(June 16, 2009) National Geographic Magazine (!) just asked if I "would be amenable" to having one of my photographs considered for their "Visions of Earth" series. These are double-page spreads that run in the front of every issue. Well, gee, I guess I wouldn't mind...

Back on Earth Day (April 22, 2009), I made a photo of the Moon and Venus in the daylight sky using a 5-inch Astro-Physics telescope and a Canon DSLR. Turned out rather nice (you've seen it on the slow blog before, but here's a fresh link just the same):

Two days later, NASA ran this as the Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is (I suppose) where a photo editor at NGM saw it. Anyway, if you're a photographer, the easiest way to have the top of your head come off due to a sudden adrenalin spike is to have National Geographic come calling. Nothing for sure yet, but here's hoping that the November issue has a photo with my byline. (What's next? Will The New Yorker ask me to write a little piece? Geez, when am I supposed to get any work done?)

OK really: time to settle down. I was closer than this with some African eclipse photos in 1973. Nothing came of that and nothing may come of this. But if it does, I plan to be insufferable for a while.

Near disaster: after uploading the requested file, I took a close look at the image. Not right. On a calibrated monitor, at anything more than a quick look, colors were garish and splotchy. What the hell? I must have saved a workup for a print or some stage of the much-manipulated wallpaper version over what I thought was a canonical file. So I pulled the image off a DVD backup and voila: the remembered tones and clarity. I updated its caption material per request and sent it along under an apprpriately modified filename.

Having backups is way better than not.