Moon, river ... I'll catch you in a perfect pose some day

For some reason, I was a bit confused as to how a certain feature on my Nikon D40 worked. My father straightened me out. It's an embarrassingly simple function that's not unique to digital SLRs, so I'll stop short of divulging the exact nature of my ignorance.

But I got past it, and I'm looking for new things to photograph. It's Florida, and I know there are animals, waves and probably a few insects to shoot here, so I need to get out and explore. Somehow, I must muster the ambition.

A few nights ago, I was driving home along the Indian River in Palm Shores ("the little town that cares") when I noticed the strange reddish hue of the moon shrouded in mist and low-level clouds. Coincidentally, there was leftover lightning in the air after a strong storm ripped through the area. My objective was to get the moon and the lightning in one shot. And it wasn't raining, limiting the danger to my camera.

Unfortunately, the lightning stopped when I got my tripod set. But I saw a neat boathouse on the river that I thought would look good in a photo. But not that night: The moon went behind the clouds before I had a chance.

I returned to the spot last night and took this 3-second exposure. No lightning, no reddish hues, but oh well.

I can't have everything.