October 25, 2007 - A full moon rises along the edge of Diamond Head crater shot through a telephoto lens. This Hunter’s Moon (the name for the moon after September’s Harvest Moon) is the closest it will get in 2007, about 30,000 miles closer than April’s moon, which was the farthest from Earth. Exposure details: Canon EOS 1-D Mark II, EF 600mm f4 (with 1.4X converter — 840mm), Manual, 1/2700 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1200, Daylight balance

There was some hype about this month’s full moon being huge and spectacular, so I decided I’d go out and try and get a moonrise photo.

I told the city desk about my scheme, and they seemed to like it, although one guy said, “Sounds good, as long as the clouds disappear.”

Thanks. Good ol’ dramatic foreshadowing.

My plan was to go up to that little park on the hill in Kaimuki above the fire station, and shoot the moon coming up over Waialae Iki ridge. The potential for drama was good — a big moon, plus the Moon Illusion effect, plus the use of a big telephoto lens.

I got up there with the 600mm and the shot looked good. Except for the clouds. Lots of them. Thick and puffy, hanging low over the hills.

I was feeling a little queasy at this point, but there were some clear sections, and I gambled that the moon would rise in one of those pockets of clarity and the day would be saved.

No such luck. I caught a sliver of the moon, rising above the ridge. It looked great. Too bad there was nothing to shoot.

Okay, stay calm. Time for Plan X.

Which I didn’t have.

So I reasoned that the clouds were kind of low, so once they cleared the clouds I’d be okay. But I needed some object on the foreground. I thought about buildings in downtown or something, but given the time constraints I had, I settled on Diamond Head.

I jumped back in the car and ripped down to Kapiolani Park. I didn’t have much time before the moon got to the point that it would be too high for even Diamond Head.

After dodging a virtual marathon of joggers running all over the place, I parked and ran to a place between some trees where I had a good view of where the moon would rise. Or I thought it would. Of course it started rising nowhere near where I thought it would, so I had to go running to another place to line things up.

The moon is surprisingly bright, and I could shoot at high shutter speeds, which was good since I didn’t have a tripod (I was using a monopod with the Image Stabilizer activated).

After taking a slew of photos, I called it a night and went back to the newsroom to hand over the goods.

Not quite what I had in mind, but there’s always next time…