I went out for a while tonight for one reason and one reason only… to shoot the moon. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way I wanted. In more ways than one.
I’ll admit last night would have been a better night to do this. The moon rose an hour earlier, well before sunset. The sky was clear and a beautiful blue. With snow still on the tops of the Wasatch it would have been a great image! But nooooo! I just had to be not paying attention until it was too late and the moon was too high in the sky to get anything I would have wanted. Craaaaap.
After driving a bit without a clear destination, I decided to give the downtown public library a shot. Since I was arriving after they closed, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I wanted to use their amazing sweeping stairs attached to the building for my setup. Well, that didn’t happen, as that area was already closed off for the night. Not to be deterred, I wandered around for a few seconds, choose a “meh, it will do” spot, set up the tripod, changed lenses on my camera, figured out where the moon would rise over the mountains, and waited for the “money shot.”
I was still in the same clothes I wore to work, because up until the minute I walked out the door I was still trying to convince myself to not go. My outfit wasn’t anything big, though. Jeans, a shirt, and cowboy boots. WOW. And on top of that I had my tripod and camera bags all over me to keep them close. But apparently, I might as well have been wearing hooker heels and spandex, because guys starting coming up to me! Da fuq?
What exactly about me screamed, “Yeah, I’m out, at night, with a camera and tripod, working away, not talking to anyone, wanting to get my shots and get the hell outta Dodge, but please PLEASE come up to me and try to start a conversation”? They are just lucky the only thing that happened was me yelling at them to leave me alone. They have no idea I was ready to swing my tripod on them. WITH my camera still attached. Idiots.
Some may think I overreacted to the situation. However, given the time of night, where I was, and what I was doing, I don’t think so. I think I handled it just right. Regardless, Tim is not going to be happy with me when he finds out what I did.
To top it all off, I didn’t get anything remotely good out my camera.
Yeah, last night definitely would have been a better night.