Last evening, returned home from a lovely dinner gathering with Symantec, Cynthia was already in bed. I opened the window, cool air greeted my face. As I extended my vision from near to far, from the golf course on the other side of the reservoir to the pitch-dark sky, I saw a bright dot. It was the moon! Quickly I dashed to my dry cabinet, switched to my telephoto lens, set up the tripod, and started taking photos of our only natural satellite. The moon does rise up faster than I thought, so does the speed of rotation. And if I line up the photos I took in sequential order, I can see how the moon rotates.
Different photographers have different preferences on subject matter. Cynthia’s brother for instance loves to take pictures of insects found in around his Jakarta home at the macro level. He would proudly show me images of insect eyes and hairs and what not. I could faint looking at those. As for me, I enjoy taking pictures of the monuments, candid pictures of the moment, and celestial beauty like the moon.
Avid readers of my site may think: Wait a minute, is this a déjà vu? I have seen a photo just like this before. Indeed, that was last December. I think the photograph of the moon then was a little bit too bright. Also, no longer do I need to hand hold the camera now that I have a tripod. Hence a different setting that seems to make the moon looks a bit more 3D.
Last night’s moon reminds me of Italo Calvino’s “Cosmicomics (1965)”. The short story “The Distance of the Moon” is the most beautiful piece of literature I have read that is based upon our moon. Italo Calvino remains as one of my all-time-favorite authors. Some of his books I have read more than once. His work has made it to Harold Bloom’s “The Western Canon (1994)”. Unfortunately, my zest of writing book summaries did not quite take form until 2006. Perhaps in this upcoming 2010, I shall have a book marathon on all his works of fiction and have the book summaries posted here.
PS. No post-processing on this photo. It is as it is, cropped of course. Exposure setting: M mode, 1/800 second, f/8 and sensitivity: ISO 200. Now, I wish I have that 600mm lens (that costs nearly S$20,000!).
