is actually at a point in its orbit farthest from Earth, making it look smaller and less bright. It is accordingly called a micromoon or minimoon.

July Moon

“Thou reigning Beauty of the Night,
Fair Queen of Silence Silver Moon,
Whose gentle gentle Beams and borrow’d Light
Are softer Rivals of the Noon.”
—Isaac Watts; Sun, Moon and Stars, Praise Ye the Lord; 1742

The Moon is the second-brightest object in our sky after the Sun, but unlike the Sun, the Moon does not glow by itself but is only visible when illuminated by the Sun. The Moon is Earth’s sole natural satellite, a roundish mass orbiting Earth. It takes the Moon about thirty days to reappear in the same position again when observed from Earth and we accordingly use the Moon’s orbit around Earth to calculate our months.

The darker areas on the Moon’s surface are lunar plains consisting of solidified lava pools and the brighter areas are lunar highlands. There are also darker and brighter spots on the Moon’s surface. These are craters caused by collisions with asteroids and comets.

Honorable Mention for ‚Cloudy Morning Sky Sun‘ @ One-Shot: Harmony

While still in retreat working on a project, it took me a while to find out that Cloudy Morning Sky Sun received an honorable mention in the fine art category of the International Photography Awards’ One-Shot: Harmony competition.

While the world seems to be filled with discord and conflict at the moment, with this competition the IPA wanted to “highlight the beauty of unity and harmony that exists in all corners and in all aspects of life” and invited photographers from all over the world to share their take on harmony to show “how our differences and unique qualities can bring us together, how beautiful the world is because of the diversity that exists—in nature, in culture, in humanity.”

This theme deeply resonates within me on both a personal and a professional level and I decided to enter Cloudy Morning Sky Sun as my interpretation of harmony. With this image I explore the ancient concept of Yin and Yang, two contrasting but also complimentary forces that interconnect to form a oneness. They ultimately describe duality not opposition: one cannot exist without the other. When both are in balance, harmony exists and oneness remains. When one predominates, the other is weakened and oneness is lost. I split the original image into a colored and a black-and-white part separated by a thin line. While the Sun in the colored part symbolizes Yang, it turns into a Yin-Moon in the black-and-white part. The line represents the Taiji, a border separating Yin and Yang and thereby erst creating duality.

I am absolutely delighted that the jury found my entry worthy of an honorable mention among such a variety of wonderful images. And I continue to believe that while we nowadays seem to live in a world of opposition, our true nature embraces co-existence and harmony.

Take a Look at the by GG Lunar Eclipse Flip-Book

Photographs of the lunar eclipse of January 31, 2018 in a flip-book

I took a few shots of the lunar eclipse of January 31, 2018 and put them together as a flip-book. When photographing the eclipse, I had to adjust the camera position in between to still be able to capture the Moon and there were also way too many clouds… And I do prefer lunar eclipses in summer ❄, but I enjoyed photographing it anyways. Hope you’ll enjoy the flip-book, too.