Moon Flame

I didn’t have a camera that could do the moon justice, but did that stop me from trying? No way! I sometimes like taking blurry photos through rainy car windows and such (like this one), knowing that I won’t capture things accurately, but they still might be fun to look at later.

I don’t usually show these photos to other people, because they don’t get it. They say things like, “That one didn’t come out,” but they’re missing the point. I wasn’t seeking photographic reality, but a feeling, an emotion in the lighting, or simply playing with color.

An ex-boyfriend used to roll his eyes because I would take photos out the same window nearly every night at sunset. “You already have a photo out that window,” he’d protest. “But look at the lighting today,” I’d counter. “I’ve never taken a photo of this – ever!”

So I take a lot of seemingly bad photos in addition to some just plain bad photos, and the occasional good photo. Sometimes I get poetry, other times, I hit the delete button. Film’s cheap when you go the digital route.

When I was a kid, our family would make a 36 exposure roll of film last. Such a different mindset! Shots were thought out in advance. We didn’t have the luxury of my impulsive shoot first, delete later approach. Actually, it took me a while to let go of my miserly approach to taking photos, even after I got my first digital camera.

These days, I carry a point and shoot camera in my purse at all times. I had forgotten about these moon flame pix, though. I snapped them on a spring equinox sunset cruise we took on Eagle Mountain Lake back in March. A guy we know organizes sunset cruises for his friends at the turn of each season.

This time around, we boated out to a little island, roasted hot dogs, and hung out around a campfire. We took turns writing down something we wanted to let go of, then tossing that slip of paper into the fire. I played guitar and sang a song I wrote a while ago. It was lighthearted and fun, everything you want when hanging out with friends.

I like the Rorschach inkblot-ish quality in these photos. In the first one, I see a little man made out of flames riding on a bird-headed horse. In the second, I see a flaming goose flying out of a horse. What do you see?