Gliding Birds, Rising Moon: Weekly Photo Challenge – Delta

“This week, share a photograph that signifies transitions and change to you. It can be the very beginning of a phase, or the very end. As you pick up your lens, explore the ways in which a single photograph can express time, while only showing us a small portion of any given moment.”

The moon has been doing this for millions of years, “rising” and “setting”, in its different phases…long before we humans were around to witness it.  The birds have been gliding across the sky for a far shorter time, but certainly time measured in many millenia. That afternoon, I watched in awe as the moon rose and a flock of birds glided in slow motion, on invisible currents, across the cloudless blue sky. Gliding birds, rising moon, a moment in time….

Weekly Photo Challenge – Delta

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Sun, Moon, Plant, Me: Weekly Photo Challenge – Reflecting

“From water and glass to metallic surfaces, share a photo that captures something reflected back to you in a way that made you look at your surroundings differently.”

We see the moon because of the sun’s light reflecting off it. Tonight, the moon’s light is reflecting off the leaves and branches of the overgrown privet. And here I am, reflecting on it all…

Weekly Photo Challenge – Reflecting

Always There: Weekly Photo Challenge – Security

“For this week’s challenge, show us something that represents security.”

The sun… (Kingston, Jamaica)…the moon…(Kingston, Jamaica)…the mountains. (Blue Mountains, Jamaica)Here before me. Here after me. Security.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Security

The One That Got Away

I stepped out of the kitchen door and looked up at the evening sky. Venus shone brightly, next to an incredible crescent moon, a slightly bronze crescent against the shadowy full circle of the moon. I stood still, watching for a few minutes.

“I’d love to try and photograph this,”  I thought. An amateur photographer still exploring a new camera. I wondered what images it would be possible to capture.

“Later, though,” I thought. And what I needed to do at the time actually was important, not one of those flaky things that often takes precedence in life.

It was much later when I had the time to remember Venus, the moon and my camera. But the sky had changed by then and, even from the roof, I couldn’t find the planet and the moon.

The next evening, I looked at the sky again at about the same time, hoping for another chance. But the sky was really cloudy and though I could see the light of Venus and the moon shining behind the clouds, there was nothing that called out for a photo.

That’s one that got away. One that is imprinted on my memory, but not captured for posterity. There are moments like that, fleeting, stunning in their beauty. They may not stand still long enough to be caught on camera, but a pause to recognise and enjoy them can be exquisite and enough.

Supermoon, A Few Hours Early

Tomorrow there will be a supermoon in the sky and the best views might be tomorrow morning. But perhaps there will be clouds covering the moon; perhaps there will be rain. So, I climbed the steep spiral staircase onto the roof tonight and sat and looked at the moon. She was beautiful. I know it is unscientific to anthropomorphise (or personify?), but so be it. She was beautiful. I took some photographs. The roofing gravel pressed into my elbows and arms, as I lay flat, adjusting the camera on its tiny tripod. They say we humans have landed on her surface, have walked around on moondust. You wouldn’t know it from this far away. The last time the moon was this close to Earth was in 1948 and the next time will be in 2034. I wasn’t here for the last one and who knows if I will be around for the next? Goodnight, moon!