Moon Photography

© 2011 Claudia Ward - The Waning Gibbous Moon

The moon has been brilliant the last several nights, crossing the skylight window just above my bed, beaming brighter than a single headlight in the nighttime sky. It was full on Friday night but equally as brilliant, if not quite as full, last night.

A friend and I have been exchanging emails about the challenges of photographing the moon - each of us recalling Peter's great shot of the half moon taken from our hotel room when we were stuck in Toronto. Wanting to see if I could get an equally good shot, I trundled myself out of bed at 5:00 yesterday morning, set up my camera on the tripod, pulled on my slipper boots, and put on a long winter coat over my nightgown. The winds were howling outside (25mph) and the temperatures were in the 20s but I warmed myself with the thought of viewing photos of the moon over a hot cup of coffee later.

First I tried shooting from the balcony figuring I might be protected from the winds. From there, this is a shot through silhouetted trees. With all those flailing branches, I didn't have a chance - the photos were abysmal. Next I tried to take clear shots of the moon from the street in front of the house. The good news is the snow and ice are gone, the bad news is that it's out in the open with no protection from those biting winds, but push on I did, to no avail. I'd like to think that the cold addled my brains in addition to making my hands nearly inoperable. The camera, a Nikon D60 with my 55-200mm lens, was on Aperture setting set at f/22. Why, on earth, did I think I needed depth of field for a shot of the moon which is almost 250,000 miles away? Oh that's right I wasn't thinking because my brain was frozen - duh! The other setting I'm embarrassed to say I never changed was the ISO - it was still set on 400 from an indoor shoot - way too sensitive for the moon. See, the moon is very bright - I said that already didn't I - thus we need to control the amount of light that reaches the sensors. 

I was wide awake at this point, which was 6:00 a.m. The sky was transitioning from nighttime black to pre-dawn blue, and the moon had still not set. I exchanged my nightgown and winter coat for jeans, a turtleneck, a sweat shirt, boots, gloves, a woolen cap, and a down jacket with a hood, jumped in to the car and dashed over to Long Beach to see if I could watch the moon set over Noyak Bay. If I was surprised by how cold it was in my front yard, I was in for a bigger surprise at Long Beach. The winds were now gusting to nearly 30mph, straight out of the north, and when you're gazing upon Noyak Bay you're facing directly north. It was brutally cold. My eyes were tearing making it difficult to focus and I couldn't operate the camera with gloves so I had to take them off which was excruciating but, ... I reminded myself, I was up and out during the "golden hour" - the best time for photography, and I wasn't going to give up. I snapped away the best I could, changing the metering to see what affect that might have on these photos of that very large, ever-present, pesky moon.

© 2011 Claudia Ward, Moon Setting Over Noyak Bay,

The sun had cleared the eastern horizon and the moon was just cresting the western horizon at around 7:00 a.m., when I decided to head home to thaw and review the lessons of the day. Peter and I chatted about the challenge of photographing the moon and consulted some of our favorite tutors - Scott Kelby and the internet, in general, and we concluded the following are required to even get close to success:

1. A clear view of the moon
2. A tripod
3. A long telephoto or zoom lens, i.e. 200mm or more
4. A timed or remote release of the shutter
5. A low ISO setting, e.g. 100
6. A moderately high shutter speed, e.g. 1/250s
7. A small to medium aperture, e.g. f/5.6 -f/11
8. Manual focusing

This was all still ruminating in my mind when I awoke around 5:00 this morning and saw the moonlight streaming in through the french doors of the balcony. I still heard the winds, but they didn't sound quite as strong as yesterday so again I donned the long winter coat over my nightgown along with the slipper boots and my winter cap. (This is the country, there's no one out there to see me, and it's dark.) The D60 was now donning my 120-400mm zoom lens and was mounted on our heaviest tripod. The camera was set on Manual at an aperture of f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/250 sec, at ISO 100, and for remote control release.

Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought today could be colder than yesterday, but it was now a brisk 4℉ with the wind chill. No sooner had I set the tripod down at the street's edge, which is only 25 feet from the front door, than my fingers were screaming with pain from the cold. I'd come this far, I wasn't going to go back inside with nothing, so I took one photograph, hoping that these new settings would produce a photo of the moon that wouldn't be an overexposed bright white circle. Well looky, looky ... I'm really quite pleased, and plan to "shoot the moon" more often ... when it's warmer.

© 2011 Claudia Ward, The Waning Gibbous Moon

Shot with a Nikon D60, Sigma 120-400mm lens at 400mm, Tripod, Remote Release, ISO 100, 1/250 sec at f 11, cropped and processed in Lightroom

 Thanks TWinsch!

Comments

[ed hatch]

glad you're doinjg well fondly Ed Hatch

[ally]

these are really beautiful.
it was quite a moon!

[Paul Angotta]

The moon on a cold winter night - beautiful!!

[Sally]

The pictures are beautiful!!! The next time you go out in cold like this, another photographer needs to be out there taking pictures of the photographer. As the saying goes - "A picture is worth a thousand words"!!!!

[Cuzzin Robert]

Ditto to Bonnie's comment... I enjoyed the story as well. Patience and perseverance prevails!

[Bonnie Phinney]

Had to send you a note on this one, though I must admit, my being unfamiliar with how to do that took me a few minutes. Anyway, you should be very proud with that photo of the moon! Looks like it was taken through a telescope! Just beautiful! Congrats!