You have most likely seen countless photographs of vivid star trails posted all across the Internet, but what about a moon trail? On May 4th, 2015, Finnish photographer Janne Voutilainen captured an incredible lunar image that took exactly 2,258 seconds to create. As the rising moon streaked across the peaceful nighttime sky, the clever photographer used his Nikon D800 to shoot a 37.6-minute exposure of the moon’s path. This was not a simple task for the patient artist and it took him several tries to get the shot’s lighting correct. “A moving, gradually brightening subject is not so easy to photograph,” explains Janne to Smithsonian.
The resulting image displays a strikingly colorful band against the bold blue of the background sky, adding a surreal aspect to what Janne calls a “full moon gradient.” When describing the spectacular photo on his website, the visionary photographer remarks, “Is it a huge lingonberry? Is it a ruddy apple? No, but it is something much more delicious, namely the full moon low on the horizon.”
Janne Voutilainen’s Website
Janne Voutilainen’s Flickr
via [PetaPixel, Smithsonian]