I’ve often mentioned in this blog that it is about my photographic journey. I’ve mostly shown images I’ve done well, but I never promised it would all be beautiful. Sometimes you have to fail in order to learn. Such was the occasion when my Toastmaster Photo Club decided to take a field trip and shoot the perigee (super) moon.

We checked out the moon rise time, the sunset time and a good place to shoot from. But things didn’t work out. The moon that was supposed to rise at 5:34 p.m. didn’t rise until 5:54 p.m. By then we missed the blue hour and had to shoot in the dark. I learned in my previous moon shoot to use a fast shutter speed. This was also a super moon, but not as close to the earth. The moon did what it was supposed to do–Rise during the blue hour.– and I got this shot.

But the perigee moon didn’t make its appearance until after the blue hour. We needed to slow down our shutter speed and I got this.

The moon is totally blown out. In talking with other photographers, it was suggested that I could have taken two pictures. One to expose for the moon and the other to expose for the foreground and then make a composite. Another said the only way he could get the shot was to have a friend shine a large flashlight to create a blue hour simulation.

Needless to say, I was very frustrated. But, I did learn from the experience. The big lesson was to not expect things to go as they did in a prior shoot. Oh, I am still open for more advice. Please share your expertise in the comments section.

Now, I’m going to edit some images that will be pretty to look at. Hopefully, the next time I shoot a super moon it will turn out well.