Saguaro Moonrise

On the final day of 2017, I paid a visit to Saguaro National Park. It had been a mostly cloudy day, but at sunset the clouds finally broke. This allowed for a beautiful silhouette photo of saguaro cacti at sunset (not this photo) as well as a silhouette of cacti on a hillside in front of the rising full moon (this photo). I used some of the techniques that Gary Hart would later recommend in his 2019 Outdoor Photographer article on moon shots, and stood in a spot where I could get the hillside, a saguaro cactus, and ocotillo cacti in the same frame--with the saguaro silhouetted in front of the moon. It was a nearly perfect shot--the only source of imperfection coming in the form of residual moisture in the air from the clearing clouds, hence the distortion/glow around the moon. Taken with the Canon SX60 at full optical zoom (1,365mm equivalent).