The setting Full Wolf Moon flirts with opposing fingers of cloud to the north of Longs Peak (14,259 ft; 4,346 m) in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

The moon and clouds on this particular morning wove in and out of each other dynamically as dawn crept into the sky from the east. The sun's rays finally gained purchase on the land and took the ambience to a different place entirely. I felt lucky to be there.

Tonight I also feel lucky. A fast-moving wildfire started about a mile and a half west of our house this afternoon in Ponderosa Pine forest that the county recently thinned. The wind came out of the north with peak wind gusts over 30 mph. The fire quickly spread to over 120 acres (50 ha), and 8,000 people evacuated, including our family. It was fortuitous to know back ways out of the neighborhood and to points further east and north, as the main arterials were instantly blocked and ground to a halt. When it comes to essential items, I learned a few things about myself: 1) I managed to forget my wallet in my haste; 2) I brought my hard cover copies of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings that originally belonged to my grandmother, the copies with the large maps of Middle Earth that fold out of the back cover; 3) I grabbed a hard-drive with the backup of my computer; and 4) the dog is excited for the next move if he gets to come with the family for a car ride no matter what the circumstances may be.

Fortunately, some hours later, the wind has died down and the fire does not appear to be growing or coming in the direction of our neighbourhood. The soils and forest floor are at least a little moist after the recent snows, and the thinned trees are hopefully somewhat hydrated, possibly slowing the fire's spread and weakening its strength. We returned home, and I feel a bit uneasy and unable to focus. The people living in California know all about this feeling, I am sure.

Tags:   Boulder County Colorado Colorado Rockies Full Wolf Moon Landscape Longs Peak Mount Lady Washington Mount Meeker National Park Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountains Southern Rockies U.S. National Park Winter clouds dawn full moon high country magic hour moon moonlight moonset morning morning light mountains panorama snow sunrise

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A sleek, gargantuan lenticular wave cloud sits above the horizon in the lee of Longs Peak, and the setting Full Wolf Moon creates a silver-fringed lining of light, taken from a vantage near Lyons, Colorado.

The trail to reach this vantage begins near the high-school, and heads due south up a steep ridge as it gains 400 feet in a little under 0.2 miles. There are no real switchbacks to speak of, and the route up was crusted with extended patches of ice and snow, such that I was grateful for my foot spikes. A couple who I am friends with from work came to meet me and show me the location (they come here often and had been up here for moonset the night before). It was the first time I'd seen them in person in nearly 2 years, and it was a clear reminder of how nice it is to work with good people.

Technical notes: Single exposure with a tripod. In retrospect, and looking at the camera data, the fact that I was hurrying is evident. Should have let the shutter stay open longer in order to close down the aperture for better depth of field on the foreground rocks, and to keep the ISO low. This is why going out more regularly would be helpful.

Tags:   Boulder County Colorado Colorado Rockies Full Wolf Moon Landscape Longs Peak Mount Lady Washington Mount Meeker National Park Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountains Southern Rockies U.S. National Park Winter clouds dawn full moon high country magic hour moon moonlight moonset morning morning light mountains snow sunrise

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Moonlight and pier lights combine to brighten the sky, clouds, and sea surrounding the Palapa Bar and Grill in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize.

The reef is approximately a 10 minute boat ride from the shore at this position on the Caye, and its eons of coral effectively quell the storm driven waves of the Caribbean most of the time. The relatively calm waters on the shoreward side of the reef make it possible to establish a viable business like this one. My oldest son and I came out here with our cameras after dinner to drink in the tropical, nighttime atmosphere. The patrons of the Palapa belted forth some spirited Karaoke, and the Belikin appeared to be happily flowing. As we stared into the clear water, several Eagle Rays (family Myliobatidae) moved purposefully and effortlessly through their crystalline medium, searching for sustenance along the sandy bottom.

Technical notes: Single exposure with a small Joby travel tripod for stability. The LEDs behind me made the water appear extremely green in the photograph, which is not how it looked to me when I was standing on the pier. I corrected the color of the foreground water in Lightroom CC to make the water appear as close to my memory of the moment as possible.

Tags:   Ambergris Caye Belize Caribbean Caribbean Sea San Pedro long exposure moon moonlight night night clouds nocturnal ocean stars water

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Spring-time moonlight reveals the blooms of Eastern Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla patens), closed tightly for the night, and in the distance we see the long view north up Shadow Canyon to the heights of South Boulder Peak (left) and Bear Peak (right), Boulder County Open Space, Colorado. Distant lights from the city of Boulder illuminate the clouds swirling near Bear Peak.

I have been night-hiking for over 5 years now, and one thing that continues to amaze me is how much electrical energy is consumed to light up structures at night. I imagine some of these lights might fall into the category of 'necessary', but I suspect many, many more are simply installed and switched on out of habit, or in order to comply with some city code that hasn't changed in decades. We also know that migrating birds and insects are disoriented by our night-time lights, and I read once that property crimes committed at night are more likely to occur in areas with lighting, as apparently burglars and graffiti artists have a harder time in the pitch dark. I wonder what it would take for towns to begin turning off the lights again at night, and for people to be able to see the stars again? There have been small-scale, local movements for dark skies in a handful of places in the past few years, and I look forward to the notion catching on in larger towns and cities.

Technical notes: Single 25s exposure with camera on a tripod as low to the ground as I could get it (Pasqueflower are maybe 20 cm tall?). I manually set the focus for infinity on the lens and hoped the f/11 aperture would give me reasonable detail on the flowers, which were maybe 20-30 cm from the lens. Later, I kicked myself for not trying to do a focus stack. It was a very still night, and I got lucky that the flowers held so still over the long exposure, and that the forest gaps behind me allowed the moonlight to find patches of flowers. I developed the image first in Lightroom to create a neutral color balance in the sky, and then in Photoshop using two masks, one for the sky and one for everything else. I then returned to Lightroom and tried to develop the image in a way that reflected the evening's atmosphere.

Tags:   Bear Peak Boulder Boulder County Boulder Open Space Colorado Colorado Rockies Eastern Pasqueflower Flatiron formation Flatirons Goshawk Ridge Landscape Pasqueflower Pinus ponderosa Ponderosa Pine Pulsatilla patens Rocky Mountains South Boulder Peak clouds dark skies light pollution long exposure moonlight mountains night nightscape nocturnal rock spring stars stone United States of America

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