I’m still in northern Michigan, cat sitting a couple of cuties who happen to get hungry and whine loudly very early each morning. Last night that turned into a good thing for me.

Though it wasn’t a full moon yesterday, it was pretty darn close. I noticed it come up earlier in the evening, but hadn’t planned to photograph it setting, because that was supposed to be around 5:00 a.m. and I didn’t want to be awake at 5:00 a.m.

But kitties didn’t consult with me and started complaining about breakfast being late around 4. I gave in and fed them and was going back to bed when I saw the moonlight on the water of Lake Michigan.

I lay there, in bed for a long time, watching that light, arguing with myself. Did I want to put the camera on the tripod and lug it down the 44 stairs into the sand and see what I could do?

No I did not.

But when would I ever be in this position again? An almost full moon. A warm night. The sound of the lake moving beneath the moon. So I got my sorry self up and out and down the stairs and I’m so glad I did.

I had this vision in my head of a perfectly focused, perfectly lit moon, sitting above a beautiful light path across the water. That’s what I was going for.

Of course that’s not what happened.

As I sat in the sand, focusing on the moon I realized I couldn’t see the light on the water. And if I focused on the water then the light of the moon was totally blown out.

Of course it was. The setting necessary to see the details of the moon are entirely different than the settings needed to see the light dancing across the small waves on the lake. So you’re going to see this in pieces, some moon, some water.

And on top of it all, when I started there was a small light way off to the south. A freighter was chugging north up the lake. At one point it passed through the light path from the moon.

The gentle sound of the waves in conjunction with the chug of the freighter and the lowering, redding moon under the bright starts was just magical.

I’m sharing it with you so that you can imagine the magic too.