Text & photos by John Hanou
There are innumerable ways to time a photo.
Many photographers want to capture the “The Decisive Moment,” coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson nearly a hundred years ago. While this is great, I’ve taken it in a slower way.
The two accompanying photographs were more than three years in the making. I had visited these two sites a few years ago and knew a full moon in the background would make a fine shot. So, I had to time my visit to Farmington, NM and Del Norte, CO to capture the moonrise in the first and the moonset in the second shot.
I also wrote an impromptu poem about my experience during Bill Horton’s Visual Fluency RMOWP session. That’s exactly what I did the week of September 24, 2018.
Moonset/Moonrise
A cemetery wanting to be remembered
An old church waiting in the wings
Both waiting for the sun to rise or the sun to set
Both waiting for me
To capture the illustrious morning light or evening sun
Of full moon, lonely church and cold cemetery
All wanting to be remembered