30/08/2026
“Reflections of a Blue Moon” – Landscape Version
River Mourne, Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
The bright August full moon is known as the “Blue Moon” even though it has nothing to do with its colour 🤔. The name comes from an old expression “the moon is blue” meaning there's a very rare chance of it happening. And since there is an actual second full moonrise in the month of August, folk seen this as a rare occurrence and named this second full moon of the month “The Blue Moon”.
In the past I had captured and posted a scene from this full moonrise, although it was in a portrait crop. After all this time I finally edited this landscape orientated version to show more from each side of the riverbanks in this photo.
I captured a full moon rise over this same river years earlier, although the moon was arched too high in the sky to fit into my photo at the time and I only managed to capture its reflection on the river below. Ever since I was aiming to some night recapture the scene at the exact time of year when the full moon was low enough in the sky, aligned exactly over the River Mourne and its historic bridge.
Finally on this night the moon rose at 100% totality. With my large tele-photo lens, I set out and was able to capture this scene in which I eagerly awaited on 🙏
