Mermaid Point, Nelson Island, BC, Canada / July 2014

This is a continued story from Photo of the Week # 32 entitled ‘Sunset Chess Piece”. (I recommend you read that before this one).

Nancy was a little worried. It was getting dark and we still had another ten minutes or so to get back safe and sound to our dock. However, I had also been looking backwards from the boat, due east, because a full moon was rising behind us as the sun was sinking in front of us. It was starting to rise well above the rolling hilltops of Pender Harbor (where we’d just left). This was really turning out to be a very cool and rare experience.

As we approached Mermaid Point, where I would hook in towards Quarry Bay, I noticed an eagle high in a scraggly tree to the north. At this point, I need to confess that I had stopped the boat just outside of Pender to smoke a number. Why not? It was calm out, an easy ride home, a setting sun and I don’t drink alcohol. So naturally, this whole experience was greatly enhanced. As if the sunset in photo #30 wasn’t inspiring enough, I had a sudden flash of enabled creativity. It occurred to me that if I pulled into Flat Rock Bay, I might be able to line up the rising moon with the eagle in the tree!? And by gawd, I was right!

By now I was shaking with excitement. As in the story of – “Portrait of an Eagle”, (Photo of the Week # 23), there’s every chance the eagle might take off, so I had to act fast but also be calm about all our movements. I didn’t want to spook the eagle or rock the boat.

I slowed the boat, then went into idle and lined him up with the rising moon encasing his body in a white round disc. After a few shots, I got in too close and the angle was wrong, so I backed up and took another series of photos. Again, I had to take a lot of safety photos. It’s not like I had a tripod on terra firma. The light was fading fast but not the moonlight. I also had three nervous nellies wanting to get back to the cabin before dark. There’s nothing like pressure from the peanut gallery, while taking an extremely difficult but opportunistic photo.

I took several shots of the moon off to the side because I figured that a white-capped bald headed eagle might disappear into the luminescent white full moon background. I was right and believe that this was the best of the series. The eagle never flinched but that’s hindsight information. The clarity isn’t up to my standards but it was a chance photo that I made happen.

Once again, the combination of serendipity, being prepared and perhaps being creatively enabled, all came together to make this possible. Enjoy!