It was full moon and only days away from Christmas. The bush had had a lot of rain and with this came a carpet of green. The sky is often not completely clear at night so seeing the full moon is a rare treat.

If you have ever looked at the sky on the night when the moon reaches full size you will see that it rises from the east just after the sun has set. I am sure many of you will have tried to take photos of the moon but more often than not, you will have had little success. Well here is how to do it.

Put the biggest lens that you have onto your camera. In this case I used a 600mm f4 with a 1.7 converter. Then set the camera to manual. I take most of my moon photos as soon as the moon rises, at F8, 1/800th of a second; and sometimes higher of a second at an ISO of about 400 - 800. That sounds really fast but trust, me the moon is brighter and faster than you think.

To get this picture is a little more complicated as I did this one with multiple exposures. I took a photograph of the vulture at sunset, planning where I wanted to place the moon and then later took a picture of the moon on the same frame. It is a different technique which has endless opportunities.

Happy snapping,

Rod Wyndham

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