Wolf moon

According to Native American tradition, the January full moon is the "wolf moon," evoking images of wolves howling in midwinter moonlight. Tonight, the wolf moon rose in the sky, enormous and bright, the largest full moon of 2010.

I desperately wanted a good photo of this wolf moon. Unfortunately, it was something like 15˚F this evening with wind chills approaching -10˚F. In other words, really darn cold. Stalwart photographer I am, I braved the cold with my silly wool hat and my puffy down coat. No gloves though. After two stints outside, my photos were no darn good, and my hands started to go painfully numb. Can something be both painful and numb? Yup. My bare skin in the freezing cold. Maybe I could handle the camera with gloves. Kneeling in the ice. Grumbling and snapping away.

End result?



Okay. This is the result of some amateurish post-production work. Apparently getting a really good moon photo (with surrounding landscape) involves a bunch of toys that I don't own. (But the size/scale of the moon is right.)

And some lagniappe: other photos I've taken during the past two days.







Yesterday's snow was amazing. The snowflakes came down light and enormous and fluffy. The smaller ornamental trees looked like they were covered with white blossoms. Like dogwoods flowering in winter.