Events - Event View

Thanks to the advance work of PHOTOG's incredibly talented moon photographer, Dave Muller, we have a special opportunity to photograph the full moon rising over downtown Tulsa from a premier and private location! Permission has been granted for us to enjoy a special private property location that offers an unobstructed view of the full moon rising. We will be located above and west of our urban skyline. Unfortunately parking and tripod space is limited to twenty five PHOTOG members. We will meet at the Sand Springs Walmart parking lot at 5:45, an hour before the full moon rise on Saturday October, 12.  Park near QuikTrip to take advantage of a final potty break as there is no bathroom access at the shoot location. From Walmart we will travel together to the location to arrive with plenty of time to visit and still be setup & prepared for moon rise. For those of you who care to join after the shoot, we have a private room for 25 reserved at Colton's Steak House & Grill in Sand Springs. Dinner and gratuity will be on your own.  Bring a long lens and sturdy tripod as the distance to downtown will be approximately 6-1/2 miles. This will work to our advantage as it will cause the buildings to appear small compared to the rising moon! Sign up soon as there are only 25 available slots. If you reserve and must cancel please do so early as there will be a waiting list of members who will want to take advantage of the slot!

The Best Camera Gear for Moon Photography:

Tripod - A secure base and workstation for your camera is essential to capturing the moon and avoiding camera shake.

Long zoom lens - In order to help fill the frame and properly show off the moon, the longer your zoom lens the better.  

Shutter release cable - Or a wireless remote. It's nice to have and helps avoid camera shake.  If you don't have one you can cheat and use the self-timer function on your camera.

ISO - Should be set to 100 or lower to eliminate noise and grain.

Aperture - Because you're after crisp, clean shots, shooting at f/11 to f/16, depending on your lens, will be the best place to start. Research your lens' sweet spot to find the sharpest aperture.

Shutter speed - Starting at about 1/60th to 1/125th should be a great starting point.

What is the Looney 11 Rule?

In moon photography, there is a “rule of thumb” that is easy to memorize and should get you close to a good exposure of the face of the moon – the “looney 11 rule.”

The Rule - Set aperture to f/11 and shutter speed to the reciprocal of the film speed.

For example - f/11 at ISO 100 and 1/100th second shutter speed.

Another example - f/11 at ISO 200 and 1/200 second shutter speed.