Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida For some time I had wanted to take a photograph of a full moon over the Everglades. I had been tracking the moon phases of the calendar for months waiting for the proper time when the angle of the moon and sun align for the best effect. When the day came, I took my camera out into the 'glades, and then, in order to get a perspective over the tops of the dwarf cypress trees, I set my camera on top of my ten-foot ladder...then I waited. When the clouds cooperated to create a nice composition, I snapped the shutter...it didn't work! I said a few words that were loud enough to scare the birds out of the trees and then I took the lens off, pried open the shutter, put the lens back on the camera and used the dark slide as a shutter, guessing at the exposure time.
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