It’s time to start looking for a 2019 Calendar, and larue.photo is selling a great one. We are accepting pre-sale orders for the 2019 larue.photo 12-Month Fine Art Wall Calendar.

The Photos

The 2019 larue.photo Fine Art Wall Calendar contains 12 images from the larue.photo collection. Each month a new long exposure photograph depicting the passage of time. Moonlit landscapes of the Sonoran and Mohave deserts of Arizona and California.

Witness the relative stillness of the earths surface, as we spin with it through the cosmos.  The universe appears to streak by as earth bound boulders rest peacefully. So when life is overwhelming, let these photographs be your escape. Take a break from the chaos of life, grab some earth and hold on tight, because we’re spinning like mad. 

Calendar Specs

The 12-month calendar measures 12 inches x 8 inches, when folded. Spiral bound to allow the calendar to sit flat against the wall. The calendar grids contain plenty of space for you to write all the important things that are happening in your life. 

Astronomical Events

As a citizen of the universe, I find it important stay up to date on the astronomical events happening in my celestial neighborhood. So, I’ve collected the data and formatted for easy visual consumption. Now you can, too, can prepare for and be ready to witness the wonders of our solar system.

Full Moons / New Moon

This 2019 Calendar labels several astronomical events throughout the year so you can be sure to plan to witness them all. Full moons and new moons are labeled along with the time they hit 100% or 0% illumination. So you’ll know not only which day the full and new moons occur, but also which night to go out for best viewing. All times are listed in AZ Mountain Time (GMT-7).

Eclipses

Eclipses are a relatively rare occurrence. So use this calendar to help you you prepare to watch. There is also a total lunar eclipse in January that you will not want to miss. An orange moon symbol to marks the date of that lunar eclipse.

Meteor Showers

There are many meteor showers each year. They occur regularly as the earth passes through debris fields left by passing comets. Some meteor showers are minor, yielding only 5-10 meteors per hour, while others boast up to 60 meteors per hour. This calendar will tell you which night to go out if you want to see the peak of any given major meteor shower. Make sure you’re ready with blankets and a warm beverage!

Holidays

Major holidays are labeled, including all US Federal Holidays, as well as several Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holidays. Also marked are the Solstices, Equinoxes, and Daylight Savings Time changes.

Connect With larue.photo

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Star Trails Over The Mitten & The Foundation

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The full moon illuminates the ruined foundations of an old shelter near The Mitten in Sedona as the stars trail overhead.

I love creating astrophotography images for my fine art portfolio, but have rarely shot star trails images in the past. For many years I’ve been pursuing “Project dayStars” where my main goal was to capture images with stars burned in placed as single points of light, while the full moon lit the landscape.

Recently I captured these star trail timelapse sequences from Cibola Pass Trail in Sedona, AZ. My favorite is one I’ve come to call “Stars Trail Over The Mitten & The Foundation”. Not only is it a star trails image, but a focus stack as well. It is composed of 245 different exposures; 243 for the trailing stars, and 2 for the foreground focus stacking. The aperture size I used to capture these images (f/2.8) allows for a lot of light to come in but only a small range of distances to be in focus. So I captured multiple exposures focused at several distances and blended to sharpest areas from each exposure into a single (focus stacked) image.

Creating the star trails in the sky was an easier process. Even easier than ever now that I’m using a piece of software specifically designed for stacking star trail images. My old process for creating star trail images was to use photoshop to open each of the several hundred exposures and stack them all into a single image. Then I would use a script I wrote to change the blend mode of the current layer to “lighten” then select the next layer down and repeat. I copied those instructions 20 or so times over so for a typical star trails layer stack I’d run the script 5 or so times and have a great output file, though it would typically be between 3-4GB.

Or, ideally, anyway

Loading up all the images at once proved to be too memory intensive for my computer to handle. So instead of doing that process in one shot, I’d need to break it up into increments of no more than 20 or so images at a time. I’d stack 20 layers, change all blend modes to lighten, then merge those 20 into a single images, and repeat, stacking my merged stacks at each new iteration. All said it was a very involved process which saw me waiting at my computer for long periods just to be ready to hit a button and get the computer processing the next step.

With this new software all I need to do is give it the folder of JPGs and it can handle stacking hundreds at a time in just a few minutes! I’m really enjoying using this process and have been able to knock out several star trails images from my backlog.

Learning Opportunities

I captured these images on the Cibola Pass Trail in Sedona, AZ. It was a place I scouted using Google Maps, and Google Earth, so I new what shots I wanted to set up. But as the shoot day approached, the weather forecast showed clouds. I decided to continue with the shoot as planned. The clouds could potentially ruin the shots I was trying to get, by blocking the moons light, and blocking the stars. But if they were thin enough, they could instead become a very interesting element in the video playback timelapse version. So I took a chance on the weather being favorable and headed out to shoot.

I went out for 20 hours the first night; from 2pm-10am, up all night hiking and shooting. And the clouds were there with me the whole time. I was not able to capture the images I had in mind. Here are the best ones from that night.

The Mitten dayStars

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Rock structure in Sedona, AZ called The Mitten, from Cibola Pass Trail. Captured under moonlight with stars burned in place.

So, I went back during the next full moon, and tried again to get those shots. And I’m glad I did! On the return trip I captured the star trails images you see at the top of this page. The weather was favorable. I captured the shots I had pre-visualized, and I knew the area first hand now.

Dog Tax & Snapshots

My (9 year old) puppy, Penny, joined me on both shoots to Cibola Pass and she had so much fun! When we hiked back to the car, she kept walking past it, down a new trail we hadn’t explored. I was shocked she had the energy, but it turned out she was lying. She wanted more adventure but didn’t have the energy. She was so tired on the way home that she fell asleep with her head in my lap. And after we got home, she was sluggish for a couple days before she felt rested enough. It took me a few days to feel fully rested too. It was a fun trip for both of us!

Enjoy these snapshots of Penny having fun on the trail during these two adventures.

One Happy Dog

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Penny stands to the side of the trail, as if to let someone pass, but we didn't encounter any one during this adventure.

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Purchase the 2018 calendar from larue.photo; buy two and gift one to someone you love.  The 12×8 inch full-sized larue.photo 2018 Fine Art Wall Calendars are here!  Each month features a unique fine art photograph captured by Ian La Rue, including moonlit landscapes, star trails, and lightning storms.   These images and more are available for purchase as Fine Art Prints.

$30/ea or 2/$50

2018 CALENDAR FEATURES:

Full Moons Marked with 100% Illumination Time 

Full moons are indicated with a circle offset within the day square, depending on whether 100% illumination occurs morning or evening.  The exact time of 100% illumination displayed next to it in UTC-7 for viewing in Phoenix.   This makes it easier to know which evening has the brightest moon, and thus, which night to go moon chasing.

Meteor Shower Peaks

Meteor showers are marked in these 2018 Fine Art Wall Calendars, so you can know at a glance which nights to head out and watch the skies for those brilliant streaks of wishing dust.  A meteoroid is a small piece of rock or dust in space. When a meteoroid enters the earths atmosphere, we call it a meteor.  The meteor encounters friction from the Earths atmosphere, and burns to ash. We see this event from the ground and call them “shooting stars.”  A meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through an area with a higher density of interstellar dust than than it does in other area of its orbit. There are several such patches in the Earth’s orbit and so we have several meteor showers each year. Most meteor shows will last for multiple consecutive nights.  A shooting star symbol marks the space between two days, indicating the peak night and optimal viewing.

The larue.photo 2018 12-Month Fine Art Wall Calendar

Back cover text:

These fine art landscapes were captured using the light of
the moon, the stars and occasionally a lightning bolt or two.

In these images, photography is used to capture the
world at an unfamiliar time scale. By presenting images
differently than we are used to seeing, my goal is to ignite
in my viewers the sense of wonder felt when experiencing
the world for the first time.

Buy one for $30, or TWO for $50 and share one with a friend!

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Check out the larue.photo 2018 Fine Art Wall Calendar

Papa La Rue’s BBQ

Papa La Rue’s Competition BBQ team, based in Palm Desert, CA, competed last weekend in the Indio California State BBQ Championship. Turn-in categories included Chicken, Pork, Brisket, and Dessert.

The post Papa La Rue’s BBQ at Indio California State BBQ Championship appeared first on laruephoto.

2018 Fine Art Wall Calendar

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Pre-Order the larue.photo 2018 12-Month Fine Art Wall Calendar Today! 2/$50 or $35/ea

Full Moons Marked with 100% Illumination Time 

Full moons are indicated with a circle offset within the day square, depending on whether 100% illumination occurs morning or evening.  The exact time of 100% illumination displayed next to it in UTC-7 for viewing in Phoenix.   This makes it easier to know which evening has the brightest moon, and thus, which night to go moon chasing.

Meteor Shower Peaks

Also marked in this Fine Art Wall Calendar are the peak nights of meteor showers.  A meteoroid is a small piece of rock or dust in space. When a meteoroid enters the earths atmosphere, we call it a meteor.  The meteor encounters friction from the Earths atmosphere, and burns to ash. We see this event from the ground and call them “shooting stars.”  A meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through an area with a higher density of interstellar dust than than it does in other area of its orbit. There are several such patches in the Earth’s orbit and so we have several meteor showers each year. Most meteor shows will last for multiple consecutive nights.  A shooting star symbol marks the space between two days, indicating the peak night and optimal viewing.

The larue.photo 2018 12-Month Fine Art Wall Calendar

Back cover text:

larue.photo is my photographic work. I am passionate about creating high-quality photographic works of art and capture these fine art landscapes using the light of the moon, the stars and occasionally a lightning bolt or two.  

I use photography as a tool to capture the world at an unfamiliar time scale, and present it differently than we are used to seeing. My goal is to ignite in my viewers the sense of wonder felt when experiencing the world for the first time.

Get ONE copy for $35, or get TWO copies for $50 and share one with a friend!

Order before October 20th and receive 20% off with PROMO CODE: 20OFF2018

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