It was supposed to be the brightest & the best full moon of the year 2010. The photographer in me was excited about the prospect of shooting the moon for some amazing results.

(Referenced from http://www.wrotniak.net/)

The entire first half of the 30th Jan was spent on reading up about lunar photography. Tips & tricks from across the web were read, understood & made notes of. After finalizing on a good location for the shoot, I announced to the family that I would be away with my third baby (that is how the Canon 500D is referenced to by the wife when peeved) for the whole of the Saturday evening. If looks & sighs could kill …..

Thanks to a brain wave at the last minute, I landed up on the 10th floor of a very familiar car park that proved to be a great location for the purpose. I spent more than an hour waiting for the moon rise & setting up the equipment … all in the company of an amused security guard (pictured below).

Bengaluru’s air pollution came into play & hid the moon till it rose a clear 5-10 degrees off the horizon. After that, the full moon was a breathtaking sight. With all my preparation & good luck with the weather, I had to return with some amazing snaps. Right?

Imagine my disappointment when the two best shots of the evening turned out to these below:

Oh well … not everything was lost. It was a great outing. I got to do something out of the ordinary. And thanks to all my preparation, I know exactly what would’ve resulted in me taking spectacular snaps (like Andrzej Wrotniak’s snap at the beginning of this posting).

If any of you are interested in photographing the moon, find below some notes from my prep work for this adventure :

Tips:

• Pack in your tripod & a telephoto lens (300 mm minimum; bigger the better; a tele-converter would be handy)
• Its a good idea to bracket your exposure
• Use the camera’s highest resolution setting
• Experiment around f11 – f16 : 1/125 – 1/250 : ISO 100 – ISO 400

Resources:

• http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/moon/index.html
• http://photodoto.com/four-basic-tips-for-photographing-the-moon/
• http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/tips/030_moon_photography.htm – this article has links to many more resources at its end
• http://digital-photography-school.com/moon-photography-made-simple
• http://fullmooncalendar.net/ – calendar to get dates for full moon across the globe

Tip #1 was where I bit the dust – I only have a cheap Sigma 18-200mm lens that was just not big enough for the occasion. I now think I should’ve carried my older Minolta aim-n-shoot camera. Its 20x optical zoom might have given better results. Well, the next full moon is just a month away!