I’ve been struggling with some health stuff and things feel very hard. I’m still working on various projects, but in small doses. I did get to meet one of my fellow bloggers in person recently, which was amazing. I also continue to sell a few books a week and reviews are still coming in (thank you!)
While I’m focusing mostly on health right now, I did recently visit the historic Sacramento City Cemetery on a bright fall morning and take these photos. I hope you enjoy them and please let me know if you have a favorite.
As always, thank you for sticking around here. It means the world to me.
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#17#18#19#20: Taken on the night of the full moon
Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
A crane sat staring at the moon. I couldn’t stop my van to take its picture because several cars were behind me, but I saw how it lifted its elegant white neck to show reverence. A few minutes later I found a spot to pull over and startled a field of crows who took off noisily, letting me know I’d disturbed their quiet sunrise.
My camera helped me worship the full corn moon, to capture it sitting on branches and bobbing between power lines. I was struck by how much of an outsider I was to this scene, but also how much I long to remember my connection to all things.
As the bright moon faded into the blue morning, the sun took over the sky. It blinked over the horizon blinding me temporarily, and my eyes fell on the plastic Superman dangling from my rearview mirror and it reminded me I’m doing my best. We all are.
“That is where you’ve always been wrong about me, Lex. I am as human as anyone. I love, I-I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices that I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human, and that’s my greatest strength. And someday, I hope, for the sake of the world, you understand that it’s yours too.” —Superman
Let me know if you have a favorite photo and I hope you have a fantastic day.
I haven’t chased the moon for ages, but this morning I did. With my daughter in the passenger seat, we drove through country roads looking for ways to capture the beauty in the sky before us. The pink moon, the moon of rebirth and change, played with us. It hid behind the puffs of a factory, near a barbed wire fence, between trees, within flowers, and amongst the birds. It even tried to compete with the sunrise. I found it for you. I hope it reminds you it’s never too late to try again. Let me know if you have a favorite photo and have a fantastic week!
Pulling us closer into its orbit, shining the light of its fullness into the room, we turn to hold in our hands each other’s face as if for the first time, and the last— Pink Moon, Egg Moon, Moon of New Grass. —Cathy Song, April Moon
Although it was our last session together, the full moon hid from me. It danced among the snow but wouldn’t sit still long enough to capture it. I looked for light and cold instead. Winter held within a single frame. Tell me, can you feel it?
Moon rises fair and fleece. Dark crow upon the fence outside. Night thought, like snow concealed. —Neil Reid
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I had high hopes and big plans for this final photo shoot, but the weather did not cooperate. I went out three different times but clouds and rain made it quite difficult. All the same, I hope you enjoyed this last installment and all 12 months of full moon photos. I learned a lot this year! Stay tuned for some big announcements in the coming weeks. I’ve got ideas for a new project and I’m still working on publishing my short story collection.
As always, all photos were taken by me with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW. Let me know if you have a favorite and have a wonderful week.
One final note. For those who knew Neil Reid, I’m sad to say he passed away earlier this month. I wrote a tribute to him on his blog today, but I wanted to honor him here too. I will miss his comments, letters, and beautiful poetry. He taught me a poem is a poem if you say it is and to love B I G. I will miss him.
For a moment I lost hope. Fear stuck in my belly and made me sick. I didn’t recognize my country anymore so I chased the moon with my camera. I couldn’t go over the pain. I couldn’t go under it. Oh no! I would have to go through it.
I’m not through it, not even close, but I found a few things to help. Rice fields at sunrise. Cranes taking flight. Gold-tinged farmland. You. We’ve got a long way to go and we need each other. So this is me holding my hand out to you. We are in this together.
“We all—adults and children, writers and readers—have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.”—Neil Gaiman
*In case you didn’t recognize the reference above, it’s from the delightful children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
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As always, all photos were taken by me with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW. Let me know if you have a favorite and have a wonderful week. Only ONE full moon left! What?!!
Forget about everything else and be right here. Look at the way the full moon rises, timid and then quickly. Bold. Look at the way the Joshua Trees grow. Each branch jutting off the main tree is from an injury. They make broken look beautiful. You do too.
Let’s remember this moment and make more. Many, many more.
“What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it.” —C.S. Lewis
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It’s not like me to be spontaneous. I like planning, making lists, and being as prepared as possible. Last week I decided at the last minute to visit my childhood best friend in Las Vegas for her birthday and got ready in three hours. It was a perfect, beautiful, enjoyable, and fully unplanned whirlwind of a few days capped off by the appearance of the Hunter’s supermoon. My heart is so full.
Most of these photos were taken at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. However, the last few photos were taken on the drive back in the morning. The last photo is the moon setting as the sun rose close to Newberry Springs, CA.
As always, all photos were taken by me with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW. Let me know if you have a favorite and have a wonderful week. Only two full moons left of the year. Wow.
Surrounded by the pink sky, the blue moon winks at the girl walking with her brother and his little dog. The moon knows the unspoken things they don’t say to each other. The dog does too. The wind blows softly and the waves lap against the shore. Seagulls watch and the girl can’t help but wonder if they are the same ones she saw last time.
“I’m okay,” she wants to call to them, even though she’s not sure it’s true.
It could be.
“Here I came to the very edge where nothing at all needs saying, everything is absorbed through weather and the sea, and the moon swam back, its rays all silvered, and time and again the darkness would be broken by the crash of a wave, and every day on the balcony of the sea, wings open, fire is born, and everything is blue again like morning. “ —Pablo Neruda
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I saw the eighth full moon of the year while at Dillion’s Beach with my brother, mother, and my two teenagers. These are my favorite full moon photos so far. I know they are kind of repetitive, but I liked so many and hope you do too. Please let me know if you have a favorite.
Also, I’m considering entering a photo contest. More on that soon!
Oh, and here’s my brother’s dog Henry. Isn’t he cute in his little sweater?
All photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
She walks into the artificial wilderness on unsteady feet and looks around. Nothing seems real. Perhaps she’s fallen. Perhaps she’s dreaming. Perhaps she’s lost her mind. It’s not until she looks up that she finds herself.
“There you are moon,” she says.
The moon says nothing back and she feels better.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
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The seventh full moon found me feeling lost. I’m surrounded by tough things; sudden death, cancer, money troubles, injury, hurt friendships, and mental health struggles. Those I love are hurting and I feel helpless. So, here we have some photos that aren’t exactly right. They are a bit nonsensical. I hope you like them. Let me know if you have a favorite.
These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
Darkness swallows the city. I drive for hours looking for the moon until I find it beside the courthouse at the top of the hill. It’s lit for the Fourth of July, a beacon of patriotic light.
“I’m going to live there someday,” I used to say. An entire childhood spent dreaming of a place that wasn’t at all what I thought it was.
I park near an antique shop and stare at the oddities inside. Cars streak by below. The moon blends into the city lights as a warm breeze dances around a patch of thorns.
“Does time ever feel like it’s not moving normally? Like it’s all out of whack?”—Maddy, I Saw the TV Glow
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The sixth full moon of the year arrived the day after the summer solstice. I set out fairly late and felt uninspired by the view until I drove to Auburn and found my favorite building. These aren’t very “strawberry moon,” but I like them anyway. Let me know if you have a favorite.
These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
The bright morning moon gave way to an evening of wildflowers. I hear my wise poet friend whisper from across the fields, “feelings always seem the biggest from the inside of them.” The sun warms my skin and summer calls. It sounds like forgiveness.
“a flower knows, when its butterfly will return, and if the moon walks out, the sky will understand; but now it hurts, to watch you leave so soon, when I don’t know, if you will ever come back.” —Sanober Khan
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11: A bonus photo of the fella eating all the petals in my yard.
The fifth full moon of the year arrived with a bright golden morning moon. I stood on the street and marveled at how impossibly big it looked. I couldn’t quite capture the beauty, and because May brings the flower moon, I went out at sunset yesterday to gather wildflower photos to share with you. Let me know if you have a favorite.
These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
Bridgette Tales 