In January it is well-known amongst photographers that the moon rises directly behind Split Rock Lighthouse on the shores of Lake Superior, and as a result several photographers make the journey every year to Split Rock to photograph this event. I don't normally do much shooting at Split Rock since it is a bit of a drive from where I live, but my friend Paul had invited me down this year to photograph the moon as it rose behind the light. We both arrived with plenty of time to spare before the moon came up, so we spent some time chatting with a few others that had gathered with us. I was the only one in our group that had never photographed the January moon over the lighthouse.
Our group was a little worried that we weren't going to be able to see the moon at all, since there were two large cloud banks that were converging on each other, with only a small sliver of clear sky in between them. Lucky for us, just before the moon became visible the clouds started to break up a little and gave us a nice view of the moon as it rose into the sky directly behind the lighthouse tower. We had to be quick with our shots, as after only a couple of minutes the moon had already risen above the tower. Once the moon was above the lighthouse, we had about another fifteen minutes of nice subdued light as the moon rose into the next bank of clouds.
We couldn't have asked for a nicer January evening to photograph this beautiful event. The temperature was about 15 degrees, and the air was nice and still with no wind. The conditions here in January are often much worse, as was proven the very next night when the temperature dipped to twenty below accompanied by a brisk wind.
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