Moon Over Quincy, CA

Did I miss all the cool moon shots you all took this last month? I never shot the moon. Not once. Since I finally had a decent camera and telephoto lens to work with, I decided I was gonna catch the moon August 10 - supermoon.

Then the clouds rolled in and ruined it all. There was no place near me that you could see the moon as it rose in the sky. I was pissed. I went home very disappointed. I'd go out to my front patio and shake my fist at the dark and cloudy sky every once in a while. I went out again at almost 11PM to curse once more and there it was. The moon in all its glory, surrounded by clouds, but visible. And me unprepared.

I ran in the apartment, grabbed my tripod and camera and set up on the patio. Clouds covered the moon once again. But they were moving. The moon threatening to reveal itself again, I had to find a better position - something that would give me a composition that would be a little interesting and didn't have power lines running through it. I ended up with a not very good image, but it was the best I could get. I developed it as a B&W, then sepia toned it a little, but it's still not spectacular.

*Sorry, image removed.*

Just before I fell asleep that night, I decided to get up an hour and a half before moonset and see what I could do. I drove to town and set up down the street from the county courthouse because there are some interesting trees surrounding it. I was hoping to get part of the courthouse in the shot too, but there was still that struggle with the cloud cover coming and going. I ended up with an interesting shot anyway, I think. It was almost 6am.

*Sorry, image removed.*

Of course, since I'd never shot the moon before, I figured I also had to get that obligatory full-moon-head-on shot that there are a million of already. Might as well add mine.

*Sorry, image removed.*

So, there's another supermoon coming on September 9th. What can I do to improve? My camera is a Nikon D5300 and the best lens I have for this is a Nikkor 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6. I'm also gonna have to improve my Lightroom techniques. C'mon, he'p a guy out.

Thanks,

Jim