Day 17: Camping

As promised, I will be doing two posts this evening to make up for the fact that I couldn't post anything yesterday while I was camping.

The night sky near Sundance.

I took this picture late last night after everyone else left to settle down in their tents.  The clouds were moving pretty fast, so even though I only exposed this shot for less than a minute, they look like they're exploding onto the frame!  This night shoot was such a contrast to the one in Moab.  First of all, we weren't that far from civilization, so even though it felt really dark out there, it wasn't.  Secondly, the moon was out and very bright. When we did our night shots in Moab, it was a new moon, so we had virtually no light to work with.

I love how sharp the trees are in this shot!  It was completely accidental that I hit the focus so perfectly because I had to manually focus the camera, and I couldn't see anything through the viewfinder.  Also, those clouds are stunning!  It was a great moment as well.  Just me and my camera in the middle of a field in the quiet night after a long, hot day. It was also super fun after the image had processed and I showed it to Steen.  We were both giggling with delight at how perfectly it turned out!

Day 13: The Moon

The sliver of moon that I saw tonight was just a piece of the bigger picture.  Obviously we all know that the whole moon is still there even when it is out-shined by part of itself, but it didn't really occur to me how symbolic that was until tonight when I pulled this photo off my camera.  With the naked eye, this looked like a tiny piece of moon, but on a long exposure it pulls out the whole thing and makes the sliver look blurry and unimpressive.

That's how life is too.  We get so caught up in the moment that we forget to step back every once in a while, widen our gaze, and look at the whole thing...

Gain a little perspective.

Once we do, we'll realize that it's not just the tiny sliver of the moon that we should be looking at, but the entire orb, the stars, the satellites, the trees, and the sky.  And suddenly what was just a bright spot in our vision becomes a beautiful landscape full of potential and life!

Day 4: Awesome!

I'm so proud of this shot!  I wanted to get a night shot, but failed to do anything until it was almost too late.  So, even though I was rushed to get something really fast (have to post this before midnight), I got the COOLEST shot of one of the trees in my neighborhood.  I even managed to capture a few stars in th background, which is pretty impressive for town.  My favorite thing about this picture: no post processing!  The only thing I did to this photo after I took it off my camera was to add my signature at the bottom.

Ok, I'm done being impressed with myself...for now.  It's so cool that I have the opportunity to do this project and to learn how to be a better photographer.  I love creating things, however small they may be, and to be able to create something pretty is even better.  It's moments like this that make me so grateful for the little things!