Watching The Lunar Eclipse

Last night I went up to campus with a couple of ideas for the lunar eclipse. The photo above is an okay photo. I could have made it from my yard. I wanted to put something into the frame with the moon. The best idea that I had was the Boilermaker statue. It would be lit a little from the streetlight near it, and it is pretty recognizable. During totality I made my photos with the statue, but I also moved over and made this photo of just the event. It was a pretty cool way to celebrate my 50th birthday. I am not someone who celebrates birthdays like a lot of people, but this one is a nice round number. When the clocked turned to my 40th birthday I had found a cool road on the way home from photographing volleyball matches at Illinois. It is a great memory of a milestone. This one tops that just a little bit.

Making The Bag Lighter

Just before I went out I wanted to make my bag a little lighter. I tweaked my back last week and the doctor put me on a restriction. I decided that instead of two cameras I would take just one. I made this choice right before leaving. I took out the camera that had 20 less megapixels thinking that was the smart decision. Of course that was the camera with the L bracket on it allowing me to use my tripod. That meant that I really had to get creative if I wanted to use a lens shorter than my 200-600. That also killed a couple of ideas that I had. I normally embrace things like this. I had to think outside of the box and adjust. Sometimes that helps spark creativity. Here I think it kind of hindered me. I still made a couple of photos that I really liked though. That is what this is all about.