Category: photos

Shooting the moon

The moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical pattern, meaning, among other things, that it varies in how close it is to the planet. When a full moon coincides with a day when it is closest to the Earth in its orbit, the moon appears both bigger and brighter. 2 years ago, the moon was closer to the Earth than it had been in about 9 years, and this supermoon was dubbed the mega moon:

The March 19, 2011 supermoon was 356,577 kilometers (221,566 miles) away from Earth. The last time the full moon approached so close to Earth was in 1993. It was about 20 percent brighter and 15 percent bigger than a regular full moon.

Even more remarkably (yet strangely not even noted on the Wiki page), on that 2011 date, I was many months into my own 365-day trajectory of daily photography. This meant that not only did I keep my camera handy, I also had by that time learned to use it on full manual, and learned the advantages of using a tripod. In other words, I was in just the right position, in time, space and personal circumstances, to shoot the moon.¹

Even so, it was a bit of an adventure. Living as I do in a heavily wooded area, there was quite a bit of trial and error finding the right spot for the tripod. Not to mention figuring out the right exposure.

This shot, for example, showed me the futility of trying to get a photo without the tripod.

This shot was overexposed, and while it is a lovely glowing white circle, it could just as easily have been…a glowing white circle.

The more I got the moon into focus, the more the surrounding trees made themselves apparent.

Moving the tripod around got me different views of different branches, many of which I actually quite liked.

Eventually, I both found the right place to get a tree-free view, and figured out the right settings to actually see more details with my telphoto lens than my naked eye could make out.

I admit that I was pretty excited. Perhaps not over-the-moon excited, but quite pleased with myself, nonetheless.

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to share a photo for the theme “moon.” To see more moons, pay a visit to the fff blog.

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¹ I’ve had this title in mind for a while, as this was a set of photos I’d meant to share ages ago. (As in probably in 2011.) I was reminded of this when I saw a post by my friend Sarah also called Shooting the Moon, though with a completely different reference. When Archie announced a couple days after that the fff theme was “moon,” I figured it was all a sign that these were the photos I should post.²

² Especially since, I’m sorry to say, I couldn’t even motivate myself to even go outside and look at last month’s supermoon. It’s not that I was, you know, over the moon, but without the push of daily photography, I am much less likely to get out the tripod. Plus I was tired.³

³ And besides, I’d already recently posted photos related to a different meaning of the word moon.

squeeze

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With the start of summer comes the end of structured school days. While there is lots of fun to be had, I still need to squeeze in time for my work. Picnics and visits with friends and fireworks and trips to the zoo don’t mean any less cooking, or food shopping, or laundry, or cleaning, (and in fact often mean more) and there are days when I find myself feeling squeezed. I optimistically promised my advisor that I’d get him a large chunk of writing done while he was away on vacation, but I foolishly did so without looking at my calendar, and observing the small number of child-free hours on it in those 2 weeks. When I find a 4-hour chunk of time to focus on my research, my thoughts start to get organized, but then comes the next over-full day and my thoughts scatter. Really, I’ve been enjoying the summer fun, and the extra time with the kids, but just now find myself wishing I could just do one thing or the other for a sustained time. Today I have maybe a 6-hour chunk to do squeeze out as much writing as I can while both kids are out of the house. (Just now I am trying to squeeze out this blog post as the kids eat breakfast. I have only been interrupted roughly 14 times.)

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Starting next week, the kids will both be in camps and childcare more-or-less full-time, so hopefully the squeeze will feel less tight. But if I’m actually going to finish this degree, I have to be prepared to keep on the tight squeeze, long-term. (Hold me.)

around the world in big metal boxes (friday foto finder: transport)

Shipping containers are a common sight at ports the world over, as well as making their way inland on freight trains. These large rectangular boxes are often brightly colored, and, especially when stacked together, look like oversized toy blocks. The enormous cranes that are used for moving these boxes are also a striking sight, resembling strange, gigantic creatures. (Robot dinosaurs, perhaps? There is a claim, sadly debunked, that such cranes inspired the AT-AT walkers of Star Wars.)

I’ve found that my eye (and camera lens) have been drawn to shipping containers and their cranes on numerous occasions during my travels. Here are some shots of them on 3 continents.

First, here are some in the Port of Oakland (Oakland, California, USA) taken in 2008 from a ferry.

Moving westward, we have containers in Hong Kong. (Photos taken from a train heading to the airport in August, 2011. You can see more cranes in Hong Kong, this time in Hong Kong Harbour, on this earlier post.)

Heading westward to Europe, we have the port in Barcelona, Spain. (I took this from up on the Castell de Montjuïc, in September, 2009.)

And for good measure, we’ll return westward to North America once more, this time on the East Coast. These cranes for moving shipping containers were near the airport in Newark, NJ. (I think. This was on my way back home from Hong Kong in 2011. I’m too lazy to look up my old itinerary right now!) These cranes look like they might be at a rail yard.

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to find something to represent “transport.” With my love of travel by so many different modes of transport, the big challenge was to narrow things down.

dancing flames (friday foto finder: fire)

We have some local friends who use a fire pit sometimes in their yards. It can be so relaxing to sit around the fire on a chilly night, and watch the flames put on their ever-changing show of light and color and shape. I took these photos using my telephoto, which allowed me to look deep into the flames while keeping my safe distance.

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to find photos of fire. These have been burning a hole in my photo library since September. To see what other photos are on fire on other people’s blogs, please visit the fff blog.

beach day (friday foto finder: coast)

While we live on the East Coast of the United States, our partiuclar town is quite far from the coastline. It’s sadly rare that we take the kids to see the ocean. Last August, following an overnight stay in New Hampshire to have Theo’s birthday at Canobie Lake Park, we made a detour the coast before heading home. Here are some photos from our largely unplanned day at Salisbury Beach.


The boardwalk.


Looking over the colorful beach crowds.


Buried treasure.

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to share photos on the theme of “coast.” Coast on over to the friday foto finder blog to see what other coasts have been cast.

3 shop window displays

Here are 3 displays I’ve come across in unrelated shop windows in the past few years.

Buttons. Paris, France. August, 2007.


Sewing machines. Boston, MA, USA. December, 2010.


Thread. Shanghai, China. May, 2012.

oft-travelled roads (friday foto finder: road)

Over the past few years, my family has made many road trips, especially between Massachusetts and New York. I tend to be the passenger more often than the driver on these trips, and sometimes I will entertain myself by taking photos. I love the way certain stretches of road will wind, following the curves of the landscape in these hilly regions. Here are a few photos taken on various road trips to New York state. (I don’t know exactly where the first two were taken–we follow highways through parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. The last two are definitely in New York.)

This week’s friday foto finder challenge was to find a share photos of roads. Once again, my photo library overflows with photos to fit this theme. To see what roads others have travelled, and to see the theme for next week, check out the friday foto finder blog.

3 silhouettes of statues

Here are 3 statues I’ve come across in my travels, and in my wanderings closer to home.


At the de Cordova Museum in Lincoln, MA. (August, 2012)


In Lowell, Massachusetts. (July, 2009)


In Bath, England (January, 2005)