Hey everyone, I am back with a short story about my latest DIY adventure. No, this blog post is not paint related, however, it is about getting up, getting out, and participating in an activity for personal growth. Without futher adieu, I bring you Capture Moon.
This image is not the beginning of the story, rather sometime in the middle between the lows and the highs. The beginning of the story starts out much better. I woke up easily at 2:00 A.M. to my alarm clock (Bone Thugs and Harmony's "First of the Month....nostalgia), I hop out of bed with a glass half full, light feet, and enthused. I grab my bike and head out!
I make it to 7-11 and grab a Snickers candy bar and a "Brazillian Bold" coffee....I am not worried about riding with one hand in the dark, I got this! I am on a mission to capture something I can be proud of....and I ride.
My stop is the St. Johns bridge where I hope to incorporate a photo in some way with the bridge. I make it to the bridge and immediately have difficulties. Without going in too many details, let's just say my settings that were working so great to capture the full moon in its natural state were not working for me during the lunar eclipse. All my photos turned out completely black and unusable. Others were walking by me with their much fancier looking cameras and equipment and must have seen my frustration, I hid it the best I could. During the many photos I took I somehow managed to drum this up. If cropped and presented correctly I think it looks kinda cool.....Halloweenesque.
By now, the moon is almost in full lunar eclipse and I am irritated. I jump back on my bike and leave the bridge. I convince myself I need to go somewhere with less light, somewhere almost near dark. I head down to the bottom of Cathedral Park (Big Mistake!). What goes down must come up and I didn't think of that at the time. My ascent up the giant hills with one hand on coffee cup and one on the handle bars was a disaster and exhausting! I am going Home!
I arrive home and sit on the porch, set my bag down and kick over the rest of my coffee, "I've Lost", the coffee was the final straw.
I went inside and thought.....there must be a way to get this. I head back outside and tinker with a few more settings and point to the sky.
Well if I can get this certainly I can do a little better I thought to myself. I need a tripod! I need to stabalize this camera so it doesn't move at all during the photo process. So I head to the backyard and take a seat on the kids "teeter totter"!
The image is quite grainy but you get the idea! I used different thickness scrap wood to adjust the angle of the camera to center it directly on the Moon. I stabalized it quite well so the camera didnt move when I snapped the photo....
It's not a sad story. It's a "get up in the middle of the night, find trouble and don't quit story." Now I realize this photo can't compare with some of the amazing cameras that exist in the world. Tonight I reached my Holy Grail Capture Moon. You can't become great overnight, but everyday you can get a little bit better.
