Rift in the Clouds, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

New Year’s Eve featured a blue moon rising early, but the layers of fog and clouds that swept over San Francisco Bay made a capture seem unlikely.

When the moon made a brief appearance through a rift in the clouds I was ready, with an exposure biased towards the moonlight. The composition is based on the idea of letting everything besides the moon and its light on the water go pitch black. And also on the aesthetic pleasures of grain, er, I mean noise.

Exposure data: Nikon D300, 65mm, 1/30 of a second at f/5.0 and ISO 3200, hand held; yes, folks, you read that right, ISO 3,200. Look ma, no tripod.