Yes, yes, I realize I’ve already done my picture for the week… but this one is so special, I hoped you’d humor me one more (or three, as it were).

If you’ve not been under a rock, you’ve surely heard about the special “super blood moon” that occurred early this morning (depending on where in the world you are). The moon appeared bigger than normal because of where we are in the orbit cycle AND there was a total eclipse of said full moon, making it look red in color. Well, I started reading how rare this is and the fact that it wouldn’t be visible again until 2018, and then only in parts of western Africa (I mean, don’t count me out just yet!) and suddenly I was compelled to go try my hand at photographing it. My wife and I have been in Europe for a little over a week and here in Szczecin, Poland where we’ve been, the sky was crystal clear. I thought to myself, how awesome would it be to get a nice picture in Europe of such a rare event. I’ll let you be the judge of how well I did… but this one is getting printed for me! 🙂

I got up at 3:30AM this morning (it was set to be a full eclipse at 4:11 – 4:47 here) and went walking, trying to find the right angle. I had a full city view in mind (see below), but when I started shooting it, I realized that being that wide made the moon somewhat easy to miss. I did like the shot though, so I camped out there a bit. Once I was satisfied that I wasn’t satisfied with what I was getting, I decided to walk back into the city for a different view.

Just down the street from the apartment we’ve been staying in is the Cathedral Basilica of St. James the Apostle; it’s a spectacular church, both inside and out. I decided I’d try to frame it with the moon somehow, and as luck would have it, when I rounded the corner to our street, I was welcomed with the scene above. That was the shot. Classic Europe, with a beautiful cathedral and cobblestone streets, plus the somewhat rare super blood moon.

Below are a few of the shots I got while I was out. In addition to my favorite shot above, I also zoomed in on the tower for a closer view of the scene (pictured below), BUT, if you’re my friend on Facebook, you’ve seen this one already!

–Dan Thompson