LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY > SOUTHWEST NATIONAL PARK – WESTERN ARTHURS RANGE > Full Moonrise Over Lake Cygnus (Western Arthur Range, Southwest National Park)
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The Western Arthurs are renowned for being one of Australia’s most beautiful mountain ranges as well as one of its most dangerous due to its treacherous rock climbing sections and full exposure to the wild weather coming off the Southern Ocean.
Situated in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park World Heritage Area, the trek to the Western Arthurs begins at Scott’s Peak Dam. A full traverse of the Western Arthur Range takes about a week, but many people, including myself, only venture as far as Lake Oberon and then turn around, avoiding the most dangerous and technically difficult rock climbing sections. Tasmania’s renowned wilderness photographer, Peter Dombrovskis, died on Mt. Hayes, the highest peak of the Western Arthur Range.
Lake Cygnus is the first notable camp site upon ascending Alpha Moraine up onto the range and, like the rest of the Western Arthur Range, it is photogenic in every direction. This shot of the full moonrise features the peaks above Lake Cygnus.
Photographer’s Reflection:
God said: “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place…What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?…Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?” (Job 38:12, 19-20, 31-33)
I was brushing my teeth and admiring the impressive nighttime view from my campsite at Lake Cygnus in the Western Arthurs. I noticed that the clouds behind the peaks to the northeast looked quite bright. It quickly dawned on me that the moon–in fact, a full moon–was going to rise exactly in between the two massive peaks in front of me.
How awesome is that to be in just the right place at just the right time?!
I quickly grabbed my camera, and just as I got it onto the tripod the first beams of moonlight began to pierce through the crack between the peaks. Suddenly, the jagged mountains all around me were brilliantly illuminated by the brightness of the moonlight.
Wow, I was perfectly positioned to witness this stunning sight!
I couldn’t help but think about how God sovereignly prepares and positions people to be in just the right place at the right time. The Bible is full of different historical examples.
One of the most notable examples, however, is how God raised up Queen Esther, a young Jewish girl, to a position of power within the Persian kingdom in order to save the Jews from total annihilation c. 450 BC.
When Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, informed her of the impending genocide against them, he said to her:
“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14).
The Scriptures say, “All the days ordained for me were written in your [God’s] book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16) and that God, “…works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…” (Ephesians 1:11).
When I look back on the multiple examples in Scripture, I know I never need to worry about my future. As long as I walk with God and submit to him as he works out my life in accordance with his perfect will, I know he will perfectly prepare and position me for all he has ordained me to do. It is when I rebel against him as Sovereign Lord that things will not go well for me. However, as long as I submit to his Sovereign Lordship over my life, my life will never fail to be blessed and full of meaning.
Amazingly, a couple years later I found myself in the exact same position in the Grand Tetons in USA just a couple years later. View my photograph here.