Scenes of Vermont Forums

Hi will be staying in North Conway on 10/12. Does anyone have a favorite location where I might be able to take a nice picture with the full moon. Also, if you could give me an idea of what time i'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Moon shots are interesting. A lot of times you see them taken in pitch dark. I tend to prefer them just after moonrise, or in the morning twilight. Go to the www and Google "moonrise times" and you will find some sites that will let you dial in your location and the date and it will give you the time of "moonrise." If you do it then, there often will be some remaining daylight or twilight and you can sometimes get some detail in the foreground or other aspects of your photograph.

If you didn't know, you MUST use a tripod for this and have the ability to do a long, or timed exposure. Back in the day, we used to have to calculate exposure (and with film, something called "reciprocity"). While still technically an issue, you needn't worry about either if you have a modern DSLR. The metering systems are incredibly accurate and will usually be able to calculate the exposure. The key is to meter the moon itself, or something you know to be of "neutral" tone in the same light at the moon, in order to get detail in the moon itself. Then, you may want to expiriment a bit with under exposure to get different detail and color. Be patient.

While I am not familiar with that area, I also prefer moonrise (sunset), or moonset (just before sunrise). I have happened upon some nice moonset shots while waiting for sunrise. While you will need a tripod, make sure not to take "too long" of an exposure. While it seems like the moon is just sitting there, nice and still, it is actually "moving". If your exposure is too long, the moon will blur. Use as high an ISO setting on your camera that still gives you a clean image. The nice thing about digitial, is you can take as many exposures as you like, and even change ISO's on the fly. Even with digital, I still use Graduated Neutral Density Filters. I remember taking one moonset shot where I stacked a 2 and a 3 stop so that I had 5 stops less light over the moon, This allowed me to bring more detail into my foreground by using a longer exposure, without blowing out the moon. Good Luck!