Oh, that moon....

I finally have a tripod!  It's extremely helpful when trying to get shots that require more steadiness than your hand can possibly do.  (Even your heartbeat can blur a photo!)  So the very first night I had it I tried taking some moon shots...it wasn't a full moon but pretty close.  However I kept getting frustrated!  I had the tripod and yet my shots were still fuzzy.  What was going on?  Well, yesterday I just happened to stumble on something (when I wasn't even looking) that stated if your lens has image stabilization and you are using a tripod you have to turn that stabilization off.  The inner mechanics of the lens working to stabilize will cause blur. Aha!! 

I couldn't have stumbled upon that bit of information at a better time.  Last night was a beautiful, bright full moon.  So I lugged my gear out again and gave it a whirl.  This time I was able to capture what I had been trying for all along!  I even think I see some of the craters on the upper right side of the photo!

I also took this night scene photo...yes, it has TONS of digital noise and grain but I was working with a pretty high ISO and on my simple SLR camera the high ISO creates quite a bit of grain.  But it was fun to play with.