Shooting the Moon

Tonight, I decided I wanted to shoot the moon. In Alaska, the best full moons are in winter, when we have an actual night, but they still pose a challenge. If the winter night is warm enough to stand outside, then the sky is too cloudy. If the sky is bright, beautiful, and clear, it is also deathly cold. On top of that, you need to figure out the right ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop. Most people over-expose their shots on their first attempt.

After my lab, I noticed a beautiful full moon rising above campus. So I decided to try to figure out how to photograph the moon with my camera. I armed myself with 400 black and white film, a shutter release cable, two telephoto lenses, a borrowed tripod, pens, a notebook, and coffee. I dragged Wil and we drove 20 minutes out of the city, pulling out at a rest stop by the ocean. As Wil set up his tripod, I systematically planned out the f-stop and shutter speed for each individual frame, recording each in my notebook. Scientists are obsessive note-takers, and I wanted to know which settings worked and which sucked. With a digital camera, it would be a few minutes of trial and error, but right now I am working with film, and I'm determined to find the right settings for moon photography. Wil was as patient as ever, and made a great assistant, especially in providing lighting and a stopwatch for my prolonged shutter shots.

The first two rolls were taken with my 200mm lens, nicknamed J-tel. I used the first roll playing with prolonged exposure, setting up 15, 10, and 5 second increments for each f-stop, and a few experimental shots. Roll Two focused on each f-stop at shutter speeds 1-250. I switched out the lenses to my 210mm, named P-tel, and focused on f11 and f16 at every shutter speed, 1-1000, as well as 15, 10, 5, and 3 second increments. According to my research, f11 and f16 are preferred for moon photography, so I hope these ones turn out well. I don't expect my 15 second shots to be more than white blobs, but I want to see it myself. I labeled each roll (scientists ALWAYS label), and hopefully I will have them developed in the darkroom by the end of the month.

I spent nearly 3 hours working with the camera. By the end of it, I couldn't feel my face, legs, or fingers, despite my attempts to bundle up. But I got so into the technical aspects, that I barely noticed. I love photography almost as much as I love my lab work, and everything about it, from the technical details to composition to film development, really appeals to me.