Behind the shot: Super blood Wolfmoon

19th of January, 2019

I received a text from my brother. "Are you going to shoot today's moon? It's going to be super rare". I was a bit sleepy as I was busy editing some of my photographs. "Wait what, the Super Blood moon is tonight?" I almost forgot.

Instantly being stoked about tonight's moon, with just one thing on my mind. Wondering if it would be even visible since the super moon before that wasn't even visible due to the clouds. Hoping that the city where I live would have some clear sky this night because otherwise, I would never be able to photograph anything this night. Well, something, but not this moon.

So what's so special about this moon? And why the cool ass name? There are many names that people used to give for the moon. They can even differ depending on where you live. Since this specific moon was in its full phase in January, we call it the Wolf Moon.

This isn't "really" special. But noting that this moon has been orbiting a bit closer to Earth than that we're used to, makes it more special. At this point, you would have a Super Wolf Moon. But something else took place at the exact same time. This is what makes it in my opinion super special. A total Lunar Eclipse! When this occurs, the entire atmosphere of Earth filters out blue light. This is what makes it look as if the Moon is red. Super cool right?

While photographing this once-in-a-lifetime occurring phenomenon I felt blessed that the sky was perfectly clear and that I could witness it with my own eyes. I don't know if you have seen this Moon turn red but damn! Awesomeness.

Super Blood Wolf Moon #1	Super Blood Wolf Moon #2
Super Blood Wolf Moon #3	Super Blood Wolf Moon #4

I took the photograph around 4-5 AM on the 19th of January, 2019, and finished it yesterday (that's 2,5 years keeping this gem to myself). Since it was rather difficult to photograph the Moon with its surrounding Stars, I had to recreate the halo and add a photograph of the stars in the background. Working on this work brought a lot of joy so I decided to make several editions of it.

Four black and white editions that represent the four Full Moons we get every Season. Since we can't ever have a 5th Full Moon in a season, I decided that the original artwork would be the fifth edition and published last, as this is a Moon we probably won't see again in our lifetime.

Composition

I wanted the final work to showcase the Super Blood Wolf Moon as much as possible. I cropped the Moon in the center, and slightly higher as it felt too "crushing". The 7 pixels wouldn't make much of a difference if there wasn't the Total Lunar Eclipse at the top of the Moon, but I felt I needed to push it slightly over to the top without competing with the halo much.

The composition turned out to be the tribute that I had in mind for the Super Blood Wolf Moon. The final size for this artwork is 1938 by 2714 pixels. I took this photograph with my Sony A7RII and was experimenting with a Rokinon 500mm mirror lens. Working with this lens gave me the opportunity to capture this with a unique analog vibe.

_{Super Blood Wolf Moon - The Original}

I will be minting a 1 of 1 edition on MakersPlace for "The Original". Meanwhile writing this, I sold the first black and white mint on Hic et Nunc! 🥳🥳🥳 Awesome!

If you're an NFT collecter, make sure to check out Hic Et Nunc, they just launched 100-something days ago, and honestly; NFTs are up for a bargain with low gas fees (even I could collect some awesome pieces).

If you got this far; thank you for tuning in,

Cheers,
Ruben