rising moon

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Today I’m participating in the WordPress weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is “in the background”. You can click on any photo below to see it in a larger format.

Since a lot of my photos happen to be macros, or at least tend to focus on a single subject, I was tempted to skip this week’s WordPress photo challenge. But after going through my portfolio, I found a few photos that would be a great fit for this theme.

Like these photos of the moon in the background of the branches of a Sycamore tree.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Moon rising behind tree branches — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Moon rising behind tree branches

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Moon rising during the day — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Moon rising during the day

Or this beautiful moon rising behind the mountain’s pine trees.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Moon rising over pine trees — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Moon rising over pine trees

Or this beautiful purple lavender you can see in the background, behind this orange pin cushion protea flower.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - lavender behind orange pin cushion protea flower — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – lavender behind orange pin cushion protea flower

Or the Pacific ocean you can notice in the background, behind the grassy sand dunes at Coronado Beach in San Diego, California.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background - Pacific ocean at Coronado beach — WordPress weekly photo challenge: In the background – Pacific ocean at Coronado beach

I’ve always found the moon an interesting subject to photograph. It can show up any time of the day or night, low on the horizon or high up in the sky. It’s a challenge to photograph with my point-and-shoot camera. I like its 12xoptical zoom but it can have a hard time focusing on the subject. And if I want to capture something else in front of it, I rarely get both subjects, near and far, with the right lighting or focus. So I use Photoshop to create the photo I really want by combining the two photos together: the one with the moon lighted and focused on just right, and the other with the foreground under the right light and sharp content.

Here are a few photos that were created this way. Remember you can click on each photo to see it in a larger format.

Unfortunately my camera is a little grainy in very low light but I still like how these two photos came out.