Harvest Moon Photo Tips

I thought this article by Amy Farnsworth over at the Monitor was interesting, especially the photography tips - each year I try to take a decent Harvest Moon photo, and each year I fail!

-The harvest moon gets its name because the light from the moon allows farmers to work later hours – past sunset – and harvest staple crops such as pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice, during this time period. The Farmers’ Almanac says “the moon typically rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the US, and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe.”
The colors of the harvest moon vary and it can appear in red, yellow, or orange hues due to air pollution – mainly from forest fires.
Throughout centuries, the colorful harvest moon has inspired artists, painters, and poets. Many photographers have tried to capture images of the harvest moon, but it’s not very easy.
To take stellar photos of this seasonal event, Writer Geoff Gaherty of Space.com offers the following photography tips:
If your camera has automatic exposure, the scene will look too bright and the moon will be overexposed. The trick to capturing the harvest moon in a photograph is first, to zoom in with your telephoto lens to make the moon appear larger, and secondly, to underexpose the picture by a couple of stops, to darken the landscape, saturate the colors, and expose the moon properly.