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While my wife Liz and I were on holiday in Sedona, Arizona we took plenty of time to explore the surrounding landscape in the Red Rock state park, with its amazing sandstone features.
This particular lump of sediment is called Cathedral Rock and was a fifteen minute drive from where we were staying.
Cathedral Rock turned out to be one of my favourite places to photograph as it was such a great shape, and caught the light so well. Being close by meant that we could view it at the best times of day as well - always a bonus!
This particular evening we were driving along the Red Rock Loop Road, just rubbernecking (an American term I believe) at the sandstone scenery glowing in the late afternoon light when all of a sudden I saw this view of the nearly full moon rising over Cathedral Rock.
Well I slammed on the brakes and shuddered to a halt by the side of the road, leapt out of the car, dragged my tripod out of the boot, rapidly fitted my 100-400mm zoom onto my Canon 5D, put the camera on the tripod, fitted a remote release and lens hood, enabled the mirror lock up, switched off the image stabilser and autofocus, zoomed, composed, focused, set the aperture and shutter speed, fired a test shot, adjusted the exposure as high as it would go without over exposing the moon and finally took the shot you see here.
Why the rush you might ask? Well you would be amazed how fast celestial bodies can move through a frame that's zoomed to 200mm and the moon was just where I wanted it to be - no time to waste!
We stayed and watched for a few more minutes as the sunlight faded from the land and the moon climbed into the darkening sky, and then went for our evening meal with me buzzing at what we'd just experienced and photographed.
Filename - moon full 03.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @ 160mm
Exposure - 1/15sec @ f11, ISO100
Location - Sedona, Arizona
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Tripod, mirror lockup and cable release used to prevent camera shake
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