eric kraus photography

Planning sunset photography

erickraus — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:03:20 +0000

While I was preparing a night shoot for the recent ‘Super Moon’ I leaned on a fantastic tool for mapping out the sky. It’s called Stellarium and it’s free for Mac and PC.

There’s a tiny bit of a learning curve to get started, as it took me awhile just to find out what each button does, but it’s great after that.

I mentioned that I used the app to map out the moon, but you can also use it to map out a sunrise or in this case, a sunset. Here I’ve set the location to Minneapolis, MN and the date to tomorrow (5/10) and set the time to 19:30 (7:30pm). Based on this information, I can see exactly where the sun is going to be in the sky to plan for a shoot. It may seem like common sense that the sun sets in the west, but with this level of detail I can scout an area with a compass and know exactly where the sun is going to be at any given day/time. I can even play with the time to figure out about how much “golden hour” light I will have to work with.

Download Stellarium here.

http://www.stellarium.org/

You can even download more Landscapes here.

http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Landscapes

Minneapolis Skyline

erickraus — Sat, 05 May 2012 06:42:45 +0000

I set out to check a few locations for tomorrow night’s Super (Perigee) Moon. Unfortunately, the timing of the storm passing through meant I couldn’t see the moonrise. So, I decided to spend the night doing some fun photography instead. I took the pictures below from the walk bridge over 35W (about 23rd St). This spot has been on my wish list for years and I’m glad I finally got to go.

The first picture is a pinhole exposure (no lens). The exposure was 2 minutes.

The second shot was taken with a 10.5 fisheye lens and a 1 minute exposure. It was sharpened with Topaz Adjust. There is an 8 foot high chain-link fence on both sides of the walk bridge. It’s rather funny, you can see all of the holes that photographers have cut over time…and how they have been “patched” with scrap chain-link. Luckily, there was a hole for me to sneak this through.

* To the gentleman who stopped and said his mom once paid $50 for a picture like this of downtown….Please email me.

Tyler at the Park

erickraus — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:05:16 +0000

What a beautiful day we had today. Over 70 degrees in March is just crazy – but who’s complaining?! There’s no better way to enjoy such a beautiful day than to head to the park! Ty got to go down a slide and ride on a swing for the first time. We all enjoyed the sunset too. Here are a few pictures that we captured. Enjoy!

Juliette 11 Months

erickraus — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:08:30 +0000

Wow, can’t believe it’s been almost 11 months since I first photographed Juliette. And…my how little ones grow up quickly. Juliette was a ball of fun and there was no shortage of funny faces and smiles for me to capture. This was one of the hardest photo shoots to narrow down, I loved all of the pictures! Here are just a few!

Thank you Juliette for a wonderful afternoon of photos. I had a blast!

published!

erickraus — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:36:16 +0000

I was honored to be included in this year’s (2011) Photographers@Microsoft charity book. The book included photographs from over 300 photographers (employees at Microsoft). Finalists were chosen from over 3,000 incredible photographs. This year, the book sold over 1,100 copies with all proceeds going to the United Way. I have to say, these book are really AMAZING. Well worth their cost alone and they are for a good cause. If you are interested, you can read more here: http://www.facebook.com/PhotographersAtMicrosoft

If you are interested in purchasing a book, visit here: https://shop.ecompanystore.com/MSEPPStore/Login.aspx. After creating an account, just search for “Inspire”.

Christmas Tree Time Lapse

erickraus — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:07:00 +0000

A short little experiment with time-lapse photography. Enjoy!

Stella + Jolie

erickraus — Mon, 09 May 2011 07:47:00 +0000

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph friends of ours and the newest edition to their family. I had taken pictures of Mike and Erin awhile back and when they asked me to do photos with them again, I was thrilled! The weather has been so miserable here lately, that we decided to rent a studio and have some fun inside. And that we did. Here was the first picture from the day.

And here is the newest member of the family, Jolie.

The happy family.

We even had time to venture into the studio for a bit. I think this part was as much fun for me as it was for them!

Mike, executing the ancient art of puppy wrangling.

I love this picture!

These dogs crack me up. Meet Stella Artois and Regal Beagle

No puppy shoot is complete without some tug-of-war with the photographer.

We did venture outside for a bit and found this beautiful brick wall.

These are the looks of some tired pups.

Erin and Mike – Thank you so much for allowing me to spend the afternoon with you! I had a blast.

Instant Experiment

erickraus — Wed, 04 May 2011 21:00:00 +0000

I just got my Fujifilm Instax camera today and was dying to take it for a spin. This was the second shot I took with it. The digital picture you see (of the instant photo) was taken with my D700 and fisheye lens 5 minutes later. A little photo alignment later and voila! (there was no post-processing/Photoshop in this image besides the border and watermark).

credit to Shawn McClung for this concept and his amazing collection of �Instax Window� shots on flickr

Juliette

erickraus — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:08:00 +0000

I was honored when asked to take pictures of a co-worker’s newborn last weekend. Little Juliette is only 4 weeks old, but nothing short of a sweetheart. Congrats again to the proud new parents and thanks for allow me to spend the morning with you.

What newborn shoot is complete without a few tears?

You gotta love little feet!

There’s nothing better than a hug from dad.

A crib fit for a princess!

Tyler 3 weeks

erickraus — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:59:00 +0000

As a new parent, each day seems to blend into the next. It’s amazing how fast they grow. When we brought him home, he fit perfectly on top of this bucket. He seems to have nearly out-grown it in 22 days.