focused on Glory...Moon

Almost a week had passed since our first focused on Glory post, and I was not much better off than I was the week before in the way of photos.  The infection that had landed me in the ER the previous week was a doozy, and my camera hadn't been in hand nearly as often as usual.  When it was, the photos I took were quite uninspired.  I was beginning to get a bit antsy about the upcoming focused on Glory post. 

Then as we pulled up at the house after Sunday night's second and final performance of this year's Keyboards at Christmas, I saw it: a HUGE bird flew over the van and the house into our back yard.  Its underside was totally white against the hauntingly dark night sky.  "What was THAT?"  I asked Billy.  "An owl...a HUGE owl," he replied.  

We raced into the house and out the back door, reminding the children not to let the dogs out in the yard.  I just knew this was going to be the solution to my lack of photos for this week's focused on Glory post...what could be better than a big, beautiful owl in a tree?  

We saw it, sitting regally in the top of the tree across the alley.  As dark on the outside as its underside had been light, it was still quite visible high in the tree against the dark sky.  Alas...what was visible to the naked eye was too much of a challenge for my photographic skills...the combination of distance, zoom lens, darkness of the sky, and darkness of the amazing bird were just too much.  As I frantically changed settings over and over, trying to come up with *something* that would work, the giant bird suddenly took flight and disappeared.  

There is nothing quite like the devastation of knowing that you have missed an incredible photo opportunity.  I stood in the yard with eyes peeled for the massive owl, repeatedly asking Billy, "Do you think it will come back??"  He tried to console me, but we both knew it was probably gone for the night, if not forever.  

As I searched the dark sky for the elusive owl, I began to notice something else that I'd been looking right past...the moon.  I had really wanted to get up and take pictures of the eclipse Saturday morning, but that was not to be.  As I looked at the moon, and the clouds and trees that framed it, I decided that I might have missed the photo opportunity I had dashed out the door for, but I had another one in the sky right over my head. 

Be sure to see Tauna's focused on Glory post here.  (And don't miss the delightful story behind it here!)