Super Moon 2016

If you feel like there's another super/blood/harvest/strawberry/whatever moon every few months that we're "never going to see again in our lifetimes," I'm kinda right there with you. But when my buddy Phil Plank organized a shooting party for tonight on the Flower Mound, it was too convenient to pass up.

Following my personal mantra to always look behind me, I turned back toward the sunset as the assembled shutterbugs were setting up in the direction of the moonrise.  The colors and textures were nice, but the foreground (a Tom Thumb parking lot) isn't actually picturesque.  Then some small flocks of birds started cavorting in the sky, and a scene materialized.

I think the birds were grackles.  Or possibly starlings.  Regardless, they gave me something to shoot before the main event.

The parking lot lights and ominous clouds had a real "War of the Worlds" vibe.

The moon appeared as scheduled, with the added bonus of some reddish tint thanks to low clouds.

My astrophotography game is still not on point.  Even on a tripod, I couldn't get any sharper than this.

Soon the moon had risen too high for any context from the ground ...

... so I got lower and gave it some context from some of the dead grasses on the mound.

A fun outing, and easy to squeeze in on a weeknight!