Super moon photography tips for the Super blue Moon August 2023

Aug 30, 2023 by Riverbank Products 0 Comments #Full Moon, #Outdoor Photography, #Photography tips

You’ve heard the phrase “once in a blue moon”. Well, the August 30th Super blue moon will be the closest full moon of the year, making it appear much brighter and larger than normal. Different full moons throughout the year have different names and this full moon is called the Blue Moon. Not to be confused with the popular beer brand, a blue moon occurs only when the pattern of days in a year means there are 13 full Moons instead of the usual 12. But this will also be a super blue moon, making it even more rare. The previous one occurred in 2009. This will be the last super Blue Moon until 2037 so you don’t want to miss it.

I’ve taken tons of full moon photos over the years. Here are a few of my top tips for viewing or photographing the full moon.

Start shooting early.

To get the biggest, fullest moon possible, you’ll want to shoot it as soon as it pops up over the horizon. This year that will be August 30th at 7:49 pm here in south Arkansas. Now in the area that I live in, we’re mostly flat land with a lot of timber so it’s often hard to get long clear views of the horizon, but just do your best to capture it right after moon rise. The closer the moon is to the horizon, the more of the earth’s atmosphere that the moonlight has to pass through. This creates diffusion which spreads the light farther and makes it appear much larger and it picks up an oranger view as light refracts off of moisture in the atmosphere.

Incorporate other features in your moon photography.

While the moon is brilliant in it’s reflective radiance as it is, it always helps to incorporate other foreground elements into your photography for an even more interesting photo. By shooting early, you’ll be able to capture trees, buildings, and even play around with putting people into your photos.

Camera settings

Shoot telephoto. Have you ever shot a moon photo with your phone and even though it appears huge in person, your photo is less than impressive? Wide-angle lenses like your camera phone or even when used on high-quality professional cameras just can’t capture the beauty of the moon in its fullest. The compression that we love about telephoto lenses is really needed to bring out the details or enhance what we can see with just our naked eye. I recommend shooting at 200mm or higher if you can. There may be some exceptions to that depending on what you are trying to do, but that’s where I’d start.

Moon photography is not typical nighttime photography. The full moon is actually very bright. While you’d typically shoot with very slow shutter speeds and wide-open apertures at night to gather more light, with full moon photos, I often shoot at higher f-stops. F-8 or above. You can of course shoot wide open but finding focus at night can sometimes be a challenge so shooting at higher f-stops gives you more room for forgiveness if your focus point isn’t perfect. This means for slower shutter speeds sometimes. However, since you’ll be shooting telephoto anyway, I’d recommend shooting with a sturdy tripod. This will alleviate problems with camera shake both at longer focal lengths and with those slow shutter speeds.

Lastly, just enjoy the view.

I love photos but sometimes we get caught up in the technical details of creating a photo. Remember that take some time to enjoy the moment. I hope you get to enjoy the moon with people you love. Remember that He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. The moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever

Photography, Senior

Senior Year Photo Sessions

Aug 4, 2023 by Riverbank Products 0 Comments #Arkansas, #Outdoor Photography, #Photography, #Senior Photos

Senior year is a special time. It’s not just turning a page in life, but a pivotal page that needs to be captured. I love images that tell a story and show off personality. I’d love to highlight you or your senior.

I run my senior sessions as follows.

Senior Speed Session – $300

Perfect for when you just need a few photos for an invitation or your school’s yearbook? I like to have fun with senior sessions and this QUICK 20-30 minute session is as easy and painless as possible. We’ll meet at your local school or a similar location for the photo session. After the session is over, you’ll get an email to an online proof gallery. The session fee is $300 and includes the session, an online gallery to choose images from, and a $100 photo credit toward purchased photos from your session.

Senior Session – $500

A full senior session lets you show off a little personality. If you want photos that actually capture your interests and show who you are in more detail, this is the session for you.

A senior session starts off with a brief meeting where we can get to know each other a little bit and plan out your shoot so that we capture your interests. After your shoot is planned, The actual session will be scheduled for a different day. The session usually lasts up to 3 hours and can be tailored to various personal interests. If you are into sports, we can spend an hour shooting sports. If you have some other fun hobbies we can transition to that. We can get a variety of different looks in this one session. The session includes a proof gallery and a photo credit of $200 towards images or prints purchased.

Add On Couple – $100

Senior photo sessions are intended to highlight the personality of one person. However, sometimes a high school sweetheart is a significant part of your senior year. We’re happy to capture that aspect as well, but a couples shoot is a very different shoot than an individual portrait session. Just let us know and we will add on up to 30 minutes into your senior session for your boyfriend or girlfriend.

Add On Speed Session – $300 $250

Do you have more hobbies than we can fit into your Senior Session? Book a separate Speed Session with your senior session.

A Year in the Life of a High School Senior

Sometimes High School Seniors have a lot of hobbies and interests that cover more areas than can be fit into just one session or even two sessions. For many people, it’s not just a few photos from one day that they want to capture. You may want photos to remember your whole Senior year. The senior year package consists of up to four different sessions spread across the year. The sessions can be customized but ideally, we’ll begin in the summer before school starts. We can spend some time capturing water sports or some other summertime activity, etc… The next session is typically scheduled just after school is starting and temperatures begin to come down. This session can be a Friday night lights theme or more of a casual session that captures the beginning of your school year. The next session is really special. You’re halfway through your senior year. If hunting is your passion, we can shoot your own outdoor life session. For the final session, you’ll be wrapping up school and spring hobbies or softball or baseball maybe your life. College or trade school or military service may be your next step. These decisions are huge. We’d love to capture that part of your personality as well.

The total investment in all 3 sessions is $1,500 with a 10% deposit due at booking, the remaining balance will be divided into 3 equal payments due at each session or before the final shoot. This helps spread the cost over the course of the year instead of one lump sum. These sessions come with your own private online gallery and a $300 photo credit toward photos from your gallery.

A year in the life Package – $1500 $1200

(payable in 3 Payments)

Add On Speed Session – $300 $150

Didn’t get everything you wanted in your Senior Session. Book a separate Speed Session with your senior session

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I get the files with the sessions?

The session fee is a creative fee that covers the time spent planning your shoot, the session itself, and editing/organizing the files for a gallery of images from the session. Digital copies of images from your gallery, may be purchased individually or as part of a separate photo package using the photo credit which is included with your session.

Do you travel?

I frequently travel for photo shoots. Travel within 1 hour of El Dorado, AR is included in the session fee. But if you have somewhere in mind that is beyond approximately 60 miles of El Dorado, additional travel expenses incurred will be added to the final invoice.

Photography

2023 Sports Teams

Feb 7, 2023 by Riverbank Products 0 Comments #Little League, #Photography, #School, #sports, #Team Photos

We had a lot of fun shooting your sports teams photos last year. We’ll be offering sports photos again for 2023, but changing things up a little bit.

This year, we’ll be offering a team package instead of individual packages. You’ll still be able to customize the photo prints and keepsakes that you decide to purchase, but each team will be charged a team photo package fee that can be equally divided up among the players for digital photos included in the package.

Packages

$ 400 /Team up to 10 players

1 Team Photo
1 Individual Photo
Digital Download
$10 Print Credit Coupon Code

$ 500 /Team up to 10 players

1 Team Photo
1 Individual Photo
Player Action Photo
Digital Download
$20 Print Credit Coupon Code

Popular

$ 750 /Team up to 10 players

1 Team Photo
1 Individual Photo
Player Action Photo
Roll/Personality Photo
Digital Download
$30 Print Credit Coupon Code

All packages include digital download options

Sales taxes not included will be added to the final invoice.

For any other questions, Feel free to Contact Us. Happy to work with you.

Events, Video-Photography

Willie Belton Purple Heart Hunt

Jan 16, 2023 by Riverbank Products 0 Comments #Hunting, #Louisiana, #Outdoor Photography, #pay-it-forward, #T.P.Outdoors, #Veterans

This past weekend, I was asked to come help film the Willie Belton Purple heart hunt near Columbia, LA with T.P. Outdoors Adventures.

The hunt was held by Louisiana District Attorney John Belton and a group of volunteers in honor of his late father, Willie Belton who earned a purple heart after injuries he received while fighting in the Korean war. Several purple heart recipients from all over Louisiana were invited to attend the hunt and four men graciously accepted.

Here are just a few of the photos from the event. Look for as these men hunt together and the community gives back to them in a future episode of T.P. Outdoors Adventures on KTVE or Youtube.

View Images

Cartoon graphics for T.P. Outdoors Monroe's Wild Bill's Steals and Deals TV Commercial

Client Work

Motion Graphics for Advertising

Aug 8, 2022 by Riverbank Products 0 Comments #Advertising, #Motion Graphics, #Photography, #T.P.Outdoors, #TV, #Videography

Some of you may know about the photography we do, but the majority of the work that we actually do is more commercial advertising in nature. Work usually begins as photography or videography but then uses those images that have been captured to create advertising-related content for websites we maintain, brochures, magazine ads, or just content for social media pages.

Here is a recent TV commercial for T.P. Outdoors Monroe. This season, T.P. Outdoors Monroe began featuring one super hot in-store deal good for that week only. These commercials air weekly on the T.P. Outdoors Adventures TV show. First, we spent a day filming some products to be featured in the first few weeks of the season for special deals. Then it all had to be put together.

The T.P. Outdoors logo redesign for the Monroe store happened last year so it wasn’t part of this specific project but we did that too. The new Wild Bill’s Steals and Deals logo was created from a photo taken during a previous turkey hunt that was shot for T.P. Outdoors Adventures. From there, the photo was edited in photoshop to make the photo a little more cartoonish. Adobe Illustrator was used for completing the logo design for these ads. After that, the project was moved to Adobe After Effects.

This is where the magic really happened to animate the cartoon character and build the commercial. Animation like this required frame-by-frame animation to make things move smoothly. Rights to use a cartoon theif were purchased from an online resource but it still didn’t fit the exact look and actions that were needed for this spot. After Effects was used to edit the character for this. It’s an extremely time-consuming process and there are two different uses of the cartoon thief so it had to be done twice, but I think it worked pretty well.

While In After Effects, motion graphics templates were created for the products that would be featured in this series of commercials. It takes a little time to create these templates, but since the commercials would run weekly, it was much easier to create a template and then use that template over and over again. Once the templates and motion graphics were completed, everything then moved over to Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing and put all together into 30-second tv commercials.

All in all, there is over a week’s worth of work that went into this 30-second video using multiple software packages and years of experience doing this type of work.