The Full Moon Behind the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht
Photographing the full moon behind the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht has been on my bucket list for years. It might sound easy, but many failed attempts have taught me otherwise. Everything has to work out perfectly. In this post I'll show how this shot was made, and all the planning behind it.
Planning the shot
It starts at home, with PhotoPills. This app shows the path of the moon across the sky and how high it will be at any given time. That told me where the moon would stand next to the church, and when.
But the planning is only one part of it. Boats can block the view, which obviously we don't want, and the weather has to cooperate, which is the most unpredictable factor. On this day, a lot of clouds were forecasted, so the chance of seeing the moon just after moonrise was slim. Still, a failed attempt costs me nothing but an evening, so I decided to go anyway. I jumped on my bike and cycled to Zwijndrecht.
Waiting for the moon
Once I arrived in Zwijndrecht, I set up my tripod and camera. The Dutch national football team was playing and the Cycling World Championships were live, so I listened to the radio while I waited, fingers crossed. According to my planning, the moon should appear in the right position around 19:45. That time came, and nothing was visible. I almost gave up hope.
Then, about eight minutes later, I saw a slight orange glow behind the clouds. A few minutes after that the moon was fully visible, and at the exact moment it appeared, the lights of the church switched on. It was just after sunset, so the moon had a deep orange color. It rose precisely where I had imagined, half behind the tower and half visible.
The weathercock
I was already super happy with these first shots, but since the sky looked pretty clear now, I immediately used PhotoPills again to plan some other compositions. One of them was the full moon exactly behind the weathercock of the church. The moon moves through the sky quite quickly, so getting this right is a challenge. After a couple of tries, constantly re-adjusting my tripod, I got it exactly how I wanted.
Balancing the frame
With the weathercock shot in the bag, I tried one last composition. I took some shots with the moon on the right side of the church, so the frame is nicely balanced.
