THE WEEKLY #218: A MAN ON THE MOON

Time flies. It’s almost been a month on Madeira. This is my fourth weekly journal since touching down on the island and it has gone by in a blur. An overwhelmingly enjoyable blur.

I found it ironic that it can be difficult to keep up with all of my own adventures and to recall everything has happened over the last month. The irony is that it is my job to document every single adventure. Too much immersion, sensory overload, and an aggressive schedule will do that. Madeira has been overflowing with adventure.

This week we came up with the idea to attempt a photograph with the full moon. The idea evolved to include mountain peaks in the heart of the island and our telephoto lenses for compression to make the moon appear even larger. With little to no experience shooting the moon in this way, we set off at sunset to one of the most beautiful ridge trails in the world.

Using an app that predicts the trajectory of the moon while simultaneously overlaying the landscape in front of you, it can be possible to identify certain peaks that the moon will rise directly behind. That is, of course, based on where you are situated with your camera. It can be a bit of a puzzle to figure out, especially in the dark on a narrow ridge in the mountains.

We chose a location that looked up towards a peak that seemed to align with the trajectory. It was guesswork but we gave it our best. I then ran off to the peak and climbed it with my headlamp the only light leading the way.

Somehow amidst the rush and adrenaline, we managed to pull off a few pretty wild shots of the moon with me sitting on the peak in the foreground. I actually recorded an entire vlog about the adventure, which is pretty fun to watch so I’ll add it in below.

The other highlight of the week was an adventure into the foggy forest of Fanal. Here you can find twisted trees, which create a mysterious, creepy yet fairytale-like scene. I’ve added my favorite photos from the week below or you can check out all of the photos from Fanal Forest in this blog post: ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE FANAL FOREST ON MADEIRA