I was thrilled to get a text from my friend who is the head of multimedia at the newspaper I used to work for. He wanted to know if I was going to shoot the "Blue Super Moon" on Wednesday night. I wasn't planning to do that because it was our meeting night, but I said I would shoot it for him, because it would be fun. It is a "blue moon" because it is the second full moon this month, and it is a "super moon" because the moon is closer to us at this time. The moon's orbit is not circular, but rather elliptical, so sometimes it is closer to us and other times it is further away. These new popular names like "super moon" and "blue moon" are not astronomical terms. We call the close moon a perigee moon, for instance. So to get this shot I needed to be on a beach of an exclusive area on Long Island, and I called the police department and they told me where to park and gave me permission. Only thing was, I had to walk for a mile and a half to get to the place on the beach where the moon would show up in the same picture as the power plant stacks. So carrying all my cameras and lenses and tripod the walk took me about 30 minutes in the sand. The other thing was that it was cloudy and I was worried I wouldn't see the moon at all. Well, I didn't see it rise but about 10 minutes later I finally saw the moon through the clouds for a short while. Whew! But now, since I was on deadline I had to race back to my car - I decided to cross some private property (at night!) to get to the road so I could walk faster and then drive to my friend's house. We decided that was the quickest way to edit the photos and prepare one and caption and send it to the paper. Our deadline was 9:00 PM. He sent the image from his home at 8:59 and we made the deadline! Whew!
So this is what the page looked like in the newspaper that was delivered to our door! This is a copy of the online version of the paper. I have to tell you, it is still a thrill to see my work in print! I guess when it is in your blood, it never goes away!
As I was driving home, which took about 45 minutes, the moon kept rising and it was in a clear sky. So I stopped at a baseball field in town and set up again to do this photograph of the full moon not obscured by clouds. What a beautiful thing this moon of ours is, isn't it? It was such a satisfying evening to plan everything and have the plan work in spite of weather. A really rewarding feeling.
5 comments:
A wonderful photo. Love your determination and strength. You are a good man Charlie Brown! And to think you would have not photographed it because of a meeting. Like you said, it is in your blood and I am happy you were rewarded for this great photo.
Joan
No doubt you were thrilled to have your Super Blue Moon photo published in Newsday! The shot was well worth the effort to find a good location. And being outdoors in the evening to witness a fairly rare celestial event surely beats sitting inside somewhere for a meeting. A wonderful photo with the red and white stacks in the foreground adding color and interest!
How exciting for you to have your photo in Newsday after all these years. Yes, it’s definitely in your blood. Kudos for this special photo! Betsey
stunning image, nice juxtaposition / ginger
Thank you all for your wonderful comments. And I am so glad that you enjoyed the juxtaposition of the moon and the stacks. Those stacks are sure impressive. I read in Wikipedia that on a clear day, you can see the stacks from the top of West Rock, in New Haven, Connecticut!
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