Menoturals; NF/FFF In The Dark

Joining the LLB Gang in our end-of-month Friday gathering.

As a few of you may have noticed, a 'supermoon' appeared for the harvest month last week. 

These days, I miss the moon mainly because of the cloud cover, which tends to be normal for Scottish skies. There is the added matter of being in The Grey. If you've been paying attention, you will recall that I have not gouged great big holes in his sides (or roof) to be replaced with perspex or glass. I wish to keep him in stealth mode, looking like the commercial vehicle he is registered as. It has paid off. On the road, folks think we are on deliveries. Parked, we still look like we are on deliveries. In eighteen months of being oot and aboot, I haven't yet faced any negativity to my parking overnight, but I have no doubt at all that being stealth helps in this regard. Even standing beside me discussing my van makeover, I have had, on two occasions, the person with whom I've been sharing the experience then curl their lips and narrow their eyes when obvious campervans (never mind motorhomes) turn up! Rightly or wrongly, they have gained a poor reputation in one or two areas. Somehow (and I am prepared for the eventual occasion of being asked to move along), I have thus far escaped such derision.

I digress. The point here is that once I have the curtain pulled between my bedsit and the driving cabin, I can see nothing. So, unless I pay proper attention, I am clueless about the phases of the moon.

One night, while staying at New Lanark, I just couldn't sleep. This is an old habit often associated with the full moon. It was also surprisingly warm. I got up to crack open the back door for air and was immediately struck by the spotlight that hit me. Now, there are, in fact, spotlights in the NL car park, but not usually at the back. There it was, though, glaring at me! It took quite a few seconds for the penny to drop.

I only had the Gopika (phone) to grab, but I got out and tried a few images—some of 'night light' and some of regular photography. That first one was regular. It captured the glistening on the leaves and created the halo effect.

This was on regular - but you can just about make out the branches of the tall trees around me. The zoom on Gopika is not brilliant and, as I've observed before, tends to pixelate or even create a pointillist effect. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn't.

This one was on nightlight and not zoomed. I wanted to show the surroundings and how the moon dominated despite the park's lighting.

A plane flew over - and the contrail caught the moon's rays beautifully. The last of these I will bore you with is The Grey, my stealth elephant tucked away in the shadows of both lights and moon...

I did rather wish I had the big lens with me, but I'm okay with these efforts. 

Now, to finish (and because it doesn't really fit anywhere else), a sunrise. This was taken at 7 a.m. from Dunoon as I prepared to head for the ferry. The mighty Firth of Clyde, raising a haar to celebrate autumn.