The last full moon of 2020
At first glance, the highly graphic quality of this closeup of last month’s full moon rising over Turtleback Mountain fools the viewer into thinking one is looking at a lithograph. It’s the reductionism that tricks the mind. It comes as a nice surprise to realize this is actually a photograph stripped of all but the most essential details needed to depict December’s “cold moon.”
The starkness of the photograph economically conveys the weather conditions that give the last full moon of each year its name. Moreover, the simple, tricolor palette, the flatness of the landscape and moonscape and the strong diagonal bifurcation of the composition all contribute to the freshness of what might otherwise be tired. stereotypical subject matter.
If you examine this artful image long enough, you will begin to see that this cold moon is not fixed in space nor is it rising. Rather, it is on the downward side of 2020, rolling, one hopes, toward a better 2021.
—Commentary by Tom Hinson, editor, Photograph of the Week
Editor’s Note: Click on the photograph to view it in a light box for even greater clarity.
Professional, amateur and phone-camera photographers alike are invited to submit images to the Sierra County Sun for possible publication in the Sun’s “Photograph of the Week” feature. The deadline for consideration is every Friday at 5 p.m. For further information, click on the Help Us Report button on our home page and then check the box labeled “I want to submit a photo to Photograph of the Week.”
2 thoughts on “The last full moon of 2020”
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Interesting and astute commentary. This is a very inspiring part of the Sun at this time of non-connection in person. To have some insight from a soul who has experienced photography in-depth is even more “illuminating.” Thank you so very much.
Yes, I feel so too, Susan, thank you for sharing your own perspective. I’m having as much juice flowing reading the commentary as I am viewing the photos! Thank you, thank you!