With ridiculously warm temperatures and fires throughout the west, I’ve had little incentive to want to be out photographing this year. A couple hundred people got to live out my worst nightmare earlier this year when fast moving fires in California required them to be rescued in the forest. Las Vegas finally ended a string of 240 days without measurable rain last week. That should be a forever-standing record, and if it ends up being broken, we’re in deep trouble.

Despite so much negative news taking place, there have been some wonderful rare events this year. The Comet Neowise and this week’s Jupiter-Saturn conjunction have been a part of that. I bought a long telephoto lens a couple of years ago with the hopes of using it for wildlife and moonrise photos. I did research on telescopes vs. telephoto lenses before my purchase, and realized a telescope would have too many limitations. My lens has had a learning curve, and I have been pleasantly surprised to find that I can see Saturn’s rings in a photo taken with this lens. All this from the comfort of my backyard. I guess the lesson we should be taking from 2020 is that good things are still happening and we just need to keep our eyes and our minds open to them.