Pre-dawn

The relationship between the Sun and the Moon is a cosmic dance in our part of the Solar System. When there’s a ‘New Moon’ we cannot see La Luna because literally it is behind the Sun from our point of view on Earth. At the Full Moon, the relative position of the two Luminaries is the exact opposite: they are 180 degrees diametrically opposed from one another in the sky. This image was captured pre-dawn on the morning after a recent full moon. Because of my proximity to the ocean I am often prevented from shooting this occurrence due to the influence of moisture from the Marine Layer…especially in the months from May through July. As Fall approaches the sunrise offers a sky often in between ‘clear’ and ‘cloudy’. This is one of those mornings. Thanks to my fast motor drive, I was able to catch the flight of the three sea birds just as they crossed the ideal part of this frame. There was plenty of post-production involved here, to enhance the details on the Moon’s surface, and also to dramatize the subtle colors in the clouds and sky. This balance of light and shadow lasted for perhaps 5 minutes at most. Knowing when to ‘show up’ is more than half the battle. There’s an app for that…

Water is a subject that fascinates me.  Why? Because it takes so many forms.  Not just that it’s rain or snow or ice or sleet or clouds.  It’s lakes, rivers, droplets, puddles, ponds, pools, the list goes on and on and on.  I was thinking about Russ’ image of the dam, of the water running over the top and spilling down the sides.  I wanted to do a river shot, or a waterfall or a pond.  But it also struck me that Russ had photographed a dam and behind it was a reservoir. Here in the flat, hill-less, mountainless mid-west there are no reservoirs.  We pump our water out of Lake Michigan and store it in water towers, until demand (and gravity) force it to flow down into our sinks, showers and swimming pools.  Water towers, while not unknown to an east-coaster, are a rare sight back home.  Here they are as ubiquitous as blades of grass.