Capturing September's First Half Moon

September's first Half Moon as it was waning was my target in the small hours of Thursday morning last, the following link shows the snapshot.



Link to larger image: www.flickr.com/photos/42867418@N05/4950692191/in/photostream/

If anyone has any tips for taking shots of the Moon WITHOUT a telescope, I am open to all suggestions, techniques and methods of processing (let alone the kind of shots i.e. against a landmark, etc.).

Seanie.

Hi Seanie, I think you have it spot on there to be honest, the only thing to add would be a foreground object fro example a tree/building/landmark etc.

You could choose to light it a little yourself with a small lamp, may be not, it depends on the subject matter itself, and remember the zoom lens would work well as it gives you a good range to pick from, obviously, the shorter the focal length, the smaller the moon size.

Also the longer the focal length, the more out of focus the foreground object, so if it's *only* a tree, then try to frame it in the last botton third or right/left hand third of the shot.

Keith..

Thank you Keith, I appreciate the feedback. At the time, I was on the edge of the bog and the Moon was that little bit too high to get a any (low lying) foreground objects. The problem I had trying to get this shot was that the previous 2 nights were clear but foggy, This night was far less foggy but it was getting worse.

How does one go about highlighting the foreground when in the middle of nowhere? Separate camera flash off the main camera? Flash of the car's highbeams?

Seanie.

Yeah, fog is a bummer alright, as for highlighting the foreground, I've seen shots lit up by a simple red light torch also, which is really cool or indeed the car headlights for a small while, certainly no more than a few short seconds.

This is not necessarily related to the moon, but did you ever see the world at night website?

There are some superb lit up shots here :ohmy:

www.twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp

Keith..

Thanks for the tips. I have seen that site, I make the odd visit to see its updates, there are some nice amateur additions through it.

Seanie.