Testament
Partial blood moon during a lunar eclipse.
I’ve been struggling to find meaning in my photography lately.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy the photos I take, but more that the act of “captivating the shot” has superseded the experience of enjoying my time outdoors in nature. Even though I am conscious of this happening I still find myself falling into old habits when I go out to take pictures. Travel to a location, setup my camera gear, hyper fixate on the light/subject/etc., take the shot, leave, rinse and repeat. What I have found to be missing in the pattern of events is taking a few minutes, even if brief ones, to fully take in where I am and what I am doing. To smell the air, listen to the running water, feel the ground beneath my feet and explore the textures of nearby rocks and trees. In short, to just be PRESENT in that particular moment in time. To appreciate that moment for what it is and be thankful that it was something I got to experience fully.
Standing under the night sky and watching the Earth’s shadow consume the moon recently underscored all this for me. The conditions were less than ideal for photos, particularly during the eclipse maximum. A clear sky turned into heavy overcast as the night progressed. Stars that were easily visible initially blinked in and out of existence as the clouds moved past them. The moon, once so bright, became nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, much less with the camera as the clouds gathered. In the end, without a proper celestial tracking mount, near total cloud cover, and shutter speeds exceeding 8s in length I decided to throw in the towel and put down the camera. This time however, instead of simply packing up and leaving immediately I decided to stay out there and just observe the world around me. To listen to the animal calls in the woods, to feel the damp air on my skin, and to watch the clouds as they moved across the sky as I hoped for just one more glimpse of the celestial event happening in the sky above.
Ultimately, this post isn’t about some great photo I took. It’s not about the gear I used, or the post-processing techniques I applied to the final image. This post is a testament to my experience one damp, coll night along the banks of the Susquehanna, and how it took my breath away.
