Certainly one of my favourite subjects and a popular snap around blogworld is the moon, but it can be a bit tricky to get right.

So, in a potentially granny sucking eggs moment I thought I'd share tips I've picked up...

One trap I fell into a lot in the early days of trying to snap her is... It's night, and the majority of your frame will be black so if your camera is on automatic it'll try to even the exposure and make the moon too bright.

The simple fact is the Moon is a source of a lot of reflected light, it's actually much brighter than we might think for a camera so letting it choose will mean we lose the moon into a bright white halo like snapping a mini sun.

So, if you can, set your ISO to 100 to minimise noise and blurring and then plant your shutter speed as low as you can, I took this one at ISO 100 with a shutter speed of just 1/200th of a second, or 0.005 seconds:

If your camera doesn't allow this try having a bit of black card or scarf, something black and not see through... let the shutter snap... then cover the front of the lens! Do it yourself shutter speeds

The other trick is to have the camera resting on something, you'd think with a shutter speed of just 1/200th of a second handheld would be ok, and it can provide good results but with the moon so far away the smallest movement will blur, and we all know what you really want is all those pits and crevices...

Of course, you don't actually need a tripod, I took the above shot leaning on a slightly more DIY support... my work fleece rolled up and rested on top of a nearby car

So...

Rest the camera on something.
Use the lowest possible ISO setting.
Zoom in as close as possible.
Use a fast shutter speed.
Take more than one, so you can pick the best!