Photographer Captures Christ The Redeemer Holding The Moon

A photographer captured a stunning image of Christ the Redeemer “holding” the Moon after three years of attempting to get the shot.

Brazilian photographer Leonardo Sens finally took the photo on he had long dreamed of on June 4 from Icaraí Beach in the Rio de Janeiro municipality of Niterói, which is around seven miles away from where 98-ft high Christ the Redeemer is located.

The remarkable photo shows the colossal statue of Jesus Christ at the summit of Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the Moon in its palms.

Sens has been studying the Moon’s position in the hope of capturing the rare moment the celestial object aligns with Christ the Redeemer.

Sens tells PetaPixel that he used the “helping hand of mobile apps that indicate the position of the Moon” above the statue.

And in 2021, the photographer purchased a 600mm lens so that the Moon and the Sun will appear closer in his images.

“Despite knowing the exact moment the Moon would be positioned, I wasn’t able to frame the photo in my first attempt as the Moon goes down quite fast. And it’s complicated to get the frame right so I wasn’t able to get the shot when I first tried in 2021,” Sens tells PetaPixel.

“In 2022, it was cloudy and there was a haze so it wasn’t possible to take the photo then either.”

‘I Had Done It!’

However, Sens made another attempt at his coveted photograph in June this year. On Saturday, he arrived at Icaraí Beach after checking the Moon’s position in the apps.

But he failed to capture the shot when the Moon was blocked out by clouds. But, Sens returned to the beach the day after and tried once again to get his long-awaited photograph.

“On Sunday, I checked the Moon’s position on the apps and I arrived to the beach about 20 minutes early to take the shot,” the photographer says.

“And soon after I ran home to switch my computer to check the photos and then I really saw that I had done it!”

Sens’s photo has received almost 700,000 likes on Instagram — with social media fans calling the shot “perfect.”

More of Sens’s work can be seen on Instagram.

Image credits: All photos by Leonardo Sens/@leosens.