I had a date with the moon tonight. The moon was late, but at least I didn’t get stood up. As I sat last night and watched the moon come up, I really wanted to get my camera out and shoot it, but I missed my moment. Plus, I knew nothing about photographing the moon. The moon rises quickly, and is only largest as it comes over the horizon. There’s a very minimal window of time to catch it at what appears to be its largest. I pulled out a dusty old zoo lens that I never use and set up shop tonight… this time waiting on that opportune moment. My heart actually quickened its pace as the moon came up over the horizon. It really is amazing to watch how quickly it moves. I was even more amazed to find that I really didn’t need my tripod or remote, this evening. This shot was taken at ISO 400 with a 400mm zoom (cropped slightly in processing) open to f11 and shot at 1/160. Much easier to focus to infinity if you’re holding the camera yourself! This was a great experiment tonight and I feel a mild obsession with photographing the moon’s various stages coming on. At least while I have the advantage of living at 8,300 feet for the rest of the month!


Goodnight, moon.