Man in the Moon

My intent tonight was to get a good shot of Mount Rainier at sunset because today was going to be the best day of the weekend weather wise.  Amanda told me about a spot that she thought would make a good vantage point so Rico and I headed up to the Mountainview Cemetery Lookout (yes it's as creepy as it sounds...a cemetery is right across the road and looks over this scenic point...though come to think on it, I want a damn good view for my final resting place too so they might have something there!).

Well it turns out that tonight there was going to be a full moon rise at around 9:30.  We didn't realize that until photographers (with much better equipment than me - yes I'm a little intimidated) started showing up and parking their tripods.  They were all very nice and told us why they were setting up shop - the full moon rise behind Mt. Rainier- which sounded really cool!  I ended up taking Rico home in record time (he's going out with friends tonight and was supposed to meet them right around the time the moon would rise...he also wasn't too fond of the mosquitos using him as life support!).  I sped back to the overlook in time to see...no moon!  Everyone waited around til about 10 mins after the time the moon was supposed to rise.  

While I was there, they had started discussing different view points in the city where shots can be taken with unobstructed views.  One of them being the Auburn Transit Center parking garage.  I had given up on getting any shots of the moon but as soon as I started heading down the hill to go home, I saw the moon pop it's head up over the foothills ...apparently we just had our timing wrong.  I quickly looped around Auburn one more time and headed to the Transit center since it was closer than the overlook.

This was my first time shooting the moon but I think it turned out pretty cool!  Since 4th of July is next weekend, Muckleshoot was setting off tons of fireworks and I tried to get some shots of those in front of the moon but they didn't turn out right - focusing on two different distances doesn't work for me apparently.

The moon changed colors a bit as it was going through the smoke of the fireworks and getting higher in the sky.

The good news is that I'm learning how to use my manual setting on the camera a little better which is great.  This was just a lucky day all around -- the weather turned out great, there were no clouds in the sky after 12pm or so (which also helped getting the shots of the moon & mountain) and just by happenstance did we go looking for a good photo op and found a perfect night for it.