Lunar Eclipse 2008

Well, I had high hopes to capture another lunar eclipse series of images last night. But the weather didn’t cooperate. Back in 2004, I was able to make a really nice composite of a couple of dozen photos taken over a three hour period. In that image, you can see the true dark reddish hues of the moon during the fullest moments of the eclipse against the early evening sky.

The image below from last night’s 2008 eclipse only “looks” like it’s full of clear round moons because I forced it to look that way in the masking, but the reddish hues were entirely covered in the mist and haze of the later evening sky. As soon as I took the background shot of the early evening blue sky, the clouds started rolling in and the image I had in mind was pretty much impossible to capture.

Oh well, it was just for fun anyway. If you can call standing in the cold night air for 2 hours fun. But we photographers must suffer for our art. --grin--

Senior Portraits coming up!

Hey folks, I just wanted let you all know I'm adding some cool new senior portrait templates. Shown here are four new looks, but I'll be adding more to the mix. If you'll have a senior in the household next year, time to start thinking about getting your photographer for those once in a lifetime senior pix. For 2008, I have regular packages from $175.00 to $250.00 plus tax.

The $175.00 package includes up to 2 1/2 hours of an on location photo session in Fremont with $64.00 in credit towards purchase of photo packages. The $250.00 session includes the same as noted above plus an hour long studio session with as many clothing changes as you wish to attempt in one hour. Additional hours (if needed) @ $50.00 per hour. All packages include an 8 x 10 composite layout of your choice of 5 photos as seen in the four sample images here. Add $50.00 to the cheaper package and $75.00 to the more expensive package if you want your images on CD. CD will come with certificate of permission to reprint copyrighted images at your film processor of choice or to display images on your MySpace, Facebook or other blog sites.

If you are interested in something novel, and if I can get 3 or 4 families interested in making a little road trip this year, I'd love to take some seniors and their families to the really cool ghost town city of Bodie which is behind Yosemite, near the CA/NV border. Bodie is an authentic Wild West ghost town which has been preserved in an arrested state of decay. The town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and in 1962 it became Bodie State Historic Park. It's got an abundance of great rustic old Wild West buildings and backdrops ... perfect for some really original and interesting senior portraits. If you are interested, drop me a line or give me a call at: 510/687-1829 and I'll come up with a photo package depending on the number of families interested. Keep in mind it will be an overnight trip. Bodie is about a 5 hour drive from Fremont, but the senior portraits would be incredible. In fact, we could even try for some family portraits depending on how busy the day gets. Or better yet, if ghost towns are your thing, considering hiring me to take just your family up there for some unique family portraits.