I See the Moon

Today’s Post by Mildred Alpern

I see the moon and the moon sees me ~ Nursery rhyme

Literally and figuratively, the moon dropped in. On a recent cloudless night, a full moon shone high in the sky. I took a series of shots from my NYC apartment window. The moon stood alone against the dark sky…not much interest there. From another window, I photographed the tower of an apartment building facing the Hudson River. Each night, a “lantern” light shines from its tiled rooftop.

I visualized a striking scene in which the moon hung over the tower, so I used Photoshop. In short, I manipulated an image, creating a layered photo from my two captured images. The World Press Organization disallows any manipulation of an image for its “annual photographer of the year” award except for exposure and/or color balance. My desire was not photojournalism but to create an artistic image in post processing, using the photoshopping skills of copying the moon with the quick selection tool, pasting it into the tower image, and adding some contrast and saturation.

The processed image has an eerie quality, fitting perhaps for a mystery or ghost story. Could this scene actually occur? Perhaps, by 3 AM in the morning when the moon rises to the other side of my apartment, but at that time I am soundly asleep.

Both images were with the Olympus E-M5 Mark II. The moon was shot in Manual mode at 270mm with the Olympus M Zuiko 75-150mm f/4.8 lens with an exposure of 1/400 sec at f/11, ISO 400; the tower in aperture mode with the Olympus M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro lens at 150mm with an exposure of 1/25 at f/2.8, ISO 100.

Mildred’s book Haiku and Images is available on Amazon and is filled wit h beautifully reproduced color photographs along with original haiku underneath, embellishing the image and deepening its meaning. Pick up a copy to give as gift for yourself or a friend.