Recently on the way to a dinner at our friends’ house, my vSO and I were surprised by the size of the moon in the sky. We were running late to start looking for the place to stop safely. In the next 10 seconds we had to turn. The windshield was too dirty. And there were probably several more reasons in my head for why I shouldn’t take a picture. But I still took out my phone, asked my vSO to make sure not to do the California stop at the closest sign and did my best to shift away from the streaks of dirt on the glass as I took the picture below.
It’s not as impressive as it was in real life. It is not the shot I will be proudly showing to my family or print out for decoration purposes. And you still can see smudges on the trees on the right. But as I was looking later through the pictures I took with my phone, I was amused by the fact that, without any conscious efforts on my part, I got a photo on which moon looks like an oversized street light. It got me into a philosophical mood:
SOMETIMES WHEN WE ACT DESPITE ALL THE OBSTACLES AND EXCUSES,
RESULTS MIGHT DELIGHT US
Undina's Looking Glass 
Hey undina,
The streaks in the trees give the pic a Van Gogh feel, although the rest is photography, first thing I thought was street lamp too.
Portia xx
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Portia, you’re even a bigger optimist than I am. Van Gogh! :)
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He He he! Maybe I am….
Portia x
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That’s a lovely photo anyway!
Some time ago we could observe “bloody moon” during the eclipse when the moon was bigger than usual as it was at its closest distance from Earth and it was red.
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Thank you, Lucas. I missed that moon: I read about it the next day.
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Ha – I love when that happens..accidental delights like these. I agree with your philosophy there (sort of like ‘chance favors the prepared mind’- though that sounds far more prosaic than your lines :)).
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Phrasing the sentiment is less important than the idea itself. Let’s hope we’ll be able to correctly recognize those times when acting changes our chances in the favorable direction.
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What a great shot!
The final sentiment is extremely apt for me at the moment. Thank-you.
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<3 <3
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Thank you, Tara.
I wasn’t being abstract with my philosophical mood as well. I’m glad I’m in a good company ;)
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Serendipity – sometimes when I’m painting I like the look of the pallette more than the actual painting! I did actually think at first that was a streetlamp in your photo :) now I know it’s the moon I’m impressed! It is amazing that it’s so perfectly centred on the lamp post.
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Thank you, Rose.
That moon was so gorgeous that I didn’t even notice anything else until later.
I would love to see some of the pairings of your paintings and the palettes for those :)
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Great insight, Undina, and a great shot as well!
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Thank you, hajusuuri.
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Beautiful shot, Undina! I thought you made it look like a street light!
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Thank you, Magpie. I didn’t! I mean, I did but not intentionally :)
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Oh that is great fun, and I also thought it was an orb-style street lamp there for a moment, until I realised there was no moon anywhere else in the shot, haha. Glad you persisted and the motto at the end is very fitting.
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Thank you, Vanessa.
I was thinking… Does it qualify for your series “objects on a poll”? ;)
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It jolly well does, now you mention it! Looks very like one of those Chupa Chups-style water towers in fact. ;)
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Ooh wow, I’m glad you were able to snap this photo even in the circumstances. The sky looks lovely, there’s almost something Impressionist about it. And the moon really does look like an over sized streetlamp! It’s very charming.
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Thank you, Caitlin. I’m glad you liked it. Between your and Portia’s ideas I can now try to choose if I should consider this photo to be impressionism- or post-impressionism-inspired :)
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I actually thought it WAS the streetlight until I read the post. Beautiful photo!
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Thank you, Blacknall :)
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I thought it was a street lamp, but then could not see the moon! Isn’t the sky just wonderful to look at sometimes?
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I have many pictures of the sky, especially at sunset. Usually I start taking them and it looks so beautiful from any angle that I just cannot stop. And then it’s even harder to choose the best one when I want to share or print it :)
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