Fingernail Moon

As I turned into Winebrook last night, nearly home, the waxing crescent moon was perfectly framed by the trees on either side of the road, lighting up a midnight blue sky. I knew that when I got home I'd have to grab the camera and tripod and try to get a shot of it.

Toby greeted me at the door, dancing and wiggling, and disappointed that I didn't drop everything to say hello and scratch his ears. No - I was too focused on getting my camera gear together.

Out the back door we both went, Toby to explore, me to photograph. Framing the moon was not as easily done in my yard - the trees were taller, and by now the moon was lower. I finally found a spot and set up the tripod. Two legs sank in the snow while the third remained high on the packed snow of the snowshoe path. No mittens. Metal tripod. Temp hovering around zero. Hands very sensitive to cold. Things were not going well.

I finally got the tripod set, and realized I didn't have the connector knob on the bottom of the camera. No sweat - I'm only going to take a couple shots - I'll just hold the camera still on top of the tripod.

Yeah, right.

After a few bad shots, I tromped back into the house and got the knob.

So, long story short, here's a shot of the moon in the dark:

and a shot with a little more light so you can see the trees:

It's amazing how you can see the entire moon in these shots, not just the crescent! It almost looks like an eclipse in action.

By now my hands were so cold they were starting to go numb. I grabbed the burning cold tripod and with Toby racing ahead (it's dinner time!), I stumbled through the back door and began the slow, painful process of thawing out my hands. Next time I will wear the mittens.