ALERT: Total Lunar Eclipse Will Bring a Moon Triple Treat Sunday

Nature will put on a huge show Sunday night, September 28.  Photographers take note.

Please read this article for details on this great event.

Total Lunar Eclipse Will Bring a Moon Triple Treat Sunday

You can even post photos there if you like.

I'm sure you can find MANY articles on the web on how to shoot this event, but here's some of my own plans and thoughts.

• Plan in advance.  The middle of Sunday night is no time to figure it out.
• Scout some areas during the day to find nice locations.  That way, when you get there in the middle of the night, you are ready to go.  Confirm you can actually get there that time of night (parks may be closed).
• The Harvest Moon will be low on the horizon.  Scout Friday (tonight) and/or Saturday to confirm an unobstructed view.  You may have little to no time or light to play around on Sunday.
• How about some practice or experimental shots tonight and Saturday?  Review photos to get a better feel of exactly what you want to do Sunday.  Hey, you might get some keepers.
• Bring a small flashlight.  You won't regret it.
• Again we get multiple events: the Harvest Moon, Perigee Moon and Full Eclipse.  Read the above article for details.
  
• Get creative and try a MANY shots.  You may not get this chance again.
• Add some additional interest, but remember the moon is like the star of the show.  Some ideas may include:
• Cityscapes
• Farms with some subtle foreground objects for texture and depth
• Nature preserves or parks if you can get into them
• Rustic scenes with old objects, but again, remember the star of the show.
• Get down low and shoot wide angle
• Fill the frame with the moon for detail
• Super zoom for extreme detail or even an abstract
• Try multiple angles or perspectives as opposed to a cliche shot.
• Did I mention to have a plan, schedule, checklist.  No time to mess around.

A Time Schedule from the Article

All times in EDT

• 8:11:46 p.m. — Moon enters penumbra
• 9:07:12 p.m. — Moon enters outer edge of umbra
• 10:11:11 p.m. — Moon completely in umbra
• 10:47:09 p.m. — Mid-eclipse
• 11:23:07 p.m. — Moon begins to emerge from umbra
• 12:27:06 a.m. — Moon completely out of umbra
• 1:22:33 a.m. — Moon leaves penumbra

I'll get into a post-processing session in a few days, but just get a nice variety of shots in Sunday for now.

My Nightly Routine

My Nightly Routine

About a week ago I posted about my schedule, plan or to-do-list:

My Schedule When You Seem Overwhelmed 

By the way, a friendly reminder.  I attached my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to that post should you want to try it.  

That spreadsheet contains a lot of stuff with nightly, weekend and long term tasks, so it may be a little overwhelming at first.

In this post, I will walk through one part of that spreadsheet, my nightly routine.

1. First and foremost, I reply to comments and references on my work in the following places.  Helps build relationships that hopefully increase my exposure on the internet.

• FineArtAmerica - My main photo sales processing site
• 500px - My photo sharing site, not necessarily for sale
• Flickr - Another sharing and sales site, why put all my eggs in one basket?
• Zazzle - Yet more products, like t-shirts, based on my photos
• Spoonflower - And a final sales site I'm checking out
• Behance  - A project site I dabble with to get feedback
• Bretts PhotographyTidbits  - Comments on my blog
• HootSuite - Snapshot of social media referrals to me
• All my social media sites - Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram

2. Post one new photo on all the above.
Critical  to keep them fresh, hence keep people returning and wanting more.



3. Post something on social media to get and keep people interested. 
It's all about exposure, exposure, exposure.  Help people find me.


4. Comment on or, better, promote someone else's work. 
Hopefully help their exposure, and again build relationships.  Pay it forward.

5. Enter photos into contests
Another gauge on interest.  And who knows, I might win something. :-)

• FineArtAmerica 
• GuruShots  - Fun and free

How long did all this take?  

With repetition and free productivity tools I found (see below), this entire process typically takes about 30-45 minutes.  That's it.  Seem impossible, ask me about any of it.

Do I always get every task done every night?  No.  But, being prioritized, the most important tasks get done first.  Also, this list gives me an efficient workflow, rather than fumbling around, and wasting time.

Couple of cool tools

I would like to give a shout out to the following folks, whose tools assist me greatly every day:

• Buffer - Want to greatly improve the way you use social media.  Just go there.  Enough said.
• If This Then That - Automate tasks, like posting photos to multiple places in one shot

Final Thoughts

The nightly process is still very new to me, so time will tell how much it helps my photography business.  However, I can tell you interaction is picking up along with folks mentioning and following me.

As usual, feel free contact me at brett@brettossman.com or on my web site at BrettOssman.com.

My Schedule - When You Seem Overwhelmed

Sometimes it just seems there is to much to do, and too little time, as the old adage goes.  This doesn't just apply to photography, but life in general.

I put together a to-do list, which is both shown below and attached as an Excel spreadsheet.  Yes, there are to-do list managers, specifically for this purpose, but the spreadsheet works for me.

My To-Do-List

How do I use this?

• I have a daily section on the left
• I have a weekend section in the middle
• I have a when-time-permits section on the right
• Everything is in priority order, so I make sure I, at least,do the most important tasks first
• Cells in  red are ones I definitely want to get done
• Cells in yellow just make highlights stand out to me
• I set the cell background to green as I complete the task or simply delete it, if a one time task
• Yes, I adjust this frequently as new tasks pop up or priorities change

Now this screen shot isn't the entire spreadsheet, but the entire sheet is attached, if you want to use it as a model for your own.