Earlier this fall, Hannah and I headed outside to catch a glimpse of a very cool Halloween-like moon.

Not being used to photographing the moon, it became playtime on the front porch.

I didn't feel like digging out the tripod for this impromptu session, so I relied on propping up the camera on my leg and then attempting to control my breathing so I didn't shake the camera during the exposure.

I found out a few things: if you don't have a tripod, you have to have a steady hand; you also have to understand how important it is to take a deep breath prior to photographing (breathing can cause shaking during the exposure) your image; and lastly, a tripod will save you more time and aggravation than you can believe.

I finally captured this image with the shadowy clouds surrounding the moon after numerous exposures featuring various states of stacking things to get the right camera angle. Sadly, I missed the spooky clouds directly in front of the moon because I didn't master my makeshift technique until they had already floated away.

Next time, I'll grab the tripod.