Sunday night we got to experience a lunar eclipse. This will be the only one we will be able to see this year, and so I decided I wanted to adventure out and see it. Because I didn’t have work on Monday I could stay up a bit later and drive a bit out of town to get away from city lights.
I picked up my friend Michael and the two of us headed up, out of the city. Our plan had been to hit a bar and grill in Bethel, MN for a drink and a snack while we waited for the show to begin around 10:40pm. However, the bar and grill I had picked out decided to close at 10pm, despite their website saying differently. Thankfully, this is exurb Minnesota, so there was another bar just down the road that was more than happy to accommodate us with some food and drink.
One of the trickiest parts of photographing the moon is realizing that you cannot let the camera pick your exposure. The moon is incredibly bright, but it takes up only a small portion of the frame. Therefore the camera thinks that it needs to hold the shutter open for a LONG time, when in fact you just need the moon exposed.
I ended up with an exposure time of 1/2 to 1/4 of a second for most of my shots, and I think it turned out pretty well. My only issue is that I don’t have as large of a zoom as I would like, so I ended up with a lot more ISO grain than I wanted, when I cropped the pictures in.
Overall though, it was a fun night, and a really cool phenomena to see.
I was feeling at peace with everything. We had just spent the evening with some great folks, talking about Winter Ultras, and in the morning we were going to get to run on a new trail. I had a craft beer in my hand, and music that I enjoy in my head. I was sitting in a lovely little place with my amazing wife, and at that moment, everything was perfect. The hashtag felt appropriate, and so I went with it.
One of the unique things about the photo I took was that it was a profile shot where I was gazing off into the distance and not looking at the camera. A little while later I was on a boat, performing a wedding for my brother and sister-in-law. While I was out on the deck I decided, “What the heck, let’s do another profile shot.” Because I was having a good time, I gave it the #livingmybestlife again. That’s when things started to take on a life of their own.
I’ve now embraced the profile shot with hashtag, and I’ve started doing it more and more often, just for the heck of it. It’s become something that is a mix of humor and emotional release. Humor, in that I’m obviously doing something very silly, and playing it up for laughs. But, emotional release because I’m trying to highlight the times in my life when I’m the happiest. It’s cathartic to me to go back and look at the pictures and remember those moments, breathing in the memories of simple times of joy.
Needless to say I’ll keep posting these shots, as I’m having a great time with them. I can’t promise that they’ll all be “influencer worthy”, but hopefully, they’ll give people a chuckle, and maybe a brief moment of reflection of what bring you joy in your life.
My positive attitude is still with me, to some extent. Getting back to work after such an amazing weekend was tough. Even though I messed up my back a bit on Friday, it was still one of the best weekends I’ve had in a while. Good running, and spending time with running friends. Lots of good food. An awesome soccer game. More good food. Visits to awesome breweries. And yet again, more good food.
