6:44 PM. I had packed up my equipment and started the hike back to the car in the deepening cold blustery darkness, when I noticed the pale moon rising in the east. Suddenly, I had an important decision to make. Should I continue the hike back to the comfort of the car, or bring my exhausted body back to the lake to try to shoot the moon? Somehow, I opted for the latter, and trudged through the darkness back to the lake shore where I had taken many of my evening shots. The moon was rising fast and quickly overwhelming the sky, so I chose one location and composed this shot and bracketed several exposures. This one was taken at a wider angle then the rest, and turned out to be the best composition. It was a couple stops underexposed, however, and not quite sharp due to tripod vibration in the wind. I should have been more careful with my setup. I love this shot though, not on it's technical merit, but purely on the emotions it arouses as the crescendo to an amazing evening at Mono Lake.
Having captured this image, I was finished. 15 sec, f/8, ISO 400.