A beach and a rising moon

[PhotoByTrace]

It seems like forever since I've had time alone with my camera, but made a date with her this weekend We headed to the beach together last night to watch the very romantic rising of the May full moon. This is the first time I've tried to take moon photos and have to admit I found the exposure very challenging. I followed the 1/ISO at f/11 rule of thumb once the moon was high, and knew that I could get longer exposures while it was close to the earth and I was viewing it through the atmosphere. But still challenging to get both the moon and the surrounds sufficiently exposed.
Here's what I ended up with using my 18-200mm lens at various lengths. I also ended up with a red ring around the moon in a few photos; I thought it to be chromatic aberration but it didn't shift using the usual tools.

70mm f/11 1/3sec ISO 200


40mm f/11 8secs ISO 200 (+ND 4 stop)


200mm f/11 1/180sec ISO 200


And when I turned around from shooting the moon, this was the last of the colour from a gorgeous sunset.

[annie5154]

Hi Trace, beautiful pics well done. Enjoyed viewing such peaceful images, thank you for sharing.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Trace,

I think the second is my favourite.

On the first especially, I wonder if the top bit of purple sky is contributing enough to warrant the 'split in half' composition of having the horizon across the middle.

Glad you kept the date,