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.

Blues

A quick run to the Benjamin Moore dealer and we're back home with a fistful of Affinity color chips. Ahhh...this isn't easy, even with the pared down Affinity color range. Imagine if I had the entire Benjamin Moore fandeck. Wait. I do. Two of them. I could stare at blues til I go blind.

I leaned the little papers against the wall. Solitude and Exhale were immediately struck off as too dark. Serenata may be too blue. Tranquility (the leftmost sample) is a possibility. It's a nice blue-gray with the slightest hint of red to warm it. Crystalline and Constellation are also contenders. Both are very, very pale. Perhaps too pale? Crystalline goes a bit green like sea glass. Constellation leans a bit lavender. Decisions. Decisions. A couple of photos. Almost impossible to catch the true color in the dingy bathroom light. The eye perceives something between those two photos.


without flash


with flash

I also love Farrow & Ball's Skylight. A very pretty grayed blue. The thought of spending Farrow & Ball dollars on a basement bathroom most used by the ten and under crowd...well...this doesn't excite me.

Don't you love color names? Would we buy these colors if they were named Very Light Blue Green and Very Light Blue Purple?

Mud

After a good thaw with lots of rain.





Good New England mud. Not a lot of mud in Austin. Arid climate + heavy, clay soil wasn't a good equation for mud. My two little hogs were in mud pie heaven.

Seeing the world in color

One of the things we decided early in the kitchen design process was that we wanted a colorful range. Not stainless. European manufacturers seem to embrace color more than their American counterparts: AGA from England, Molteni, Ilve, Bertazzoni, and Fratelli Onofri from Italy, and from France, Lacanche and La Cornue. The Americans offer Bluestar, American, and Viking. Another thing we quickly discovered was that color was expensive, ranging from pricey to...well...let's just say that the La Cornue Chateau is priced in line with its name. But then...just look at these beauties.


Ilve Majestic Collection from AJMadison


Close-up of the Fratelli Onofri Royal Chiantishire from AJMadison


La Cornue Chateau from Purcell Murray


Lacanche Cluny


Bluestar in one of the 190 available RAL colors

On a colorful side note, I just discovered that Dell offers their laptops in shades of your favorite OPI nail lacquers. Tagline: Match your nails to your e-mails. Of course, do you then change your Dell laptop every season? You don't want to be sporting a "You Don't Know Jacques" laptop (great color, by the way) when you've moved on to a "La Paz-itively Hot." mani/pedi. I'll bet the Dell executives hope so. I'm a bit relieved not to be faced with that choice on top of all my other color dilemmas. I'm an Apple gal.

Gray

Or "grey" if you're British.

Today was a gray, gray day. Devoid of all color except for the color of rain. And wind.

I was snuggled with the girls and reading Blizzard of the Blue Moon (Magic Tree House series) out loud. I glanced up and was caught. The trees outside looked...ethereal. This sounds ridiculous. But really. They were evocative of so many unnamed emotions. I tried to wrestle my attention back to the book, but after a few pages, I leapt to my feet and ran for my camera. (I read the girls a couple more chapters afterwards. They were very forgiving.)

Here are a few of my attempts. (Disclaimer: I love photography. However, I've had no formal training and really no informal training. In other words, I'm as ignorant as dirt. If I sound like I know what I'm doing, well, it's just an accident.)







The last is my favorite of the moment. It's shot at 1600 ISO and reminds me a little of an Edward Gorey. One day, when I'm feeling particularly brave, I should toss my photos up on Flickr and run them through some critiques.