Getting better at shooting the moon

So I go from shooting trees – to shooting the moon!

Last night was a great night to view the moon. Elizabeth and Emmy came home from a late school meeting and yelled for me to go out and shoot the moon!

I had tried to shoot the moon before but I really didn’t know my camera gear well enough to get some great detail. This time, I was ready.

I grabbed my Nikon D7000 and slapped my Sigma 200mm 2.8 lens on it then put it on my tripod then Liz and I went to my front yard. We sat outside in the cold and “snuggled” while waiting for the moon to clear the tree line.

I set my camera to F20 at 1/30 shutter speed – ISO 100 and manual focus. Using “Live View” mode on my camera LCD allowed me to zoom in electronically to achieve focus. Using the viewfinder wasn’t an option since all I could see was a little white dot that was bright. Focus attained, I then used my wireless remote to fire the camera – this avoids any camera shake.

Got some good photos but I really should be using at least a 300mm lens…

“See honey! That’s why I need a new lens…”

“No….it looks fine with what you have…”

But I was quite pleased with the outcome. I took the photos into Photoshop (after converting the RAW files) and did some cropping and sharpening.

The photo on the right is how small the moon looked in my photos – thank godness for a 14mb picture!

So, there you go. Next time…video.

Beto

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