Moon + ?

I went out in my backyard about an 30 minutes ago to get picture of the moon, which was looking awesome. Check it out (blog exclusive!...haha, which means no one will see it).


Nikon D90, 70-300mm @ 300mm, f5.6, 1/60s, ISO 400

I was focused on testing out shutter speeds, ISO, white balance settings etc. I looked to my left to see something white, about 7 feet from me, not moving. I wasn't as scared as I was curious (whatever it was didn't seem threatening). I quickly and quietly ripped the camera off the tripod to try and get a shot. Pro tip here! Getting something in focus in complete darkness is difficult. The small light to help get focus turned on enough for me to see a skunk staring directly at me (but not enough to get focus)! I'm disappointed that I was not able to get a picture. The skunk turned away once it saw the light (I thought I was about to get a cloud of unpleasantness in my face). It nonchalantly walked away while I was frantically trying to get at least something resembling focus for a picture...It was not to be :(

Now that I think about it, I should have used f8 or f11 for the moon shot. The slower shutter speed wouldn't have hurt anything since I was using a tripod, and the image would have been sharper. Next time!