This is one of those persistent images that just keeps coming back. This has been debunked many times, but I’ll add it here because I was asked about it today.

This image is often shared as “When the moon kisses the sea”. Today it was “Only in New Zealand you can get this beautiful…”.

It’s not real. Photographer Chris Busey made this composite. It’s a lunar eclipse photo composited over 3D water. Reflection added.

Busey has removed the original from Flickr. But it’s still on their Facebook page with an accurate description:

Lunar Eclipse .. 12/10/11…6:03am… water added … was setting on a mountain, made this for my friend Connor, an artist who used to give us all his paintings, so I did this in 5 minutes and gave it to him. It was just an after thought to post it here, thought some one else might like it too.

By Chris Busey photography on Facebook