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Bahraini Basma Alhashimi has been capturing supermoons from different destinations around the kingdom to highlight the island’s beauty as well as the giant celestial body that shines so bright.
The talented 26-year-old accountant, who moonlights as a landscape, cityscape and time-lapse photographer, took her Canon 5D Mark IV camera to the Tree of Life on August 1 to snap up some images of the month’s first supermoon called the Sturgeon Moon…which in turn received high praise from social media followers.
Her Tree of Life image of the Sturgeon Moon, which she posted on Instagram on August 4, has been shared 141 times.
“I’m grateful for the positive feedback to my supermoon shot,” said the selenophile, who is a person that loves the moon. “I feel like people look forward to my pictures and my friends always send me posts about upcoming supermoons as in ‘this is made for you’.”
“There are only three or four supermoons each year and hence, not many opportunities to capture them, which is how my obsession began. I had a drive to outdo myself in how to best represent the supermoon in my images every time.”
For example, last year on August 12, she headed to the Tree of Life but was met with disastrous weather conditions as it was dusty, cloudy and humid.
“Terrible conditions lead to terrible photos,” said Basma from Busaiteen. “It was not possible to capture the moon with the tree and I am sure it would have been impossible to capture it with any other subject that day. That was a failed attempt, so I still had some unfinished business involving the Tree of Life and a supermoon.”
She returned to the tree this year and took her aim, which resulted in the popular post with 606 likes and counting.
“On August 1, I headed back to the Tree of Life to take care of last year’s unfinished business,” she said. “I was finally satisfied. The tree is huge, so the only downside of getting the whole tree in, along with the moon is that you will not be able to zoom in too much. I love the photo but I believe it does not do justice to the size of the moon.”
A supermoon is a full moon that occurs close to the moon’s perigee – the point in space when it’s closest to the Earth during its monthly orbit – making it appear larger and brighter.
Basma returned to the Tree of Life, once again, the following day to try something different that would show the size of the moon better.
She took a picture of her friend, Cycling Bees ladies group founder and competitive cycler and instructor Sarah Alsammak, with the horizon, the tree and the moon.
While both images were adored by individuals, her most liked and shared picture from her supermoon series was the one taken on June 14, 2022.
“Originally, I captured a supermoon rising for the first time in the evening of May 26, 2021,” she said. “I had a certain goal in mind and although I did capture the moon, I was not satisfied enough and woke up the next morning to capture it setting with a different view…which I settled for. I framed the moon between the Bahrain Financial Harbour towers and it got quite a bit of attention on social media. But honestly, it was not the best image resolution-wise.
“So, I attempted the same image framing on June 14, 2022. I did not only take a photo, but a time-lapse too. It is my best Instagram post so far in terms of activity statistics.”
She received 2,906 likes, 159 comments, 996 shares and 258 saves.
Basma’s image of fireworks from New Year’s Eve 2020 had won her an award in a photography competition organised by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority.
Now she is setting her sights on August’s second supermoon, which falls on the 30th, and is called the Blue Moon.
“I cannot wait to capture that spectacle,” said Basma. “I have not yet started planning for that, but I need to at least try to be creative to come up with a new idea.”
A Blue Moon refers to a second full moon that occurs within the same calendar month, which typically happens only once every two and a half years. The most recent blue moon occurred in October 2020. Depending on weather conditions, the Blue Moon will also be visible the night of August 31.
For details, follow @basmaalhashimi on Instagram.
