It was that time of the month again, when the sun sets in the west the moon rises in the east and when the  sun rises in the east and the moon sets in the west.  I wanted to attempt to capture this spectacle from Hengistbury head near Bournemouth in Dorset.

Moon Calendar

Rarely do I go out two times on the same day to do a landscape photography shoot, but due to the full moon tonight this was my only chance.

A great tool for determining the moon phases for each month is the Photopills moon calendar.  Click on any day and you will get the times of the moon rise and moon set.  There is a corresponding calendar for the sun too.

Moon rise photography

I had some previous experience trying to capture a moon rise just after sunset.  The first was over Hastings town, the next over Eastbourne and the third from Ditchling rise on the south downs.  None of them particularly successful and now I know why.  wrong lens.

Hengistbury Head Sunset

From Bournemouth I not have far to go to Hengistbury head and arrived in good time.  It was very windy though, not ideal for setting up on a tripod.

There was quite thick cloud in the east where the moon was rising, not ideal, I could not see the moon rising yet.  To the west the clouds were more broken and as the sun set over Purbeck the sky turned red.

Windy Conditions Fast Exposure

On a tripod when its windy it’s probably best to keep image stabilisation on.  To make a faster shutter speed, lower the aperture to F/8 if nothing in the foreground, maybe bump up the ISO one or two stops.  You don’t want to long an exposure with either the sun and moon rising or setting as they do move.

Moon Rise

There were some other landscape photographers about on Hengistbury head.  Eventually the full moon made an appearance through the clouds over Christchurch harbour.

I was using my 15-85 mm lens but should have used my 18-200mm or higher if you have one.  It’s such a waste when there is thick cloud on the days of the full moon, but I captured something.

On the way home could not finish without capturing some long exposures of the Bournemouth lights during blue hour.

 Moon Set

A few nights before full moon, the moon will rise around sunset either before or after.  After the full moon, the moon will set shortly before or after sunrise.  The next morning I returned to Hengistbury head to try to capture the full moon setting and then a sunrise.

Still very windy but managed to find some foreground interest in the form of yellow gorse with the moon setting over Bournemouth, where the night before the sun had set.

 Hengistbury Head Sunrise

As the sun rose the moon disappeared behind low clouds.  It was now time to try to capture a sunrise in the east.  The wind and contrast were creating a problem. I had left my filter holder at home so tried bracketing some shots which is not ideal when there is movement.

Also I not setup AEB and continuous shooting so had to shoot each shot manually.  After which I headed down onto the beach to try to capture the sun rising there.

I was trying to capture a starburst effect by stopping down to F/22 but not really defined like I would have liked. A prime 24mm lens would have been better for the starburst. There is some sunflare but also texture on the rocks from the reflected low golden light.

Before heading into town for some breakfast I got some nice dawn shots of the dunes and cliffs of Hengistbury head.  Goodbye Bournemouth and Dorset, this would be my last shoot as I was now headed for Hertfordshire in the east of England.