Pic(k) of the Week: IPA at the beach

Sometimes, it's not so much what beer you're drinking, but where you're drinking it.

Here: A draft IPA served on the patio of a pub at the beach (and the Atlantic Ocean), in St. Augustine Beach, Florida, on 3 August 2018.

Summertime, and the drinking was easy.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Full moon; Mars perihelion opposition

It was a Full Buck Moon on Friday night/Saturday morning, 28/29 July 2018.

July is the month of the Full Buck Moon. At this time, a buck’s antlers are in full growth mode. This Full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month.

— The Old Farmers' Almanac.

In much of the world, that July full moon was also a "blood moon": a total lunar eclipse. At one hour, forty-three minutes, it was the longest total lunar eclipse, so far, of the 21st century. Alas, here in the Northern Hemisphere, the eclipse was not to be seen.

But not to worry. A very visible Mars also rose in the sky that night, in the full glory of a perihelion opposition —that is, completely opposite the Sun in the sky— thus, lit up bright and reddish orange.

Mars' actual perihelion —its closest approach to the Earth— wouldn't occur until a few days later, on Tuesday, 31 July 2018, when it would be 'only' 35,784,481 miles from Earth, something much rarer: its closest embrace of us since 2003. Contrast that with Mars' average distance of four times that, 140 million miles.

As a terrestrially photographic point, I liked the otherwise interceding power line in the shot. It acted as a diagonal divider, if not planned that way. Viewed over Atlanta, Georgia, at one in the morning, on 29 July 2018.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Dog koozie

"Where's the beer?" they've asked of recent Pic(k)s of the Week. Here it is.

It's amusing what you can find in a thrift store. It's even more amusing when you actually purchase it: a Labrador Retriever beer koozie ... on a pedestal.

At the Red Nose Tavern, somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia, on 26 July 2018.

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YFGF's evolution of photography

In 2009, this was the state of the photography, here, at YFGF: a Canon PowerShot SD400 point-and-shoot held together with —if not spit and baling wire— band-aids and duct tape.

In 2018, this: a seven-year-old Olympus Pen E-PL1 with a thirty-seven-year-old lens.

The gear has changed. But the technique?

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A light in the forest

A spot of light through the canopy ...

... of the Kirkwood Urban Forest Preserve, in Atlanta (Kirkwood), Georgia, on 12 July 2018.

Kirkwood Urban Forest and Community Garden is a seven and one-half acre plot, previously an illegal concrete scrap dump, purchased by the City of Atlanta in 2005 through the Georgia Greenspace Program and a Georgia Forestry Commission program. Classified as a conservation park, 'managed for environmental protection, but open for public access,' the preserve was created in 2010 by neighborhood volunteers and is supported by the local neighborhood organization with additional grants. Now, the urban forest features trails among mixed hardwood trees, spring-fed Hardee Creek, a butterfly meadow of native Georgia grasses, a fruit and nut orchard, a pond, a community garden, and a covered pavilion.

— Via Decaturish (25 November 2014) and Wikipedia.

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