I.M. Pei’s iconic pyramid marks the entrance to the Louvre museum. In the evening, tourists saunter around the courtyard taking selfies, while illuminated by the soft glow emanating from the pyramid. With the water fountain and reflecting pools, the Louvre is a photographer’s delight at night.

The Louvre Museum always presents a spectacular view. The challenge when approaching this location is dealing with the multitude of tourists that congregate here, even after the museum has closed. On a recent visit, the regulars were joined by numerous couples taking engagement and wedding photos, along with their photographer, assistant, and assorted flash paraphernalia.

Waiting for that brief moment for the scene to clear requires a touch of patience.

My last memory of Notre Dame was on a cold Parisian winter night. I took a short walk from Saint Germain des Prés, and circled around the cathedral searching for an interesting vantage point.

The spire that reached high above the towers is now gone, lost in today’s devastating blaze. I am so saddened for the people of France and for Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris.

Tonight, I was inspired to re-edit a 2012 photo of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. The one problem with this photo is that the top of the fountain was cut off. As I recall, I was already at the 24mm end of a 24-70mm lens and was on a tripod as far back as I could be.

If I had more experience, I would have taken a vertical panorama , which would have solved that issue. Taking a RAW photo instead of a JPG would have helped too.

I wanted to maximize the size of the Super Snow Moon by photographing it close to the horizon. I consulted both PhotoPills and The Photographer’s Ephemeris to plan these moon photos.

Today, moon rise was at 5:00 P.M. When I arrived at my location, I consulted PhotoPills again to confirm the direction of the moon rise. However, when 5:00 P.M. arrived, I couldn’t see the moon. I took my first moon photo at 5:15 P.M. At that time, the moon was really faint against the late afternoon sky. Sunset wouldn’t take place until 5:51 P.M.

Since this was my first attempt, I wasn’t sure which lenses to bring. The first photo was taken at 600mm, which is only useful during the first few minutes at moon rise. This second one is at 200 mm.

Not long after, I was down to 122 mm just to keep the moon and foreground in the same frame.

Tonight, the waxing crescent moon danced across the night sky with the planet Mars just off to its right. While full moons garner the most attention, the crescent moon really shows off the contours of the lunar surface. The strong directional light really highlights all the craters on the moon.

I missed the super blood wolf moon. I peeked outside a few times throughout the night but the moon was pretty well hidden behind the clouds. The rain didn’t help matters either. Towards the tail end of the eclipse, I could finally see the moon as an opening in the clouds emerged.

Stepped out for a quick photo of the harvest moon. This time, I completed the edit in Luminar 2018.

Full moon. Unfortunately, the lunar eclipse was not visible from North America.