capturing the moon

Taking pictures of the moon is a special obsession with wonder | wander | women, like many amateur photographers. There's a rush and a reward when we manage to catch that celestial body in a way that approaches how it makes us feel.

Spring, Tuscany, 2013

What would humans even be without the moon? It's the biggest satellite comparative to its planet in the solar system, it made life on earth possible by creating the tidal rhythms of the ocean, and it's the only other celestial body that we have actually visited.

Winter, London, 2019

As well as being so large relative to Earth, the moon is made of very similar materials; it's also iron-rich, with seas and valleys, and water has even been discovered on its surface.

Summer, London, 2020

The most widely accepted theory for the birth of the moon is that a much larger body collided with the young Earth, knocking loose a huge knot of materials from both, that was pulled into Earth's gravitational field and eventually formed our companion in the sky.

Autumn, London, 2016

In our photography adventures we've tried capturing it at different times of day, with different lenses, each time stretching the limits of our smartphones and digital cameras in the effort to convey how we truly see it.

Spring, Yao Noi, Thailand, 2016

Sometimes we only just managed to show it was the moon, set like a stone in a memory of an ideal holiday.

Autumn, London, 2018

Sometimes, especially when there was still a little daylight to help our focus, we were able to zoom in and show its face.

We even managed to catch the historic supermoon eclipse in 2015: the deep orange "blood moon". These pictures were sadly more for posterity than photography. But a few years later I bought a telephoto lens for my phone.

Autumn, London, 2020

It's been an exercise in patience, dexterity and jury-rigging, as the lens setup is almost bigger than the phone! But once it's all lined up and focused, the photos are worth it.

Autumn, London, 2020

I even managed to capture phases that never emitted enough light for my inexperienced photography to capture, like the half-moon and crescent.

Winter, London, 2020

Now I'm looking forward to safer times where Mom and I can capture our favourite celestial body, on future holidays together!

Summer, London, 2020