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Watch the moon rise in real time and embrace your insignificance

Watch the moon rise in real time and embrace your insignificance

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moonrise
moonrise

Mark Gee had always wanted to capture the moonrise on film, but his previous attempts never really panned out. He got another chance earlier this week in New Zealand, and this time, everything fell into place. The result is Full Moon Silhouettes, a breathtaking short film that will likely encourage you to spend more time staring at the sky.

Set to an emotive, piano-driven score, the piece was shot in real time at Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, where a group of onlookers gathered three days ago in anticipation of the full moon. Gee shot the footage with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV camera from a distance of 2.1 kilometers — a vantage point that puts the moon's enormity in stunning perspective. As the orb slowly comes into view, so too do the onlookers, their ant-sized silhouettes flickering across the horizon before pausing in deference to the spectacle before them.