The Creative's Corner

One thing I learned quickly when shooting landscapes and nature is that the photographer has no control over Mother Nature. She does whatever she feels like. So a photographer must be flexible and be able to think on his feet.

Last night was the Perseid meteor shower. I had plans to go outside and take some great images. As I watched the weather report on the 11:00 news the weather lady cheerfully said, “It’s going to be a fantastic night. Not only do we have the Perseid meteor shower, but a bright full moon too.”

Groan. The last thing you want during a meteor shower is a full moon. It allows you to only see the brightest shooting stars. But I had hope things would work out. But then I have hope that Republicans and Democrats will work together for the good of our country, I’ll win the Powerball jackpot this Saturday and that Fairies are real.

The meteor shower was due to peak between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., so at 2:30 a.m. I headed out the front door.

The full moon was almost directly overhead, and it was so bright that I thought every house had their porch lights on. But wait, there’s more… The full moon wasn’t the only thing in the sky.

There were also huge sheets of high, thin clouds. Only a few spots of the sky were open, where I could see the stars. Wow, I had a whole bushel basket full of lemons.

Since I was outside anyway, I decided to see if I could spot any meteors. Twenty minutes later I gave up without seeing even one. I turned toward that big spotlight in the sky to give it a severe tongue thrashing when I noticed something. The clouds where moving over the moon, creating some amazing backlit clouds, and the clouds were constantly changing. Hey, that’s something worth photographing.

I ran into the house, grabbed my camera, set it up on my tripod and started shooting. I was very happy with the dark, Gothic, brooding, mysterious images I was getting. It was amazing. I shot for a while until I felt that I had captured this event sufficiently. And the police car driving by slowly, for the second time, pushed me to completion too.

The evening had gone from highs to lows and back to highs again. But that’s common when shooting Nature.

So when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If that doesn’t work, throw the lemons at the person or thing that gave them to you. Trust me, you’ll feel better.

Have Fun,
Jeff

Here’s some of my lemonade from last night.

Moon and clouds with face

Moon and clouds