Just Past First Quarter
Just Past First Quarter
In this brilliant winter sky the moon looked so delicate, almost transparent.
My lens isn’t quite doing it, but I had to photograph it nonetheless.
Wolf Moonrise
Wolf Moonrise
The winter sunset shades to deep pink in the east as the Wolf Moon rises over the hill, encircled by the branches of an oak tree.
The moon still looks a little hard-edged and flashed out, but at least I managed to get a little detail on it. Usually under these conditions the moon looks like a flashlight in the sky, just a hard bright circle, but it was moderated somewhat, perhaps by the branches in front of it.
And I finally caught that pink glow over the horizon fading to the faded turquoise of a winter sky in the east, opposite a sunset, on a clear, cold night.
. . . . . . .
Before I go on, I will add that I quickly shot this photo as I packed my camera equipment out of my car on my way to the paranormal investigation at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall January 7, 2012. My family, especially my mother, had a strong tie to the place; in the houses you can see near the bottom of the photo, my mother was born and grew up in the one you can see the best, the yellow one.
. . . . . . .
A few months after I’d published this image, a conservation organization in California asked permission to use the image in their newsletter to accompany a poem by William Carlos Williams. Would I mind…
The Hills Conservation Network (HCN) of Oakland CA published one of my photos, “Wolf Moonrise”, in their latest newsletter.
The HCN was formed after the devastating 1991 East Bay Hills fire. In a state known for wildfires this was the worst one to date in 1991, killing 25 people and injuring 52 others, leaving some 10,000 people homeless by destroying 3,354 single-family homes and 456 apartment units. The group formed to help organize efforts in restoring the scarred land while preparing for other wildfires in a way that would mitigate future damage as much as possible.
They publish a quarterly newsletter, and in this case the Winter 2012 was “celebrating trees”. They would publish a poem by William Carlos Williams entitled Winter Trees and wanted my photo to illustrate.
No one has to twist my arm to have a photo published along with a poem by William Carlos Williams, and while I didn’t remember this particular poem once I read it I was in full agreement, especially at the lines: A liquid moon/moves gently among/the long branches.
I am also glad to help an organization whose mission I support, and those interested in carefully reforesting and restoring the land and preparing wisely for future actions.
Click here to read the newsletter; my photo and the poem are on page 3.
Click here to see the original entry for “Wolf Moonrise” on my daily image blog Today.
Moonlit Sycamores
Moonlit Sycamores
The Cold Moon of December is not quite full but illumines the land with the cool blue of coming winter in the deep dusk of a winter evening.
Lunaria
Lunaria
Lunaria for the full moon.
Honesty for its pure white color.
Money plant because we can all use a little extra now and then, and if we can grow it in the backyard, so much the better.
This plant has self-seeded since the first year I was here and planted some seeds in a flower bed. Now it comes up wherever it pleases and most of the time I let it because it’s so beautiful with spring’s pink or white phlox-like blossoms, and in the autumn when the seed pods dry and I peel them away to reveal the transparent pearly white membrane that once held the seeds apart in the pod.
At other times it really looks like an undesirable, its first-year floret of leaves resembling a thistle without the thorns, and in the time between blossom and seed looking like a struggling half-hybrid.
It is officially called Lunaria because of its color and shape resemblance to the moon, but every popular plant picks up familiar names.
So I have harvested this year’s money from the back yard and placed some for display and shared more this friends. That can’t be too bad either.
Moon and Oak, 2011
Moon and Oak
A hillside of oak trees is burnished by the late afternoon sun till it glows like copper, and the pale, nearly full moon rises above. To me the moon always looks translucent when it rises at this time of day, as if all the craters and darker areas on its surface are open, letting the sky shine through. The copper of the oaks and the aqua sky are such a beautiful combination.
Moonrise, 2010
Moonrise
The moon as it comes toward full rises earlier and earlier. Here it just appeared over a grove of sycamores just as the sun was setting, still, silent, waiting.
Shine On, Harvest Moon, 2011
Harvest Moon
I finally caught some color in the sky and a yellow moon. The Harvest Moon always looks extra golden, round and fat as if it, too, is ready for harvest.
Last year on this day we had a full moon on this day, but in 2012, the September full moon doesn’t fall until September 29.
September’s full moon is called the Full Corn Moon for the time of harvesting corn, and also the Full Barley Moon for the harvest and threshing of barley, and the Fruit Moon for the ripening of fruit in both hemispheres, autumn fruits in the northern hemisphere, and spring fruits in the southern hemisphere. While each month’s moon keeps its particular name, the Harvest Moon is an additional name for the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. What characterizes this moon as the Harvest is that, unlike other times of the year, the moon rises an average of 30 minutes later each day rather than the usual 50 minutes. That gives this string of days, about two weeks, more light in the evening as the full moon approaches, arrives and departs, so work days for harvesting can be longer.
Read about the Corn Moon and the Harvest Moon on the Farmer’s Almanac.
The Evening Star
The Evening Star
I first posted this in July 2010 as I left a visit to my mother in a nursing home, not long after her 85th birthday. Today she would have been 87; I have another remembrance in the works, but I post this today to celebrate her birthday.
What a beautiful sight in the night sky long after the sun had set but still colored the horizon. I was convinced this point of light was an airplane since there were others moving in that area, very near Pittsburgh International Airport. But this one held its ground.
I only had my little hand-held digital with me, and I don’t have as much control over the lens as I do with my SLR, but the photo looks like a tropical evening even though it’s Pennsylvania and I’m in the parking lot of Kane Regional Nursing Hospital leaving from a visit with my mother. A rejuvenating sight after an evening visit.
The evening star, the real “star” of the evening, here is Venus, showing just after sunset and brightening as the sky darkened around it. To the upper left are Saturn and Mars, much fainter and only appearing as the sky nears full dark; I actually didn’t see them at first, then thought they were just digital dust in a slightly grainy image. But I snapped several images over the course of a few minutes and the last one included them in full, though I didn’t know it at the time!
The full Thunder Moon was rising behind me, but by the time I got that photo a slight haze of clouds had moved in front and I couldn’t get a clear one.
Spring Moon: 2010
Moonrise
Very much like the late crescent moon rising tonight.
The eager Sap Moon rises early on her way to full, just as the sap rises in the trees at this time in March.
Supermoon: 2011
Supermoon
Here is the full moon from March 19, the “Supermoon”. It certainly did appear larger than most other moons I’ve photographed, though I didn’t have a way to show the scale so here it looks like any other moon.
Still, the full moon is a beautiful creature and I have always enjoyed studying her surface patterns. They’ve always looked like cities and roads, like what you see when you fly over the desert.
This full moon has been one of the most meaningful and exuberant in cultures throughout human history as evidenced by these full moon names from various traditions, regions and beliefs:
- Pink Moon, named for the wild phlox or “pinks” which are often the earliest showy flowers to bloom in the woods and fields;
- Sprouting Grass Moon, because grass will begin to sprout in most of the northern hemisphere except the most northern regions;
- Egg Moon, I’ve never heard a clear explanation of this one, but it may be that chickens in unheated coops will produce more eggs as the days lengthen and grow warmer;
- Fish Moon, fish begin migrating and spawning;
- Worm Moon, worms begin moving as the soil thaws, leaving castings for the garden and attracting robins;
- Crow Moon, crows begin to caw signaling the end of winter;
- Crust Moon, snowcover melts during the day and freezes over at night;
- Sap Moon, sap begins to flow in trees and shrubs, especially maple trees;
- Lenten Moon, this full moon always falls during Lent, no matter when Easter falls;
- Paschal Moon, only in some years, when the March full moon falls after the equinox marking both Easter and Passover—this year the April full moon will be the Paschal moon.
“Wolf Moonrise” Published in Conservation Newsletter
Wolf Moonrise
The Hills Conservation Network (HCN) of Oakland CA published one of my photos, “Wolf Moonrise”, in their latest newsletter.
The HCN was formed after the devastating 1991 East Bay Hills fire. In a state known for wildfires this was the worst one to date in 1991, killing 25 people and injuring 52 others, leaving some 10,000 people homeless by destroying 3,354 single-family homes and 456 apartment units. The group formed to help organize efforts in restoring the scarred land while preparing for other wildfires in a way that would mitigate future damage as much as possible.
They publish a quarterly newsletter, and in this case the Winter 2012 was “celebrating trees”. They would publish a poem by William Carlos Williams entitled Winter Trees and wanted my photo to illustrate.
No one has to twist my arm to have a photo published along with a poem by William Carlos Williams, and while I didn’t remember this particular poem once I read it I was in full agreement, especially at the lines: A liquid moon/moves gently among/the long branches.
I am also glad to help an organization whose mission I support, and those interested in carefully reforesting and restoring the land and preparing wisely for future actions.
Click here to read the newsletter; my photo and the poem are on page 3.
Click here to see the original entry for “Wolf Moonrise” on my daily image blog Today.
Wolf Moonrise
Wolf Moonrise
The winter sunset shades to deep pink in the east as the Wolf Moon rises over the hill, encircled by the branches of an oak tree.
The moon still looks a little hard-edged and flashed out, but at least I managed to get a little detail on it. Usually under these conditions the moon looks like a flashlight in the sky, just a hard bright circle, but it was moderated somewhat, perhaps by the branches in front of it.
And I finally caught that pink glow over the horizon fading to the faded turquoise of a winter sky in the east, opposite a sunset, on a clear, cold night.
Moonlight Sycamores
Moonlit Sycamores
The Cold Moon of December is not quite full but illumines the land with the cool blue of coming winter in the deep dusk of a late autumn evening.
Moon and Oak
Moon and Oak
A hillside of oak trees is burnished by the late afternoon sun till it glows like copper, and the pale, nearly full moon rises above. To me the moon always looks translucent when it rises at this time of day, as if all the craters and darker areas on its surface are open, letting the sky shine through. The copper of the oaks and the aqua sky are such a beautiful combination.
Shine On, Harvest Moon
Harvest Moon
I finally caught some color in the sky and a yellow moon. The Harvest Moon always looks extra golden, round and fat as if it, too, is ready for harvest.
Moonrise With Clouds
Thunder Moon Clouds
What else do you call this? I have so many moonrises…
Last night as I photographed the full moon I had to wait for it to rise above the wispy clouds just above the horizon. The blue of the sky and cream-pink of the clouds was so delicate I decided to try a few photographs.
This is a challenge, but not impossible, for two reasons. First, the moon and clouds are actually moving, and quite quickly though it’s hard to detect because they are so far away, but it’s enough to make the clouds, especially, appear hazy or blurry. Second, the moon is technically as bright as the sun, especially the full moon simply because it’s full, and the contrast of that brightness with the background usually doesn’t enable you to catch both elements. In this case, I shot at a higher shutter speed with a polarizing filter—just an educated guess, dim the bright light while the shutter catches less of the cloud movement—then brought it into PhotoShop to bring out the midrange tones, even slightly adjusting the moon itself separetely. The colors aren’t as accurate as I’d like, but it’s step 1 in this process. Next time I try HDR, letting my camera take three bracketed shots and then letting PhotoShop combine them to their best effect.
Another Thunder Moon
Full Thunder Moon
I did photograph the full moon tonight, and she looked lovely as usual. But I was remembering another Full Thunder Moon from several years ago as we canoed Chartiers Creek, meandering farther than we had originally intended because the evening was so beautiful and paddling at night would be fun. At one point we simply quit paddling because it seemed so loud in the peaceful summer night, and just drifted.
A golden path lit the water through the group of four or five canoes as the Full Thunder Moon rose above the hills behind us. I would swear we heard it in the soft silence, and if we had been paddling we may have missed its entrance.
And there we drifted, watching the golden moon rise above those hills in the clear and deep blue sky as the water lapped softly about us, night birds called from the woods, the occasional bat or swift wooshed past us with barely a wingflap.
It’s not the best photo, but not bad for one taken by a 2MP digital with no zoom, handheld in a moving canoe.
Supermoon
Supermoon
Here is the full moon from March 19, the “Supermoon”. It certainly did appear larger than most other moons I’ve photographed, though I didn’t have a way to show the scale so here it looks like any other moon.
Still, the full moon is a beautiful creature and I have always enjoyed studying her surface patterns. They’ve always looked like cities and roads, like what you see when you fly over the desert.
This full moon has been one of the most meaningful and exuberant in cultures throughout human history as evidenced by these full moon names from various traditions, regions and beliefs:
- Pink Moon, named for the wild phlox or “pinks” which are often the earliest showy flowers to bloom in the woods and fields;
- Sprouting Grass Moon, because grass will begin to sprout in most of the northern hemisphere except the most northern regions;
- Egg Moon, I’ve never heard a clear explanation of this one, but it may be that chickens in unheated coops will produce more eggs as the days lengthen and grow warmer;
- Fish Moon, fish begin migrating and spawning;
- Worm Moon, worms begin moving as the soil thaws, leaving castings for the garden and attracting robins;
- Crow Moon, crows begin to caw signaling the end of winter;
- Crust Moon, snowcover melts during the day and freezes over at night;
- Sap Moon, sap begins to flow in trees and shrubs, especially maple trees;
- Lenten Moon, this full moon always falls during Lent, no matter when Easter falls;
- Paschal Moon, only in some years, when the March full moon falls after the equinox marking both Easter and Passover—this year the April full moon will be the Paschal moon.
New Moon
New Moon
I was walking about town at the end of the day and happened to see the lovely crescent moon on the western horizon, setting not long after the sun as the new moon tends to do, but for once didn’t have my camera. By the time I got home and got the camera and tripod and ran up the hill most of the color was gone from the sky, so the exposure time was long enough for the moon to move significantly. It was still worth the running around, and a warning to me to be prepared next time!
And then after this little task, I had the opportunity to photograph three of my five black cats in the window of my darkened office.
Money Grows on Plants
Lunaria
Lunaria for the full moon.
Honesty for its pure white color.
Money plant because we can all use a little extra now and then, and if we can grow it in the backyard, so much the better.
This plant has self-seeded since the first year I was here and planted some seeds in a flower bed. Now it comes up wherever it pleases and most of the time I let it because it’s so beautiful with spring’s pink or white phlox-like blossoms, and in the autumn when the seed pods dry and I peel them away to reveal the transparent pearly white membrane that once held the seeds apart in the pod.
At other times it really looks like an undesirable, its first-year floret of leaves resembling a thistle without the thorns, and in the time between blossom and seed looking like a struggling half-hybrid.
It is officially called Lunaria because of its color and shape resemblance to the moon, but every popular plant picks up familiar names.
So I have harvested this year’s money from the back yard and placed some for display and shared more this friends. That can’t be too bad either.
Shine On Harvest Moon
Harvest Moon
We had one heck of a storm late in the afternoon and I thought we’d be overcast and misty overnight, but the clouds rolled away and the atmospheric mist cleared up too and I got a photo of this famous harvest moon, the first to coincide with the Autumnal Equinox in 20 years.
The Harvest Moon doesn’t always occur in a certain month like other full moons, but is the full moon nearest the Autumnal Equinox, whether before or after, even in October, called such because the extra light was welcome during harvest time in typically dry autumn conditions, perfect for harvesting fields of grain. In addition to the extra light, the moon also rises at nearly the same time every night. The moon usually rises about 50 minutes later each night, but because of the physics of the moon, sun and earth the moon rises are only about 20 minutes apart, always in the early evening so the extra light to harvest by is right after sunset and farmers could just keep working until the moon went below the horizon.
Read an article in today’s Farmer’s Almanac and National Geographic for more information on the Harvest Moon and why the coincidence of full moon and equinox is so unusual.
The Evening Star
The Evening Star
What a beautiful sight in the night sky long after the sun had set but still colored the horizon. I was convinced this point of light was an airplane since there were others moving in that area, very near Pittsburgh International Airport. But this one held its ground.
I only had my little hand-held digital with me, and I don’t have as much control over the lens as I do with my SLR, but the photo looks like a tropical evening even though it’s Pennsylvania and I’m in the parking lot of Kane Regional Nursing Hospital leaving from a visit with my mother. A rejuvenating sight after an evening visit.
The evening star, the real “star” of the evening, here is Venus, showing just after sunset and brightening as the sky darkened around it. To the upper left are Saturn and Mars, much fainter and only appearing as the sky nears full dark; I actually didn’t see them at first, then thought they were just digital dust in a slightly grainy image. But I snapped several images over the course of a few minutes and the last one included them in full, though I didn’t know it at the time!
The full Thunder Moon was rising behind me, but by the time I got that photo a slight haze of clouds had moved in front and I couldn’t get a clear one.
Spring Moon
Moonrise
The eager Sap Moon rises early on her way to full, just as the sap rises in the trees at this time in March.
