On a cold winter night earlier in the week I was tormenting myself trying to decide if I should go out with the camera and attempt to capture winter images provided by a full moon. I was tired from a full day of work and really just wanted to sit back and watch a movie but images of moon reflecting off of a waterfall almost frozen kept flashing through my mind. All day long I had tried to figure out a beautiful location perfect for photographing under a full moon as this bright light can often provide amazing images especially on a snow covered landscape. It makes everything so bright and casts beautiful shadows across the snow covered ground.
I was unable to come up with a good spot to go until I ran across a picture taken recently of a local popular waterfall. In that picture there was a lot of ice with water still flowing over the falls possibly giving me the opportunity to catch moonlight reflecting off of the ice and water with a great moonlight hue. While still at home I kind of decided to forgo the idea of going out with the camera as I was tired and it was only 8 degrees above 0 Fahrenheit reducing any motivation. It was decision time. Do I suck it up and drag out all of my winter gear, load it into the car and drive to this waterfall or call it a night and relax in the warm comfort of my home? Agonizing over this for about 45 minutes and discussing it with my family I kept imaging the beautiful images that could be possible or it may all be for nothing if lighting isn’t what I am looking for.
Finally I dug a little deeper and lugged possible necessary gear into my vehicle and headed for the falls. Would I even be lucky enough to capture a moon bow? This occurs when bright moonlight hits the waterfall and reflects a rainbow. Upon arriving I quickly went to the falls to see about the situation. I was a little disappointed as there is a lot of artificial light illuminating up the entire area. This was somewhat expected as it is a popular place and people could easily get hurt if it was too dark. So now what? I decided since I was already at the waterfall I would at least get out the camera and take a few pictures before returning home. As is fairly common all it took was setting up the camera and time began to fly while I set up different compositions under the full moon light enjoying each part of it with the exception of feeling the cold creep in from time to time.
As you can see from these photographs from that excursion, the ice and flowing water mixed with snow and light to create a beautiful landscape providing many options for great images. Unfortunately the moonlight was unable to penetrate through nearby artificial lighting but that didn’t change the fact there were many ice formations with great light to take advantage of. I may have to spend more time at this waterfall this winter looking for more intriguing pictures.
