Blood Moon

I have an old SLR camera and know how to take photos at night with it but with newer digital cameras I can not get them to do what I want. Night setting tries to focus on a near item which it can not find, Auto setting tries to locate a near item for the flash to bounce off. Manual setting of aperture and shutter speed also tries to focus on a near item and will not snap. ONE OF THESE days I either take a class or buy a better camera that does what I ask. sony 200 does not. This photo was taken on action setting with camera braced (no tripod available) I have also tried to take photos of animals at night and the camera keeps doing test flash but takes no photo. I like the funny light effects but not what I wanted.