Child of the Moon

The light during a recent scouting trip was very poor on the mother and child. But with the full moon occurring just a few days later, I returned for a retake. The official moonrise was just 45 minutes before sunset. With the canyon wall ahead and a feature behind, the timing of the light was getting iffy. The background is a little soft as I was as far back as I could get (20 yards?) from the feature and zoomed in at f/8 to maximize the moon size.

Nice timing to go back and get the moon in the shot. The light kissing the top of the formation is a nice touch too. I'm not too concerned about the slightly out of focus background, but if it continues to bother you there's always the option of cropping a bit more off the sides and making this more of a vertical comp. At the moment I think it works as-is though.

While waiting for the moon to rise, I did get fuller light upon the feature before the shadows crept in. Included what appears to be a boy behind the mother and child. I am not sure if including the moon is worth the loss of light.

They're both nice -- and a whole lot more exciting than the recent flatly lit version -- but the partly shadowed feature with the moon really does it for me. Great timing! (and forethought!)

Both nice, +1 for moon.

Nice Doug, some pretty afternoon light!

I really like the second one, except that I would suggest cropping it from the left by about 1/3 to isolate the main feature. Thanks for sharing.

NIce work on both. I especially like the comp on the first one.

What a cool formation. I'm partial to the fist one as I really like moon shots. Nice!

Momo,
Here is the crop, with some off the bottom also to rid the shadowed area and road. Looks like the llc might need a clone.