During the weekend I spent at a campground near Niedzica, I had two main photography goals. One of them was to photograph at least one sunset, which I managed to do and I’ve already posted that sunset in my previous post. The second goal was to capture the rise of the full moon. I managed to "hunt down" both of these phenomena in less than 1.5 hours.

The PhotoPhills app indicated that the moon would rise at 9 p.m. The problem, however, was that there were mountains in the moon’s path that delayed its rise. On top of that, I had trouble determining the exact location where the moon would appear. For some reason, the app kept showing a different spot every few moments, and I didn’t know how to position myself or plan my shots in advance. All I could do was be patient and wait for the moon to simply start appearing.

Minutes passed, and I began to worry that either there were clouds on the horizon that were invisible in the gathering darkness, or that the moon was in a spot where the mountains and forests blocked a much larger portion of the horizon and wouldn’t appear until much later. At one point, however, I was completely blown away by what was beginning to appear behind the mountains.

Our natural satellite has taken on an incredibly orange hue. This happens when the moon is low on the horizon. The light reflected by the moon must pass through a much thicker layer of the atmosphere before it reaches our eyes. As a result, the shorter wavelengths of light responsible for cooler colors are scattered, leaving the warmer ones visible. The same thing happens with sunlight when the sun is low in the sky at sunrise and sunset.

I stood rooted to the spot, watching the scene unfold while taking photos and looking for interesting compositions. I didn’t just want to take a picture of the moon. I wanted to capture a wider scene with the moon as part of the landscape. To do this, I used the surrounding houses and the streetlights.

I also wanted to document the moon's path across the sky, but unfortunately I had to keep adjusting the camera's position, so I wasn't able to take enough identical photos to create a single image showing “several moons” superimposed in post-production.

At one point, I pointed my camera at one of the buildings located within the campground complex. It was lit by warm lights hanging from the thatched roof. Their hue closely resembled the colors of the moon. I had to move to another spot on the dam by the lake where I was standing.

I cropped some of the photos horizontally, using a much larger crop area. Unfortunately, this results in a greater loss of quality, but you don’t always have to fight against the limitations of your equipment. Sometimes what a photo represents is more important than its quality. For me, the very appearance of the moon that day overshadows even the poorest photo quality. I witnessed this scene in person, and the photos bring back the images stored in my memory and the emotions associated with the moment they were taken.

And these photos are especially meaningful to me. This was the first time I had the chance to photograph such a beautiful moon. I hope it won't be the last.

Finally, here’s a photo I took on my way back to the tent. I took it at the campground. I wanted to make use of the building’s facade and pair it with the moon traveling across the now-dark sky. I’m very happy that the weather cooperated and that I was finally able to capture such a wonderful phenomenon as the rise of the orange full moon over the Pieniny Mountains.