Shoot Out

Did you see the moonrise last night? In my neck of the woods, it was gorgeous! It was a brilliant, red, not-quite-full, waning gibbous hanging just over the horizon behind the bare trees; breath-taking. Truly.

When I see the moon like that I want to take a picture of it. Therein lies the problem, run-of-the-mill digital cameras can't handle moonscapes well because of the dark sky and you're left with an out of focus grainy blob. That happened Tuesday. I was driving around town and saw the moon, grabbed my camera and took this shot. I started to set the exposure and shutter manually to do the shot properly, but by then the clouds had rolled in.



When I see the moon like that, the photographer (of a long time ago) in me yearns for film, a long lens and time to do it justice. Good pictures of the moon just don't happen. The nice thing about the moon, it's always full again next month.

Last Friday a front came through and brought a little precipitation with it. It was late in the day so the sun was pretty low on the horizon when light broke through the clouds and created a rainbow in the eastern sky. I tied to capture it from the office window and got this shot.



The rainbow, another challenge in photography, is hard to see, but it's there. You can also see the progress in the landscaping. It's not much, but you can see they've been working on the "3" at the far end of the walkway to join the "4" and the "2." (Previous views here.) Close-up of the rainbow's end: