All the Hype

59/365

I'm not a big fan of nighttime photography.  I mean, I like to look at work done by other photographers, I just don't really have any interest in doing it myself.

But after all the hype about the super-moon for the past few days, I decided to try it tonight and see what I could get.  So I did some research about what settings to use and set my camera to the recommended functions:

mirror lock-up

raw

manual

200 mm zoom lens (the longest I own)

200 iso

f 11

125 shutter speed

and of course, my tripod

I headed up to the deck and waited.   and waited.   and waited.   and then I decided that because I still had a little time, I'd go to the west side of the house and see what kind of a sunset it was going to be.  

And I got this:

(it really wasn't this dark--I underexposed the image in photoshop because it so nicely enhanced the colors)

"Okay", I thought.  Now back to the east side of the house.  I waited some more and then I decided to get in the car and drive to higher ground.  I did that.  I drove 12 miles. Still no moon.  And it looked very cloudy, so I decided to call it a wash and head back home.  

After driving about 7-8 minutes I glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw that the moon had risen and was already well above the horizon...  Yikes.  Taking my life in my hands I pulled over, hit the button for the emergency flashers to come on, jumped out of the car and set up the tripod and camera.  

I really should have just continued my drive home.  This is so pathetic.  

The moon was a tiny little orb in a huge expanse of sky--this is an extremely cropped section of the bigger picture, and therefore very soft.

Oh well, it's my one-and-only attempt at moon photography and will probably be my last.  I'm just not all that interested.  But it sure would have been nice if it had been more successful.  

Sigh.