Just posting three photos from a recent trip (which I’ll cover in detail a little later on.) I thought the comparison was worth seeing. They are from August 8th, 10th, and 14th.
These are fairly good illustrations of why shooting a moon that is less than full can look a lot more dynamic. You get great shadows and textures from a slightly oblique sun angle, and the results just seem more real.
The last shot appears a little less sharp than the others, which may be true, due to handholding the camera while the moon was dimmer down towards the horizon during moonrise, or possibly due to thicker atmosphere and humidity – there’s a faint cloud shadow along the top. But then again, it’s the shadows of the craters and rills that make sharper edges too, so it’s likely a combination. The first, with the blue sky, was handheld too, but at least higher in a clear sky.
