A few months ago, I decided that if I had the opportunity, I wanted to shoot the full moon of May over Mount Shasta. Over the years, I had heard from so many people about the Wesak moon and how important and special it is–especially at Mt. Shasta. So I marked my calendar and reminded myself to check the weather and the sunset/moonrise times.

Now, the last time I set out specifically to shoot the full moon was last November. I had this vision of an image that I wanted to get with the full moon over the mountain, reflected in Lake Siskiyou. There are only a couple of times a year when the moon is in the right spot to capture the photo and  November was one of those times. That day, a huge storm blew in from the Pacific and I never saw the moonrise. But, I got some of the best images of Mount Shasta with storm clouds that I had ever gotten.

Well, good fortune smiled on me again this past Friday evening when I set out to capture the Wesak moon. I left the house a few hours before sunset, knowing that there was a good possibility that the moon would be hidden by clouds. There was a thick, dark cloud cover hovering in the spot on the horizon where I knew the moon would rise.

I went to a place where I had been wanting to shoot the mountain and the light was beautiful. I was a bit concerned about the dark clouds in the background, but when I looked at the images later, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dark background caused the mountain to “pop,” making the image appear almost three dimensional.

After that, I headed over to the spot I had picked to shoot the full moon. The clouds were dissipating a little bit, but still rather thick in the area of the coming moon. It was about an hour to go before I would see the moon (or not).

Then, as a surprise bonus, Mt. Shasta started to turn pink. This is something that happens once in a while, and when it does, it’s always a beautiful sight. By now, I had captured the 3D light, the peachy, golden sunset, and the pink alpenglow. It was turning out to be a fantastic photo shoot. And I hadn’t even seen the first sign of a Wesak moon yet!

The waiting continued, for longer than I expected. But, finally, I saw a bright spot in the clouds. It grew brighter and brighter as it continued to rise higher and higher. At last, the full moon showed itself in all its glory from behind the top edge of the cloud bank.

It seems that whenever I go out with my camera, in pursuit of the full moon, mother nature smiles on me with her beauty and I have the good fortune to capture so much more that just the moon. I will likely be chasing the moon for the rest of my days.