Wednesday, May 21, 2014

How (Not...) To Photograph The Moon


Last week there was a full moon and it hit during a time when I could stay up and take pictures. And as it sometimes happens, I caught the same moon above the western horizon as I made my way to work. Both at night and in the morning, I grabbed my camera and began shooting.


I'm sure there are dozens of books and several websites devoted to people like me who want to take good pictures of the moon, but somehow fall short. Normally I can capture pretty much what my eyes sees when I take a picture.


I'm not able to do this when I shoot the moon (in a non-Hearts way...). Getting a photograph of what I'm seeing when I look at the moon is tough.


And it's too bad because few things, in my opinion, are as spectacular as the moon. To get these shots I stopped my car in the middle of the street and took a few pictures. I used my monopod for the night ones, bracing it against the side of the house hoping the slow shutter speed didn't blur the picture too much. I even tried an indoor shot with limited success.


I'm sure if I dedicated hours of research I'd know how to take a better picture of the moon. What scares me is that--along with the research--there are costs involved, lenses, and other things I would "require" in order to get that perfect photograph. Those of you who know how to get on film what your eye sees might be thinking, "No, Scott. You can get the shot you want with limited investment."


When it comes to photography, "limited investment" is something that's not heard often.


So, I have these shots and I like them. No one's going to have them as a screenshot or up on their wall, but when I look at them, it reminds me of how cool it is, either late at night or early in the morning, to see and stare skyward and soak in that beautiful view of the moon.

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