Snappy School! The “how to” of photography for bloggers will be HERE in this cozy corner on the blog . There will be guest posts lined up, lots more “how to’s”, ask me questions and video workshops. W00t!

Here’s a taster…

How to Shoot The Moon

I was very VERY lucky to have picked up a half decent zoom lens for Christmas last year, and since then, my obsession for using it has been to “shoot the moon”. My first attempt is the image you can see at the top – a partial eclipse of the moon as seen on 31st December, 2009. I was chuffed to bits to capture this, especially as it was my first moon attempt with limited time to capture the shot – the partial eclipse was passing VERY quickly!

To get a remotely decent picture of the moon, you will need a number of things. The first, being a dSLR. Sure you can take it with a point and shoot compact, or a camera phone, but you might not (most definitely won’t) get the crazy surface detail of the moon that you might be after.

Oh, and ideally you’re going to need to know a teeny bit about manual mode…

As with any photograph you take, there are going to be a million different factors that can affect the settings you choose to use. I can give you guidelines (in the VERY BASIC FORMAT in keeping with this site – remember, minimal jargon here!) but as ever, you need to be brave and play around with your camera.

The next thing you’re going to need is a half decent zoom lens. Fact is? Your kit lens (the bog-standard lens which came with the camera) will probably be an 18-55mm lens and will just not cut it. I’m using a Canon dSLR, and worked with a 55-250mm zoom lens to capture my moon images. Sure you can use your shorter or “kit” lens. However you’ll end up with a nice glowing white blob as your image. Not quite what you’re after…(and no amount of Photoshop zooming will fix it!). If you’re on a Nikon and have some pennies saved, lay your hands on a 55-200mm or even better (and you have a decent camera to go with it), aim for a 55-300mm

Lastly, and QUITE importantly, you may like to consider using a tripod. Unless you have a hand as steady as a solid wood coffee table, there will be some movement from you, which will cause the even the slightest blur in your image. I confess I was naughty and mine freehand, but was too impatient to set up the tripod in my tiny garden with the neighbour’s insanely huge tree in the way. Even better if you’re going to use a tripod, lay your hands on a remote control too. That way, you don’t even suffer the teeny tiny vibrations of pressing the shutter button on your camera. They’re cheap and cheerful and you don’t even need a fancy one.

Here are two more of my favourite moon photos I have taken this year. With this one, the moon was incredibly low and picking up a lot of ambient light (lots and lots of yellow street lights) – this turned the moon a beautiful orangey-brown.

Again, I confess I didn’t use a tripod (smacks legs) but sometimes you can get away with wrapping your camera strap tight around your arm and wrist to help create firm tension, then lean against a wall. Uh…again I admit I did neither, but just kinda zoomed right in and tried to keep very VERY still. I know the image could be MUCH clearer, but I’m terrible for breaking rules…

This next one is my favourite picture of the moon I have ever taken.

I fumbled for my camera and rammed the appropriate zoom lens on the front, ran outside and snapped it – this came straight from camera on my 2nd or 3rd shot (umm yeah I skipped the tripod and remote on this one too. Go figure). Was very chuffed to bits that people have asked for copies!

If you are feeling SUPER BRAVE and want to investigate the settings to get some of these sorts of shots, you can find ALL the info you need. Click on the images, which will take you to my flickr photos. Just above the photo click on “actions” and scroll down to “View Exif Info”. Here you can find various exposure, aperture and ISO settings as discussed in the previous “Auto to Manual” post.

If it doesn’t make ANY sense at all, then just give me a shout! I’m happy to answer any questions I can, and more importantly, I’d love to see what images you come up with… Now go do it!