Spooky?

Subtitle: How not to take pics at night.

A couple weeks ago, just as I was heading to bed, I noticed the moon hanging barely above the horizon. I thought it'd make for a cool picture if I could capture it (knowing it was a big IF there), so I grabbed a coat and my camera and headed outside. Being as late as it was, I didn't want to take time to set up the tripod.

This first pic didn't turn out too bad, because I was leaning against the deck railing to steady myself. But as you can see, there were tree branches across the moon. Those white dots were lights at the horizon.

I wanted to get rid of the tree branches, so I went out onto the lawn. I took rest of these free-standing with nothing to brace myself on. The slightest movement definitely changes things. :-)

Looking a different direction:

I was trying to capture the lights (bottom squiggles ) of a nearby town. The red ones are the lights on some wind towers, which were actually closer.

I did manage to get one halfway decent picture of the moon. I must've somehow held still for a second.

But not this next time:

So that's my lesson: Don't bother to try to take night time pics without a tripod. Unless Halloween's coming and you need something interesting for your blog.

Here's a pic I took this morning. Looks kinda Halloweenish, too, doesn't it? A foretaste of things to come, perhaps?

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Anyway, Happy Halloween! I'm looking forward to my one-and-only trick-or-treater later today. Pics from that visit later.