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I really love staying up late. Something about the moon and the midnight oil as a muse for writing just works for me. Case in point: this post. I’m writing it at roughly 2:40AM while listening to Roman History.1
The same can be said for photography, now. I was driving home on Highway 26 one night after a photography run and other errands when I saw it; a Harvest Moon. Well, not really a Harvest Moon; those only happen in September. But damn, it looked like it.
I don’t usually pay attention to the Moon cycle, so the full moon just popped out. As I had my camera and had just been doing some sample photography, I decided that, come what may, I needed to grab photos of the moon and drove up to the Washington Park obelisk.
Despite the fact that my camera does not do well in the dark or indoors, I think the pictures came out pretty well. I pushed up the ISO to 6400, set the exposure to around -1 and then just played with color for the most part.
“Cool,” I thought to myself when I was done, “some photos for the next Casual Gallery.”
However, I found that the pictures were all kind of one note. It would be to great another phase of the moon.
Well, as it turns out, driving home from McMinnville late last Wednesday, the Moon was once again putting on a show. The crescent is a classic pose for Earth’s singular companion, one we see in iconography all the time. I can’t help but think of the baroque artwork of a McMenamins pub.
There were several spots where had half a mind to stop and take a picture but decided better of it; taking photos late at night on the side of a highway is… risky to say the least. Moreover, I kept waiting for the perfect spot before deciding the moon was beautiful enough that any clear shot was going to look good.
Funnily enough, when I did stop a second time, I stood outside the driver side door and would turn on the flashers whenever I saw headlights approaching. One driver actually turned around and came back.
“Te ayudo?” he asked.
“Oh, no,” I said and then pointed to the moon with my camera. He understood immediately, and we shared a chuckle.
“Thank you,” I said before he turned and kept on his own late night sojourn. I hope he got home safe. I hope he took a moment to enjoy the moon.
- The change from music to history has been weird. I always loved history in school and I still love listening to music, especially late at night, but recently I’ve found myself falling into a world of George Santyana rather than Carlos Santana (Internal Editor: boooooo). ↩︎
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The Casual Ramble 