Christmas eve we had lots of family over, a turkey dinner, and the table groaned. Later, after almost everyone had gone home, and it was time to get the kids to bed, I saw the winter moon rising over the hills. I took a fancy to photographing the rising moon through the leaves of our decorative Japanese cherry tree. Satiated with food and with my mind on family I was almost going to pass on it. But every time I haven’t tried for a photo that took my fancy, I’ve regretted it.
I packed my kit and went outside with Julian while Phyllis got Nicky and Mathew to bed.
With Julian giving me advice, I started shooting the moon through the winter leaves of the decorative cherry tree (I planted it about the time Julian was born).
I boosted the ISO up to 3,200 for my first shots, focused at infinity for the moon, and hoped for the extreme low noise that I’ve been getting with my new D300. But the best image in the series turned out to be this, shot conventionally at ISO 100 and 15 seconds, and focused on the branch of the tree. Focusing closer at a wide-open aperture made the moon–which was going to blow out highlights completely if I retained any foreground detail–huge, abstract, and round.
Related story: Moon Roll.
[300mm in 35mm terms, 15 seconds at f/4.2 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]