Canon 70-200 zoom lens, f2.8, 1/30 sec.Tonight is one of those great skies that happen when the seasons start to change. The perfect, full moon is still out there, drifting in and out of beautiful clouds, making the most interesting, moody night. It is calling to me, but I’m calling it a night instead and remembering that there will be another full moon in about 4 weeks. I haven’t yet been successful, in all my years of photographing the moon, at underexposing it just enough to get it in the shot but have the surface details actually show up. My moon-face is always blown out. But now I have my super-duper lens, so I’ll be trying, probably every month, to get some cool new effects. I do love the skies.
Tonight, the photography was what it used to be for me-a refuge, an escape from the normal business of my life. Everything is good and happy, and everyone is well, I just needed a break. To think, to dream a bit. To look on beauty instead of a pile of mail to be sorted or yet another load of laundry. Other than wondering if I was freaking out the neighbors, it was really restorative to stand out in the road, aiming my camera, changing the settings in a precise pattern, then capturing an image that was, for the most part, under my control. I love nature photography because of the chance to be quiet, to slow down, to really look. Plus, I’m left with evidence of my effort, something that is often frustratingly absent from a mother’s day.
Canon 70-200 zoom lens, f32, 15 sec.
My Red Door Days 