The Strawberry Moon

Last week I showed you a photo I took of apartment block lights reflecting on the water. The reason I was out that night was to get some pictures of the full moon. I did a bit of reading on the subject and found out that the June moon is actually called the Strawberry Moon.

I went down by the canal and got the tripod set up. Set the ISO to 1600, figuring I would need it cranked to get a good shot. 5.6 f stop and 2 second shutter speed. Way too bright. I brought the shutter speed down to 1/25 of a second and the photo came out like this.


Ok. I decided the bring the ISO down and see if the luminescence would abate some. Still too light I fiddled with the aperture too until I found a shot that sort of worked out. This was at Shutter speed 1/200, ƒ16 and ISO 200.


Well, that was a little better. At least now there is some definition to the surface of the moon, just a little dark. I needed a slower shutter speed. I tried 1/100 and it was still dark. This is how it turned out at 1/40.


And of course, that is a crop. actual size was the same as in the previous photo. I stayed out there for another 20 minutes trying to get some of the moon with slight cloud cover, but nothing was working out.

About four hours later I was letting the dog out for pre-bedtime business, and saw that the moon had come around behind the house and looked quite a bit bigger. I grabbed the camera and used the same settings as the last picture. Too bright. I dropped the Iso to 100, and the shutter speed to 1/30. And this is the final product.


I'll go out again next month and practice more. One thing for sure, I have to take the UV filter off my 18-55mm lens and put it on the telephoto lens to reduce some of the glare.