I'm Mostly Ignorant of Such Things

I don't keep up with which phase the moon is in at any given time. I have no idea of the times of the local high and low tides. Our tides aren't very big, being so much closer to the equator than say, Cape Cod. Whenever I specifically think about such things, I look them up on the Weather Channel web site.

The day I took these photos, I had gone to the beach; it had been a while since I had seen the ocean.

There was a red tide still in the area, had been off and on for weeks, and they can mess up your breathing, or so I'd heard.

As soon as I parked at Ocean Park in Melbourne Beach, Florida, and stood outside the Camry, I started coughing. There was one family at this park who were using so much lighter fluid to start the fire in their charcoal for grilling there that I thought I was coughing due to the strong odor of the lighter fluid.

But after I went down on the beach and kept coughing, I realized there must still be red tide in the area.

I wasn't choked up as bad as it sounds or anything, so I stayed a little while as the sun went down in the west. Even with the sun in the "wrong" direction, there can be beautiful lighting toward the east.

After I had taken some photos of some sandpipers (birds) running around, I noticed that there was a gorgeous full moon that had risen.

Even with a camera in hand I'm not the most observant person in the world, and suddenly noticing the full moon hanging there above the water was a wonderful surprise.

I LOVE the soft glow of light reflecting on top of the ocean's waters there in that top photo.

By the time I left the beach and went on to Barnes & Noble, it took about half an hour to stop coughing and my tongue felt as if I had eaten a spoon full of red pepper. It was such a weird set of sensations caused by the red tide.

(Side Note: I didn't take my tripod along, and I hand held these shots. The anti-shake feature on the lens I was using really came in handy. Normally it's almost impossible to take a sharp photo in such dim light with the zoom all the way out to maximum magnification. I love this lens!)