The Sun Sets While the Moon Rises

We moved our daughter last night. I shared with a friend that the anticipation of this event was harder than the reality. When finished unloading the totes and boxes into her suite, we said our goodbyes. Before we drove away we watched as she walked down the path, like she was walking out of one chapter and into this new chapter of her life. And it was okay.

Life is like that. Things have to end before new ones begin, and sometimes they end and begin at the same time. As we drove back to the city, we saw the moon rise on one side of us as the sun set on the other, at the same time. This change is much like that. The sun is setting on my daughter's childhood, living with mom and dad, dependent, at the same time that light rises on her future.

 I shot this image at a speed of 1/100 while my aperture was set at f/10. My ISO was at my preferred setting of 100. I chose a greater depth of field for this landscape shot because I wanted as much as of this scene as possible to be in focus. I could do this because the light I was shooting into was so bright, even though it was setting. Composing this shot was fun. With every foot or even inch I moved, the picture changed while the sun set a little lower. I chose to have the sun just off center for interest's sake, flanked by the tree and the park bench. Making sure not to split the image in half I opted for more sky instead of foreground, as that really was more important for the shot.

I could not use the same depth of field for this shot as I did for the sunset. There was not nearly the same amount of light as the sun was pretty well finished with the day though it still hung over the horizon a touch (on the other side of the road from this scene). I opened the aperture much wider to f/4.5 and used a speed of 1/100. For the moon shots I bumped up my ISO to 400 to help keep the exposure at an acceptable level for the subject.