My tripod was useless for moon shot.. (Page 2): Since we had temps of four below Fahrenheit and a howling 30 mph wind, I had more difficult problems to deal with than stooping down. I...

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Since we had temps of four below Fahrenheit and a howling 30 mph wind, I had more difficult problems to deal with than stooping down. I did aim and then mount, but when I used my remote button for the release my D7200 autofocused! I'm sure there's a way to avoid that, but it was too late and I was too cold to play with it much. I got a couple of decent images, but even on my heavy and sturdy tripod from the 1970s, I had to crank up the ISO to get a shot.

Andy

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

lyndacast wrote:

The blood moon and eclipse last night were spectacluar, but it’s position (directly above me) rendered my tripod impossible to use...had to stick with handheld shots, which were less than sharp...

Could not position the tripod and my Nikon 7500 in a way that would allow me to see and focus on the moon in live view....

How do more seasoned photographers address this issue? I am sure there is a fix that I am not clever enough to have figured out....

Change your tripod head, so it's not a problem to use your tripod in this situation ( I never had a head that would not allow me to do this)!

Todd G

I don't know about your tripod. Mine has a ball mount. It has a slot on the side where I just slide it all the way sideways and point up. Moon was almost straight up above me. I aimed the camera up and angled the LCD screen where I could see it, no problem.

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

I had the same problem and found it was something I had not planned for. With the bitterly cold weather, it made taking the time to adjust more difficult. Had I realized beforehand that the moon would be pretty much directly overhead, I could have had the tripod set up better. We never stop learning!

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Get a taller tripod?

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

Kingman wrote:

Last night for the blood moon and the solar eclipse of 2017, I learned the extreme value of the Pentax K1 flip up & articulating rear LED screen! Minimally a flip up LED screen is requisite for objects near the zenith of the sky.

The K-1 and my Induro three way panhead worked for me, the K-1 for the same reason as above and the panhead allowed the camera to be positioned vertically.

Gitchigumi Loc: Wake Forest, NC

You would be using manual focus for the shot, so why not first set your focus when hand-holding. Then, once happy with the focus, put the camera onto the tripod for the shot? You'd have to be careful not to accidentally change the focus, but that isn't too difficult. (BTW, I had this same issue with my D7100, as the moon was directly overhead. So, I feel your pain.)

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

A better tripod head (I use an acratech gp-s) and a touch screen on my camera that swivels out will do the trick.

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

I have seen some gents lying flat on their backs !

Mister H Loc: Michigan

lyndacast wrote:

The blood moon and eclipse last night were spectac... (show quote)

Nikon1201

I have a MeFoto and I can shoot straight up . When the moon got straight up I rotated my camera 180 degrees and the angle was changed to get the shot.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

lyndacast wrote:

The blood moon and eclipse last night were spectacluar, but it’s position (directly above me) rendered my tripod impossible to use...had to stick with handheld shots, which were less than sharp...

Could not position the tripod and my Nikon 7500 in a way that would allow me to see and focus on the moon in live view....

How do more seasoned photographers address this issue? I am sure there is a fix that I am not clever enough to have figured out....

Not Seasoned....The moon was at about 85 degrees vertical in Central Florida (at midnight). I set my tripod (a large Benro) to position the camera as vertical as I possibly could by using the recessed area in the Ball head. Then flipped my screen out as far as I could, raised the tripod and got a small chair, reclined and sat basically under the tripod. Difficult to see and manipulate the controls but got a few good photos of the Blood Moon, as least for me.

Hopefully last time I try to shoot something vertically....

elliott937 Loc: St. Louis

You might be surprised how much a right-angle adaptor can be used. When I've taking beautiful captures of flowers here at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the right angle adaptor permits me to lean downward, yet take a horizontal face-on pic of the flower.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

lyndacast wrote:

The blood moon and eclipse last night were spectacluar, but it’s position (directly above me) rendered my tripod impossible to use...had to stick with handheld shots, which were less than sharp...

Could not position the tripod and my Nikon 7500 in a way that would allow me to see and focus on the moon in live view....

How do more seasoned photographers address this issue? I am sure there is a fix that I am not clever enough to have figured out....

You need an OVERHEAD TRIPOD, available at B&H.

RPW

I had to turn my camera backward on my tripod because the tilt control handle wouldn’t allow me to rotate to an angle where I could point the camera to the moon because it was almost straight overhead. This caused a minor inconvenience but I adapted quickly since it was constantly changing the position. Well worth the trouble.