A new school year is upon us, and with it a new graduating class. High School and College Seniors Class of 2019, Schedule a Photo Session for your Senior Portraits with larue.photo.

How to Prepare for Your Senior Portraits Photo Shoot

So you’ve booked a Senior Portraits with larue.photo. What can you do before hand to get the most out of your portrait session time? How can you prepare, so we can capture the best portraits of you that we can during your session?

Brainstorm Places with Special Significance to You

We want to tell your story from senior portrait session. And part your story are the places you love spending time.  Is there a park with a fountain and ducks you like to feed? Your schools softball field? How about that old tire swing where you and your sweetie shared your first kiss? 

I find though, that the senior portraits with the most personality are the one’s we create outdoors, on location, during golden hour, in a place that has special meaning to you. Those are the portraits that will be the most meaningful to you for years to come.

Get a Hair Cut 5-7 days before

You want to look your best for the photos we’ll create together.  Getting your hair cut can make you look much nicer. And you know how you don’t like to way your new hair cut looks, because it’s still fresh and obviously new? Go get it cut a week or so before your photoshoot to give it time to look a bit more natural and lived in.

Bring an Outfit Change

By bringing 2-3 outfits with you, we will be able to deliver a more varied final product to you. Try to bring 1 formal outfit, 1 casual outfit, and 1 outfit which reflects your favorite hobby.  These pieces of clothing reflect who you are in 3 different aspects of you life, and we want to capture each of those sides of your personality.

Think About Props You Can Bring

What are your hobbies? What are the tools you use for those hobbies?  Bring those things and help visually tell the story of who you are, and what makes you unique.  Here are a few suggestions:

• Seniors, Bring:

  

  • Cap & Gown
  • Suit & Tie or Dress
• Athletes, Bring:
  • Your sports gear…no wait…your sports gear is filthy and smells awful. Mom knows. Wash it first. Or better yet, bring…
  • A brand new ball, bat, glove, hat, etc.
• Musicians, Bring:
  • Your instrument(s) and accessories
  • Sheet music
  • Marching Band: Ask your band director if you can borrow your uniform, shako and plume
  • Drummers: sticks, mallets, practice pad, a drum and/or drum head, and a cymbal or two
• Eagle Scouts Bring:
  • Class A: That includes Shirt, Pants, Belt, Hat, Socks, Merit Badge Sash, Neckerchief
  • Scout Handbook
  • Tent, Pack, Stove, Camping Gear

Bring Some Music to Listen to

Feel free to put together a playlist of your favorite songs to play during the shoot. I find that hearing familiar music can be comforting, and can help relax you if you’re feeling nervous about being photographed.  These shoots are meant to be fun, and I want you to feel as comfortable as possible so that I’m able to capture the true, inner you.  We all have plenty of pictures of ourselves giving that same practiced smile.  You know, the one that you put on after hearing “Say Cheese!”  That’s not what I’m after. I want to capture the candid moments that show you as you truly are.  So gather your favorite tunes, and get ready for a fun photoshoot with larue.photo.

Other Milestone Portraits We Capture:

Family Portraits
Engagement Portraits
Maternity Portraits
New Born Portraits
High School Senior Portraits
College Senior Portraits

Take a look at my portraits portfolio

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The post Senior Portraits with larue.photo, Scheduling, How to Prepare appeared first on laruephoto.

Today, I present to you a timelapse sequence of the lunar surface during the blue moon eclipse of January 31, 2018. See more from this eclipse.

Capturing the Lunar Surface

Equipment Rental

Wanting to capture detail on the lunar surface, I decided to rent a 400mm lens from the local camera shop. I chose a supertelephoto lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. This allowed me to capture a lot of light in a short time, but also meant that the lens would be bigger and heavier than a  400mm lens with a maximum aperture of, say, f/5.6.

I looked around online to find the weight of the lens, then compared that to the stats on both my tripod and ball head. The numbers indicated my equipment could hold this beast of a lens, so I went ahead and rented it.

Below I’ve included a photo of the lens in use in the field, and comparison images of the same scene shot with 50mm Vs. 400mm lenses.

400mm lens with Nikon d7000 on Tripod

Image 1 of 3

The 400mm supertelephoto lens, shown here as used to capture the lunar surface timelapse sequence; shot once finished

Timing

I spent most of the night watching the clock. Time management was the nights theme. I knew what I’d be doing each second for a 5 hour span of time. Eclipse timings are calculated years ahead of time, so I created a table of all the eclipse timings and how I wanted to handle the changing light. It was important to me to anticipate the changing light so I could compensate my camera setting accordingly; to change settings smoothly over enough exposures that the change felt natural. I didn’t want any flicker or sudden changes in light.

I kept my cellphone open to a digital clock (with seconds), told the screen to never timeout, and watched that thing like a hawk for 5 hours. 

Capture Notes

Capturing these images took some serious focus and dedication. I was juggling not only this lunar surface sequence, but two others as well. One for the lunar path, and the other for the cast light on the landscape behind me.

For the lunar surface sequence, I set the camera’s interval timer to capture an image every 60 seconds. That may not sound very frequent, but they get to coming fast. The moon moves through the sky pretty quickly, especially when looking through a telephoto lens. I needed to adjust the tripod every 4-5 minutes to keep the moon in frame.

This meant that any adjustments I needed to make to either of the other two sequences needed to be made within that 4 minute window. And unfortunately,  because of the compositions I chose, I was not able to position the cameras right next to each other. They were about 50 yards away in opposite directions of the lunar surface camera.

So I spent much of the night jogging between cameras to make sure everything was running correctly, and making minor adjustments, while trying to get back to the center camera before the moon left the frame. I estimate I covered over 2.5 miles that night walking between my 3 cameras.

Post-Production Notes

Finding an Automated Alignment Method

Turning my captures into a finished product was a labor intensive endeavor. I needed to get all 223 exposures to line up as closely as possible, accounting for movement on the X & Y axes as well as rotation.

At first I tried a few different techniques to automate the process. AfterEffects’ Warp Stabilizer, Premiere’s Stabilize Motion, Photoshop’s Auto Align. But they all struggled because of the changing light conditions surrounding the eclipse.

Aligning Manually

I ended up manually positioning and rotating each of the 223 images in Photoshop.

First I cropped all the images into tight squares that showed little more than the moon. Then, I loaded all the images into a stack (Scripts -> Load Files Into Stack) without Auto Align Layers.  I reviewed the image positions and picked a reference frame which seemed to be in the same position as a majority of the other images. I put this reference frame at the top of the layers palette, changed its Blending Mode to Difference, and locked the layer.

Then the fun begins. One by one I turned on a layers visibility and moved and rotated it to align with the reference layer.  After I had aligned 10 or so, the lighting had changed enough on the lunar surface that a new reference photo was needed. So, like a climber switching to a new harness line, I would make sure my new reference image was aligned properly, change its blending mode to difference, lock it, find the previous reference photo, unlock it, change its blending mode to normal, the change the visibility to off. In this way I was able to always have a visual cue of where I was in the process, in case my memory ever fails. [a frequent occurrence]

Feedback

So, what did you think? Did I explain my process clearly? Is there an easier way to do this that I can employ next time? Tell me in the comments.  Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter to stay informed of my most recent updates.

The post Lunar Surface Timelapse During Blue Moon Eclipse appeared first on laruephoto.

In case you currently have a piece of cholla stuck in your body, let me jump straight to the most urgent information.

Easy steps for emergency cholla removal:

1. Find a large comb or two rocks bigger than your hands
2. Choose a safe direction to fling the cholla
3. Place to comb or rocks between cholla and body
4. Apply pressure outward

And the lesson…carry a large comb when you think you might encounter cholla.

Monsoon Soon! Desert Hikes will Abound

The monsoon season is right around the corner for the Arizona deserts, and Penny, my (9 year old) puppy, and I are growing very excited. She loves coming out on adventures with me. She get’s to stick her head in holes and smell all the things the world has to offer; and I get to take pictures of it all. We both have some much stimulus to take in!

But in many places throughout the Sonoran Desert, cholla cactus can be found, and they are nasty little buggers. So I take extra special care to keep Penny from getting stuck, especially in her paws.

Puppy Respects the Dangers of the Desert

Penny is a very purposeful mover. She is not spastic, she moves herself carefully and deliberately. Penny recognizes the danger of cactus, and is able to step around it to avoid getting stabbed. Here she has found a spot among a field prickly pear cactus, and the smile on her face indicates no sign of concern.

At least that’s the case with most species of cactus we encounter. The problem with the cholla is that it doesn’t matter how carefully she steps around it, that stuff is like a magnet.

What’s Cholla Precious?

Cholla, (latin name Cylindropuntia Fulgida ) is a species of cactus that we have in abundance in the Sonoran Desert, where I live.  A cholla consists of many small, spike-covered sections, called tubercles. These sections easily break off, reroot and begin to grow as a new plant.

The static charge from the fur of a passing animal can easily dislodge pieces and carry it away from the host plant.  Because contact is not necessary for the piece to separate from the plant and stick to your leg, this plant has been nicknamed “Jumping Cholla.”  And once its on you, it is difficult to remove because there is no where to grab it that isn’t covered in the same needles you’re trying to remove.

First Aid Experiences with Puppy and Cholla

Penny has been stuck with cholla in her paws a couple times. She’ll get a piece in her paw and try to remove it with her mouth. So instead of removing it from her paw, she sticks her mouth.  I’ve tried before to remove them from her mouth while still on the trail, but it is very tough to hold her still, open her mouth, hold a flash light, and work the tweezers. 

So I need to call the shoot finished and rush home so my wife and I can work together to remove the stickers with tweezers. One of us will hold Penny, pet and comfort her and try to keep her calm, while the other holds her mouth open and tries to remove the needles from the back of her throat while she tries to close her mouth and turn her head away.  We usually take turns in each role. It’s a very long and difficult process, and it distresses us to see Penny in pain.  Eventually, though, we are able to remove all the thorns, which makes Penny a very happy puppy.

So, instead of ending the trip immediately and going through that whole ordeal, I can just carry a comb and quickly remove the cholla from her paw before she has a chance to (ineffectively) remove it herself.  We can continue on our way, me capturing more images and her smelling all the smells.

How Do I Safely Remove Cholla from my Body?

An important step in keeping us both safe from cholla is prevention.  I try to avoid going into areas where there are many cholla to begin with.  The second line of defense is protective clothing. Wearing a good pair of boots and thick pants can help any stray pieces you pick up from penetrating into your body. And for the pupper there are hiking boots to protect her feet, and her thick fur keeps the barbs from penetrating her skin.

If one of us is unfortunate enough to get stuck, the piece of first aid equipment that I find essential  is a comb.  Carrying a comb allows me to remove cholla from myself and my dog quickly and safely.  I run the comb teeth between the needles and flick the danger spikes in a safe direction.

I’d Love to Hear Your Feedback

What did you think of my story? Have you had any experiences with cholla? Have you seen some other dangers of the desert I need to beware of? (snake, and scorpions and flash-floods, oh my!) Tell me your stories them in the comments!

The post Staying Safe from Cholla while Enjoying Desert Monsoons appeared first on laruephoto.