I photographed the full moon at about 1AM pst just before waxing full at it's perigee (when it's closest to the earth ~213,840 miles away. The earth is closest to the sun in it's elliptical orbit too.

That means that the moon appeared about 9% larger and about 20% brighter than the average full moon.

NASA has more information about it here

Camera: Nikon F4, Lens: 400mm f/5.6, 1.4X teleconverter, 2X teleconverter (equavalent to 1120mm lens) I had to move away from the tripod because when looking through the lens, I could see movement equavalent to my heartbeat. I spot metered the moon and increased exposure about 1-2/3 stops so the moon would be 1-2/3 stops brighter than the 18% light reflection that the meter meters for. Then I bracketed in 1/3 stops so I could choose which exposure I liked the best and for other variables such as shutter and aperture inconsistencies. Shutter unrecorded at about f/22 where this lens is sharpest. I don't consider this a good image because of the loss of quality from the teleconverters that multiply any lens flaws and motion but exposed about a half roll of film to use in various projects. Film: Ektachrome E100VS The moon is about 7/16" (11mm) in size on 35mm film.

Caution: a larger image (600 x 600) behind the cut. ( here )

Last autumn I spent about 18 days making photographs in and around Mt Rainier National Park and when I knew that I wouldn't be back for a while, I was savoring the last light that evening. I was cold and sitting on a stone wall beside my van wishing I had an espresso machine with me and decided to get my camera out for one last image before heading for home. I mounted my 17-35mm lens and polarizer on the F4 and zoomed to about 20mm. I spot metered the sky above the faint glow and called it medium. The edges of the sky would go very dark at the edges because the polarizer was on a very wide angle lens but that was what I wanted. I didn't note the exposure but remember it being long enough that I had to use a timer because the Nikon's longest manual exposure is 4 seconds. I added about a half stop to the Ektachrome E100VS film for reciprocity failure. I didn't expect the magenta in the clouds but like it. The clouds were moving up the Nisqually River valley from the southwest. The mountain behind me obscured now in it's own clouds was out and the subject for my photographs a half hour earlier.

Last week when I was riding the ferry to a class in Seattle, I ventured to the bow of the boat to look out toward the city as we approached. I wound my way through the motorcycles and saw a familiar looking Honda Gold Wing Aspencade. It looked just like my first Wing I bought in '83. I rode the bike about the western US and Canada and to work every day putting about twenty thousand miles on it and then because of some design flaws with the front end, I sold it the following spring and bought an '84 which I still own. I looked closer at the Wing on the ferry and noticed that it had about the same doodads that I had added and the same kind of halogen driving lights. It even had the same switches I had added and an altimeter like mine... like mine!? It was my old bike!! Wow, like meeting an old traveling friend. All those trips coursed through my mind and I got such a warm feeling. About that time the now-owner came to get on his bike to drive off the boat as we had arrived at the terminal. We talked a little but we didn't have time to exchange phone numbers or email addresses as he had to drive off but I will watch for him when I ride tomorrow because he said he rides that boat to work often. I've got some tales to relate to him and some safety care warnings about the front end.
Image made with Nikon Coolpix 990 and some painterly stuff in Photoshop because the image was worse than it looks here.