lantern of hope
Tonight could have been my second chance to get it right. Sometimes I do get it right on the second try. Last night I wanted to go someplace to shoot the Super Moon. Generally, my moon shots are pretty bad, but it gives me an excuse to run away in the dark… as opposed to my usual habit of running away during the daylight hours. But, I had made plans to meet a friend for dinner last night, and as is usually the case with most of my friends…. My suggestion of “Hey! Let’s go drive for an hour so I can try to take pictures of the moon!” was met with little enthusiasm…. Well, who am I kidding… it was met with no enthusiasm… more like, “No…. I don’t think that’s going to be happening.” (Have I mentioned recently that I really need a few new friends?~) So, I went tonight. Alone. And I got to where I was going, and it was the usual scenario. First of all, I turned on my camera and nothing… I had changed my battery before leaving home, so it couldn’t be the battery (or could it?~) So, I popped the battery out and put it back in and then it was Ok. Then my shutter remote malfunctioned and just kept shooting continually. I played around with that for awhile, but I couldn’t fix it. Not happy about that! Finally, I set my tripod up and was playing around with settings and just generally amusing myself when some guy came up to me and asked me if I was there for the rocket launch. What rocket launch says the person that has no clue what is going on in the world these days. So, he told me about the Antares rocket launch and was amazed that I knew nothing about it… afterall it was “all over Facebook” today, he said. I haven’t looked at FB all day. So, I told him I had just come too see the moon rise because it was a nice night. Then he began to speculate on which of the many people there were there for the rocket launch and which were there for the moon rise. Ok. Then he told me exactly where the moon rise would be and where I needed to stand. He explained to me that his phone app….sky watch or whatever it was, was extremely accurate. I was thankful for this information, because I had no idea where the moon would be rising. The rocket launch was about 2 minutes before the scheduled moonrise. So, I stood in a crowd and stared at the sky with everyone else, as people actually counted down to the expected rocket launch time. And then, there was a red dot in the sky, briefly, and then it was gone. I guess that was it. It was either that, or an airplane. No one seemed sure… and everyone just stood there, still staring into the sky…. Until someone said loudly…. “Wow! Look at the moon!!” Wait…. The moon? I was staring right where that kind stranger had assured me that the moon would be rising and I didn’t see a thing…. Until… I turned around, and there, so far to the left of me, that it was almost behind me…. Was the very large, bright red moon, already higher in the sky than I had hoped for. So much for the extremely accurate phone app. You know, when that guy told me that he sits in his house and watches the space station without even going outside… I should have had my doubts about him. Sigh. So, I took some pretty bad moon shots… and it was already too late… I couldn’t get the moon and the skyline in the same shot the way I have wanted to shoot it for several years now. So, I moved to another spot for Plan B, hoping to get the waving American flag in front of the moon, which is when a woman, assuming I lived locally, approached me about taking school pictures at some school … in Newark. By the time she was done, I had also lost the opportunity for Plan B (which I’m pretty sure would also not have worked out.) Maybe if I had gone last night, I could have gone back tonight and gotten it right. But, hey… at least I got to see that rocket launch!! LOL! Maybe tomorrow….
The photo …. “Remembrance and Rebirth”… a bronze statue of a man holding a lantern and looking across the Hudson River at the site where the World Trade Center stood. Lantern of Hope…. Eagle Rock Reservation on a beautiful, warm, October night!
lantern of hope
Tonight could have been my second chance to get it right. Sometimes I do get it right on the second try. Last night I wanted to go someplace to shoot the Super Moon. Generally, my moon shots are pretty bad, but it gives me an excuse to run away in the dark… as opposed to my usual habit of running away during the daylight hours. But, I had made plans to meet a friend for dinner last night, and as is usually the case with most of my friends…. My suggestion of “Hey! Let’s go drive for an hour so I can try to take pictures of the moon!” was met with little enthusiasm…. Well, who am I kidding… it was met with no enthusiasm… more like, “No…. I don’t think that’s going to be happening.” (Have I mentioned recently that I really need a few new friends?~) So, I went tonight. Alone. And I got to where I was going, and it was the usual scenario. First of all, I turned on my camera and nothing… I had changed my battery before leaving home, so it couldn’t be the battery (or could it?~) So, I popped the battery out and put it back in and then it was Ok. Then my shutter remote malfunctioned and just kept shooting continually. I played around with that for awhile, but I couldn’t fix it. Not happy about that! Finally, I set my tripod up and was playing around with settings and just generally amusing myself when some guy came up to me and asked me if I was there for the rocket launch. What rocket launch says the person that has no clue what is going on in the world these days. So, he told me about the Antares rocket launch and was amazed that I knew nothing about it… afterall it was “all over Facebook” today, he said. I haven’t looked at FB all day. So, I told him I had just come too see the moon rise because it was a nice night. Then he began to speculate on which of the many people there were there for the rocket launch and which were there for the moon rise. Ok. Then he told me exactly where the moon rise would be and where I needed to stand. He explained to me that his phone app….sky watch or whatever it was, was extremely accurate. I was thankful for this information, because I had no idea where the moon would be rising. The rocket launch was about 2 minutes before the scheduled moonrise. So, I stood in a crowd and stared at the sky with everyone else, as people actually counted down to the expected rocket launch time. And then, there was a red dot in the sky, briefly, and then it was gone. I guess that was it. It was either that, or an airplane. No one seemed sure… and everyone just stood there, still staring into the sky…. Until someone said loudly…. “Wow! Look at the moon!!” Wait…. The moon? I was staring right where that kind stranger had assured me that the moon would be rising and I didn’t see a thing…. Until… I turned around, and there, so far to the left of me, that it was almost behind me…. Was the very large, bright red moon, already higher in the sky than I had hoped for. So much for the extremely accurate phone app. You know, when that guy told me that he sits in his house and watches the space station without even going outside… I should have had my doubts about him. Sigh. So, I took some pretty bad moon shots… and it was already too late… I couldn’t get the moon and the skyline in the same shot the way I have wanted to shoot it for several years now. So, I moved to another spot for Plan B, hoping to get the waving American flag in front of the moon, which is when a woman, assuming I lived locally, approached me about taking school pictures at some school … in Newark. By the time she was done, I had also lost the opportunity for Plan B (which I’m pretty sure would also not have worked out.) Maybe if I had gone last night, I could have gone back tonight and gotten it right. But, hey… at least I got to see that rocket launch!! LOL! Maybe tomorrow….
The photo …. “Remembrance and Rebirth”… a bronze statue of a man holding a lantern and looking across the Hudson River at the site where the World Trade Center stood. Lantern of Hope…. Eagle Rock Reservation on a beautiful, warm, October night!