I see the moon, and the moon sees me. But?

I see the moon, and the moon sees me. But…

I was sitting in my office in the loft when my wife invited me to join her in the candlelit summerhouse, which was warm and good for relaxing in. I went out with a book: and then came in again for a camera and tripod.

A beautiful, bright, nearly-full moon, was shining on the summerhouse, so I could put my biggest, heaviest tripod on it with little risk of wobble (I thought). I collected the most extreme telephoto gear I own – a 500mm Minolta mirror lens, with a Jessops 2x converter, strapped to the front of an Alpha 7R III with a Minolta/Sony adaptor in there. So a metre of photographic reach – and rather outdated AF – the converter seems to use more or less the AF module and drive from my old Alpha 900 – nine focus spot, all towards the centre of the field. It couldn’t lock onto the moon, anyway…



Now, the Minolta mirror lens is a first-generation AF optic, and while you can focus it manually, the focus ring is not terribly nice: there’s play and backlash, and it’s EVER so sensitive. Also, even a hefty Manfrotto tripod that is both awkward and unpleasant to carry for more than around fifty feet fails to prevent what I can only describe as tremor on the screen at 14x magnification for focussing. A certain lack of success followed, and much frustration. I reckon a cheap 2x converter wasn’t helping.

OK, time for Plan B, which was my Olympus OM-D EM-1 with a 75-300 zoom, again falling a bit short of ‘strong and stable’, but with the aid of a 2-second delay and the rather better MF feel of a much more modern lens I got there. At least this time the magnified view had a vestige of focus peaking visible, though the image is much noisier.



Clearly, the images aren’t up to snuff for any use other than inviting ridicule, and proving to me that there are branches of photography I am unlikely to master. Of course, practice helps refine the technique. Of course, someone who doesn’t usually carry a lens longer than 85mm and has not invested heavily in telephotos is at a disadvantage. And (of course) I am not going to invest in a long and sharp lens, because I would use it so rarely…

Feel free to mock, and also to offer practical advice to others who may want to try to shoot the moon: I’ll settle for the first frame I took this evening, with an 85mm lens at full aperture, blurring the moon behind the branches of our neighbour’s apple tree.