That's The Moon My Son!

According to something I read on the Internet (so it must be true!!),the moon and the earth have lately been in closer company than they often are. Evidently the moon does not stay at the same distance from the earth all the time, but the gap constantly varies. Whilst the variation probably makes very little perceptible difference to our view of the moon, our clear winter nights in this part of the world, have added to the impression of the moon being close.

I have mostly had terrible results when I have tried to photograph the moon with my camera. The auto focus seems unable to understand that the bright point in the sky is something that I would like it to make sharp, so, usually, I have a nasty battle that ends with rude words being said, and the camera spitefully recording a succession of furry bright blobs.

I have never tried to focus on the moon before with the camera lens at its maximum zoom. I assumed, that, as it was doing terribly at more modest settings, it would be even worse at 15 x magnification.  I was wrong. Much to my surprise, when I magnified the blob until it filled my viewfinder, it suddenly resolved itself into a delightful moonscape of mountains, shadowy "seas, and acne-like craters! Oh, Joy! So what you are seeing here on this page is the moon as I saw it a few nights ago from our little home in the South Island of New Zealand.

I wonder if the moon looks different from where you are in your part of the world? When the moon is crescent shaped, I know that it points the other way to how you see it in the Northern Hemisphere, but I wonder if we see the main surface features of the moon from a different angle too, so that they are shifted over somewhat? Or is the difference mostly to do with which side of the moon is in shadow? Maybe someone in the Northern hemisphere would like to post a photo on their blog, and let me know!

The title for this post, "That's The Moon My Son!" is from a song that the Andrews Sisters. Oh, why not... I'll link to it here!

I managed a walk to the beach yesterday morning, which was lovely, as it was a beautiful day, and my back did not hinder my progress.

 

 

On the way there I walked beside the lagoon. There was a chilly breeze blowing that rippled the water, but the sun was just warm enough to neutralise its effects if you kept moving.

 

I saw some ducks marching up and down.

I saw a black swan grooming itself.

 The path took me past New Zealand flax bushes, phormium tenax, (no relation to the lovely low growing flax with the blue flowers, linseed of the Linaceae family). The strong fibres of New Zealand flax were used by Maori for weaving into garments, bags, and rope. The fibre can also make paper. New Zealand artist, Mark Lander, has used flax paper to make huge sculptural works and installations that are really beautiful.

 

Following the creek that connects the lagoon to the sea, I arrived at the beach.

I enjoy watching waves, and trying to understand how they work.

 

 

As a painter I did many "live" studies of them. It is actually amazing what you can capture by observation alone, if you are stubborn enough!

Making studies of waves directly, without use of photography, helps give understanding of the way certain forms are repeated. Waves move so rapidly that you cannot hope to "capture" just one of them the way that a camera does, you have to understand them as a sequence of action, and think about cause and effect.

Here is one that I did directly from nature (no photos used), painted in the winter of 2003.

I have had two battles with two government departments this week, and may post about that at a later date to help others who could be in a similar position to me, but I need to do some homework first!

Lovely day again today, so I will sign off for now. Thank you to all of you who have left me thoughtful and encouraging comments on the previous post, you are a real blessing to me, and I am very thankful for you.