This moon looks full but it was actually taken the day after, on Saturday night. I noticed it as I was walking down the stairs, so I opened up the windows and set up the camera on a tripod in the stairwell. The clouds kept moving across its face, and sometimes it disappeared before slowly reappearing and filling the sky with light.
This is another reason I love taking photos—I notice things that I never used to. I watched the moon disappear and reappear for over an hour, something I’d never ordinarily do. And it was so peaceful.
Because it was on high zoom, there’s some vignetting around the edges. I could have eliminated it, but I thought it gave the photo depth. I took over 300 photos, all very similar, and later when I was clicking through, I noticed they made quite a good time-lapse.
So—and I’m almost too embarrassed to show you—I made this:
At least it’s a starting point and things can only get better from here! By the way, it gets dark in the middle because I was experimenting with faster shutter speeds, which seems to be a theme this week:
Monique says I inspired her to challenge herself with slow shutter speeds at the beach*. Being the middle of the day, the light was too bright, so she opted for a faster shutter speed to capture these waves crashing into and over rocks at Meelup Bay in southwest WA.
The water in this image looks like glass—as if it would shatter if touched. It reminded me of glass blowing, a work-of art suspended mid-air.
Monique said it was a great exercise, and that challenging yourself often leads to surprising results.
I couldn’t agree more—in fact, I’d say it was an (unintended) theme of my life. Sometimes, the things I try don’t work out—see time-lapse above, and * below. Sometimes, the rewards seem as if they’re never going to come—like when you’ve been writing a novel for four years. And sometimes the rewards are nothing like what we’d imagined—like taking a crystal clear photo with a fast shutter speed when we were meant to be experimenting with slow speeds.
But where would we be if we didn’t challenge ourselves? Growing older and becoming bored with life, and slowly shriveling up, I suspect. I know I would be.
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*I’m glad Monique’s attempts at slow shutter speeds at the beach didn’t end up like mine. There’s a postscript to that story, too—we hadn’t listed the camera as a ‘Portable Content Item’ on our insurance policy, and because it happened outside of our property, it wasn’t insured. *sigh* Sometimes you just have to chalk these things up to ‘learning experiences’.
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About Midweek Moment:
Each week, Monique Mulligan and I share our favourite photos on our websites in a ‘Midweek Moment’. We hope you enjoy, and if you’d like to see more, click here.
Stunning photos, Louise. I can relate to what you mentioned about rewards not coming or showing up in unexpected ways… sorry about your camera. And I love taking photos for exactly the same reason.
Thank you for visiting Gulara! Challenges are great, aren’t they—they keep us learning. The rewards are often unexpected, and not always tangible—sometimes it’s just that it makes us happier! Like writing. 🙂
And yes, the less said about the camera incident, the better. 😉
PS. I’ve been reading your A-Z, but only had time to comment on a few. I’m hoping to get back into routine again soon. x
No problem, Louise. Don’t worry, A to Z marathon is about to end 🙂 I missed you! I’m finally getting a breathing space to visit. My last few posts are scheduled and ready to go – Phew!
Well done! You’ve done a fantastic job, because the A-Z certainly is a marathon. Because we’ve been renovating our house this past month, we’ve been ‘camping’ in our bedroom–quite literally, we’ve set up the camp kitchen in one corner! It’s been chaos and I don’t feel like myself, but only a couple more weeks to go. ????
Good luck with finishing renovation. I think if it ever happens in our house… well, I can’t even imagine it happening in our house. I’d rather just move 😀 Good luck finishing it.
I love that you watched the moon appear and disappear for over an hour! It is so easy to rush and be forever ‘doing things’, but you have your priorities right. I liked the film clip, too 🙂
That’s the thing with photography—you feel as if you are ‘doing’ something as you sit and watch, trying to get the perfect shot. It forces you to slow down.
I’m glad you liked the clip—there’s always room for improvement, though! 🙂
Lovely! I love the way you experiment with both subject matter and the camera. 🙂 And I also love that you watched the moon for an hour or so. At the moment I’m sitting at my desk with a glorious blue and gold sunset out my window – I keep pausing to look at the sky, as it’s my favourite time of day, and there is such a peace to the way the clouds unfurl across the sky.
Oh, and I’m so sorry your camera wasn’t covered by insurance 🙁