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What’s better than carving Halloween pumpkins? Photographing them!

The moon was CRAZY orange last night, in case you didn’t notice IMO, this was much more spectacular than the Lunar Eclipse we had not too long ago.

update - found some info on the FOX12 Weather Blog about the moon last night:

Many of our viewers have been writing, wondering about the freakishly red full Harvest Moon.  It’s due to smoke from the Rattle Fire, near Diamond Lake in S.W. Oregon.  The flow in the upper atmosphere has turned southeasterly, sending a surge of smoke north.  The flow stays generally the same way through Wednesday, so I think we have a smoky/hazy day on the way again for tomorrow.

It feels like I’m finally starting to get back into the picture-taking groove again.  I had a few great photo op’s during this weekend’s 4th of July celebration, out visiting Cam and Dave in St. Helen’s, OR.  The view from the hill at their house turned out to be spectacular!  At 20-30 miles from downtown Portland, I figured we’d be too far away to see much of the fireworks action around the city, but it turns out the distance allowed us to see over 100 shows!  I REALLY need to start bringing a tripod to these gigs! Check out the ridge in this photo, where you can see all the tiny explosions in the distance (click for larger):

A nearby field and cloudy sunset made for some great HDR opportunities:

Pitch black in between bursts, the picnic area become brightly lit for the brief moment of the mortar rounds exploding:

And a few obligatory 4th of July sparkler shots:

Had the treat of watching the lunar eclipse tonight. Almost missed it entirely as I assumed it’d occur much later in the night ..

After going back through my shots, it looks like the old dock next the hotel caught my eye a few times.  A little redundant, but oh well.  Here are a few more that I though turned out well.

Discovered my favorite feature of the hotel this weekend – a crow’s nest on the roof to view downtown Seaside, OR. Cha-ching! Loving HDR btw ..

Update: The version taken closer to sunset turned out pretty nice too!

Ran out of the hotel room with 3-year old to catch the sunset and “see the waves”; but the some of the best scenery was caught on the way back.