Bo Rader, senior photographer, wins The Eagle’s monthly in-house photo contest with his hauntingly beautiful image of the moon rising over Davis Hall at Friends University.
One of the photo’s hallmarks is its classic simplicity. But as Bo tells us, that simplicity is deceptive.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to shoot a moonrise over the bell tower at Friends University for several years now. There was a number of problems to overcome. The lights are only on in December, January and sometimes February; there are only a couple of days of full moon at the first of every month; and finding a clear night is never easy.
“My other big challenge was how to get high enough to get the tower with the moon just coming up behind it.
“It finally came together the first week of December, when I saw the full moon popping up over the trees. I quickly found a place to park about a block from the Kellogg and Meridian overpass, and ran back to the overpass, crawling up the hill to get to eye level with the tower.
“I didn’t have a long enough lens the first night. It looked nice, but really wasn’t what I wanted.
“Checking the weather, we were expecting a clear night the next evening, so I went back with a longer lens.
“Fortunately for me, it was fairly mild that night, because I didn’t take into account that the moon comes up about an hour later each night. Instead of coming up at 6 p.m., it was closer to 7.
“So after I had waited about an hour and a half on the side of Kellogg, the moon came up through a thin veil of clouds, and I made my picture.
“One other thing that was a challenge on this photo was getting a balanced exposure between the lights on the bell tower and the moon.
"The moon is much brighter that the lights on the tower, though to the eye they appear equal. The overcast night sky filtered just enough light to bring the two closer in exposure.â€
Bo shows how extra effort can pay off with extraordinary beauty. His work ethic, too, is a winner.
Arlice