New amiture photographer needs help.

AKRover wrote:

For such complicated situations, the focus system and the metering system both get fooled. It is best to switch to full manual, which may seem scary, but it isn’t. When the camera flashes and doesn’t take a picture, that is a sure sign that it couldn’t achieve focus (it really can’t focus in the dark so we must manually focus). It is also necessary to use a tripod if you want to shoot such long exposures (slow shutter speeds), but I don’t think you really wanted such long exposures, especially with the moon shot. The moon is extremely bright and can typically be photographed handheld with fast shutter speeds, small apertures, and moderate ISO settings. When you leave it up to the camera, it sees all that darkness in the sky and decides to horribly overexpose the moon.

Switching to manual requires a reasonable understanding of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. If you aren’t there yet, those three technical matters require your attention. There are lots of explanations available and if you don’t understand something specific, ask questions here. The photos imply that you are missing this fundamental foundation for all of photography. These are not complicated topics, but the first few times we study them, everyone’s eyes glaze over and everyone starts to think, “I just want to take pictures”. Make no mistake, the eye for a good image is far more important than all this technical stuff, but the technical stuff will keep you out of trouble, especially when you move into difficult situations like night photography. If this is where you chose to start out, you have embraced a big challenge, but one that will put you in touch with some very practical learning.

+1 simply outstanding advice.

R2