280/85

I have previously made several ill faded attempts to capture a shot of the moon. After doing some web reading, I was ready to take on this challenge again. Last evening, with the moon being 78% full and in it’s Waxing Gibbous phase, I planted my tripod in the sands of the bay, set my camera on the steady and tried as I had before.

I found the first common mistake shared by many was to assume, because it is dark, crank up the ISO. There is no need to as the intended target is a brightly glowing object and secondly you must have a very fast shutter speed. Heck, the moon is moving and from what I witnessed at a rather quick pace.

For my settings; ISO 200, 1/250, f/10, @ 300mm, and I think this goes without saying no flash. I shot in RAW, so I could make fine post processing adjustments if necessary.

I was happy with myself for reading up, prior to shooting, as it did save me the time and trouble of doing lots of fine tuning in processing. I adjusted the whites, lights, and the blacks, dark, cropped and framed.

While I am fairly pleased with the shot, I do plan on trying again when the winds are still. Last night they were strong enough to move the tripod causing a bit of shake and motion resulting in some blur.

Go see what other photographers learned over @ Courtney's.  She has lots of wonderful and informative photography tips.

And why not web hop over to Ashley's to check out some awesome editing tips.