Santa Elena Canyon by Moonlight

This image was years in the making. I used The Photographers Ephemeris and an app called Photo Pills to check the full moon rise, transit, and set alignment with the walls of the Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park. I knew that the moon would eventually line up and light the canyon walls. Early last year, on a Thursday, I checked and the alignment was going to be perfect on Saturday. I drove 10 hours on Friday and got to park in time to enjoy a nice dinner in the Basin restaurant. I talked to one of the ladies that worked in the park about my project (she was a photographer that I knew from Facebook) and she told me that there was a very good chance that Saturday would be clouded out. I decided to go to the canyon that night and see what I could capture. I'm glad that I did. The predicted clouds rolled in the following morning. I drove home on Saturday, happy that I had photographed the night before. Sometimes almost perfect is good enough
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