Morrie Carter
October 2025 - Harvest Moon over Lighthouse
About the Image(s)
I took this photo by using the PhotoPills app on my phone to align the moon with the lighthouse which is located on Clover Island on the Columbia River in Kennewick WA 10/06/2025. PhotoPills is a great app once you figure out how to use it and it worked well in this case. There seemed to be a lot of haze in the air and with the sun setting it put a pinkish glow to the background and on the moon.
I had two cameras with me one with a 70-200 lens and another with a 200-600. I grabbed the camera with the 200-600 when I realized the 70-200 was not quite long enough. I put the camera on the tripod and without checking my settings I fired away. The camera was set on Auto ISO and the shutter speed was set for bird photography. Shutter speed 1/2500, f6.3, Focal length was 404 and the ISO was 6400.
The image did have a little noise so I used denoise in Lightroom and sharpened the photo. I did remove a few power lines and increased the contrast a little. It is quite surprising how fast the moon will move.
2 comments posted
Man… this is great. Did you add those birds in front of the moon in post, or did you catch them there as part of the shot?
Your image has a ton of impact, I mean it REALLY catches the eye and pulls you in. The alignment of the moon w/the lighthouse is just so striking, and the diagonal lines of the bridge are very complimentary w/out being distracting.
As for the smoke/haze that turned this image pink, I think it works quite well.
There is some graffiti on the bricks under the lighthouse that wouldn't be too tough to clean up and may compliment the overall presentation. Also, there's some red hazing (maybe something in the foreground that's very out of focus?), that you could consider addressing.
Overall, this image screams of intention, which in my experience often has a positive outcome, as you've achieved here - great work.
Thanks
Josh Posted: 10/11/2025 13:26:31