December 03, 2025

as always, the full gallery is at the bottom, so skip there if you don’t care about the words

I was scrolling social media this morning (almost never a good idea) and, thankfully, I follow some science accounts because they posted about a supermoon happening tomorrow. This got my head spinning with photo ideas and figured I would go scouting this evening to see what I could create. Only there was one catch, the cloud cover was so thick I could not see the moon.

Arriving at Emerald Bay and realizing the clouds are so thick, this might not work. Follow Dalton on your favorite platform: @storiesbydalton

While this plug for PhotoPills is about to happen, by no means is it an ad. However, it should be because this app worked amazingly to find what shots would/could align tomorrow.

Holding the app to the sky, I started to visualize just where the moon would crest over the horizon. Since this moon is at sunset, it will dawn a redish hue as it rises, at least I hope so. Laughing to myself, I have to search google to understand what is going on with the moon phases. Here’s what I have learned:

December full moon is called the “cold moon”
Tomorrow’s moon will be a supermoon, which means it is slightly closer to Earth than usual and looks 15-30% larger at moonrise
Tomorrow’s moon is not a blood moon, but it might look red

Now, don’t get mad at me for all the jargon, I’m just the messenger with a camera, hoping to create a cool image tomorrow night.

So, what’s my plan?

What I Brought On Today’s Photo Walk:

Sony a7r4 (the updated version if you are a gear nerd)
Tamron 28-200mm all-in-one zoom (they have launched a newer model of this, but haven’t tried it yet)
Tamron 17-28mm (they have released the G2 version of this lens that I like more, but I grabbed this one today by accident)
Tamron 150-500mm
Peak Design Lite strap (I was lucky enough to get the camo version from the Sitka collab that sold out in less than 24 hours and feel cool about that)

After scouting today, which I am grateful for because my original idea would not have worked based on the alignment and terrain, I have a few ideas:

the safe shot: long lens shot of the moon rising
the risky shot: there is a slim chance the moon rises over a road that I can have Kristin drive the van, or her car, timed perfectly for the moon to rise behind the vehicle
the average shot: if the road is busy, I will pivot to a shot with Kristin as the model, the the two trees (photographed below). hopefully creating something cinematic or artsy

If I could do all three I would, but I really wont know the conditions of the evening until very close to the moonrise. At the moment, the weather is predicting clear all day and clouds at 4:00pm. The moonrise is roughly 4:10pm. So, if the clouds roll in, I’m screwed.

Fingers are crossed all works out.

For the most part, the sunset was boring until I turned around. Then, these two were the perfect silhouettes for the burning red sky. Follow Dalton on your favorite platform: @storiesbydalton

When I first started this idea of a photo essay and journal entry every evening, I thought it was going to be stupid. Turns out, this has really kicked off my creativity! I guess doing the thing you love makes you happy… who would have thought?!

Again, thank you to anyone and everyone reading this. If you have enjoyed this journal entry, shoot me an email to say hey, maybe share your moon photo with me as well!

dalton@dalton-johnson.com

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