Between the Saharan dust in the atmosphere, the coming storm, and the sunset, the world had an odd yellow tinge last night. With lightning.
A Storm is Coming
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Author Archives: acubedsf
Moon and Venus
Last night, as we exited the movie theater, we saw a beautiful conjunction of the Moon and Venus, with a bright Venus floating above a crescent moon. The cell phone pictures did not do it justice, nor did my hastily set up picture shot from the car window.
So I prepared to take pictures tonight. The Moon had moved! Still a beautiful conjunction, yes?
And since I had the tripod set up, I captured a picture of the Moon as well. It would be fun to explore its cratered surface.
Camera geek info:
Moon and Venus 6/15/18
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/4, 1/25 second exposure, ISO 800
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens, set at 70 mm, autofocus on moon
Moon and Venus 6/16/18
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/4.5, 1/5 second exposure, ISO 320
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens, set at 112 mm, manual focus on moon
- Tripod
Moon 6/16/18
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/5.6, 1/60 second exposure, ISO 320
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens, set at 300 mm, manual focus on moon, IS off
- Tripod
Rejection Poker
This week I ran across a blog post where the author suggested one could set up a skill ranking system for handling rejection, where you get experience points for handling rejection well, and lose them for … well, not. I don’t categorize my rejections as finely as the author of the post does, but my math shows me at roughly level 8 or “wood” level resistance.
I have long thought of trying to come up with a “rejection poker” system where you use the rejections (and acceptances) you got in the month to make a hand. The suits would be:
- Acceptance
- Rewrite Request
- Personal Rejection
- Form Rejection
The numbers would be the day of the month. I have been surprised by the number of times I have gotten multiple rejection letters on the same day. It’s as if editors, like writers, meet in cafes to do all their reading and rejecting together while enjoying some nice tea and company.
If you get more than five responses, you get to pick the ones you use for your hand.
The standard rules of poker would apply (although statistics may show a re-ranking of hands would better reflect their probabilities). Maybe the 31rst would be wild.
So far this month, my hand would be:
- 5 FR
- 8 FR
- 10 FR
On my way to a flush!
In either system, the only way to level up is to submit more!
How do you handle rejection?
SpaceX Rocket Park
We went out to California last weekend to visit our daughter. While we were there, we went by the SpaceX Rocket Park. The rocket on display is the first Falcon 9 to have landed again after launching its payload. Which required some pretty impressive engineering from SpaceX.
Across the street from the rocket, there is a mystery billboard.
Apparently, there is a Japanese robot company trying to impress SpaceX with their engineering.
Down the street is the hyperloop test track, to test out impressive engineering of a different sort.
Alas, we did not see any evidence of The Boring Company. Which I guess is no surprise, since they do their impressive engineering … underground.
It was fun to go visit!
California Sunset
We went out to California last weekend to visit our daughter. She suggested we go hike around Point Dume, where we saw this gorgeous sunset. What a great day!
Feel peaceful?
SuperBlueBloodMoon
SuperBlueBloodMoon:
- Super: the moon is closer to the Earth and so visually larger
- Blue: the second full moon in the month, nothing to do with color
- Blood: a total eclipse turns the moon a reddish color
- Moon: the Earth’s natural satellite!
I should have gotten up earlier and driven to my favorite spot with a good view to the west. But I didn’t, so I found a spot in the neighborhood to snap a few pictures before the moon set below the tree line.
Camera geek info:
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/4, 1/30 second exposure, ISO 800
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM lens, set at 145 mm, manual focus on moon
- Tripod
Here I focused on the foliage instead of the moon and played around with color in post-processing. Which do you like better: the natural color or the more saturated color?
Camera geek info:
- Canon EOS 60D in manual mode set at f/4, 1/30 second exposure, ISO 800
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM lens, set at 200 mm, manual focus on foliage
- Tripod
Fortune Cookie
This is a great fortune for a writer!
Demon in the Ice
Here is one last picture from my icicle macrophotography. It’s an icicle turned upside-down. What do you think its contents look like? A cat stretching? A swordsman thrusting his sword forward? A demon?
Noticing the Details
One of my favorite books when I was young was The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Edwards. In it, the children are encouraged to notice the details in the world around them:
“I want you to start noticing things. Once you get used to doing it you’ll never be able to stop. It’s the best game in the world.”
I think about noticing details when I find an opportunity to do macrophotography. I’ve found that icicles and sleet make great macro subjects. We don’t get them often, but we did this week, so I went looking for details to notice. Here is what I found:
This one looks like a cocoon of light to me.
I see a jester with a cap and a tassel in this one. Here’s a closer view:
I love the upside down tiny world in the water droplet.
The orange background and orange spots in the ice were due to an orange road sign:
I think it’s more striking in the macro photos.
What details have you noticed today?
Happy New Year 2018!
We are celebrating New Year’s Eve with our traditional time travel movie. This year’s pick: About Time. Happy New Year!
Space&Aliens 