Sometimes, if you’ve been reading a blog regularly, you’ll see an entry that you’ve read before, reposted for new readers to spot. This is kind of like that, in that I wrote it about a year ago. It’s kind of not like that, in that, I didn’t think it was interesting, funny, or informative enough to post the first time, let alone twice.
I’m putting it up now, because: (a) I found it interesting that the weather leading up to September 23, 2010 was evidently summerier* than most of this year’s actual summer, (b) my cares and occupations were very different this time last year, which is, I admit, only likely to be obvious or interesting to me; (c) there may be a ghost of a smidge of useful photographic information in there for someone; (d) I got tired of seeing this old draft languishing but not having the heart to toss it; (e) I wanted an excuse to post my unremarkable moon picture, because the moon is awesome, and (f) I’m too tired and busy to come up with anything new that’s any better than this.
Without further ado, here’s last years leftover reheated:
Yesterday was the first time in a long while that I’ve ridden home after dark. In the periodic illumination of the bike path, bare legs sniffing cool, then warm currents of air, I felt surrounded by campus-y-ness. There’s a golden, warm version of this, when all you hear on a warm lunch hour is the hum of nearby building plant and maybe a lawn mower, and there’s a chillier, more excited version attached to memories of September arrivals back when I wasn’t here (or wherever) the whole time. I think Cambridge has just changed its summer clothes for the term-time ones, ready for the undergrads to return.
The moon was glowing behind some hazy ripples, and I thought it looked cool and wished for a camera.
When I reached home, I bounced straight back outside with my tripod and camera, and aimed for the moon. The magic was gone but I practiced focusing on the moon, which was a bit more visible. My tripod (Slik Sprint Pro, old now but here‘s a contemporary review) is not quite up to the task of keeping a DSLR and 70-300mm (Sigma) lens from drooping but I can’t blame it as when it applied for the job my only camera was a Canon A700.
I’m putting up a shot just because I’ve never had a camera that could show this much detail on the moon even on a clear night. This is cropped, but also scaled down. There are much better D90/Sigma 70-300 moon pictures to be found on Flickr, but this one is mine, so it’s special. (To me.)
Next I swapped back to my kit lens (18-105mm Nikkor) to catch the roses, because they deserve some recognition. They took a beating when we had some real summer weather followed by a blast of windy rain. There were petals everywhere and we didn’t see a lot of blossoms again for a while.
As I played with the focus and the settings on my camera, the motion-sensor light kept going out on me.
Um. “The End.”
*Firefox doesn’t think there’s any problem with “summerier” as a word. Lemme try something else: campusiness. Nope. I don’t get away with that one.