The full moon looks like a giant eye in the stunning rock arch photograph

Zach Cooley took the incredible shots at Arches National Park, Utah, on October 28 – and from his specific point of view at that specific time, the distant moon and rock arch seemed to come together to form a huge eye.

However, it was not a chance encounter. Zach was in the right place at the right time, but only because he had planned and waited accordingly.

Sharing the shot he dreamed of on Instagram, Zach said, “Happy Halloween weekend!

“I planned an entire holiday mainly around the fact that the rising of the moon would align with this arc and I could get something like a spooky eye in the week of Halloween.

“In two nights I took some single shots and double exposures. I thought this was the best for the eye, what do you think?”

As you might expect, most people thought it was great, and its original post received nearly 18,000 likes.

However, in this modern era of social media and viral content, people often find themselves drawn to one of two extremes: believing everything they see without critical evaluation or becoming overly cynical to the point of believing nothing.

In Zach’s case, following the viral popularity of his photos, he found that many people accused him of falsifying the photos.

In an effort to set the record straight, he decided to share a few more photos from the shoot and provide a little more background.

He explained: “My ‘moon eye’ image from last week got a lot more attention than I ever imagined, and it was pretty exciting. After being shared on Facebook and Reddit, it went a bit viral. on both.

“I didn’t notice until the posts took off a bit. It became overwhelming to try to keep up with everything between those platforms and even Instagram shares.

“I wanted to thank people for their comments and also try to keep up with the ongoing conversations about whether the image was Photoshop fake etc, answering questions, addressing various claims, etc., but it was virtually impossible. . Essentially I gave up. ”

He continued: “That image, as I shared in my original post, was a double exposure in the camera: two consecutive photos joined together in the camera when they were taken. I wish the information was always shared, but I understand why they are not. always past.

“A fascinating thing to me is that for the most part the premises for people who think the image was false are completely false. The two main reasons are something along the lines of ‘The moon is never that big’ and ‘The moon is never that big. “has that alignment. ‘

“To help set the record straight, I wanted to share this series of photos, which are all single exposures, taken the night after the moon’s eye image.

“All that talking seems like a bit of a distraction to me, though, I’m not so sure I care too much about having these kinds of conversations. I see a lot of beauty in nature and I like to capture it and share it with others. It makes me happy to know that. sometimes people like my photography, and especially when someone is inspired to go out into nature more because of it. “