It is currently cold, gray, and drizzling, and I am grateful. I am grateful that Nico was easygoing enough to move his senior session up by one day based on the forecast, so I can be happily finishing my editing inside today.
Nico is a drum major for the marching band, a flautist, and as I found out yesterday, an aspiring astrophysicist. When I suggested the Cincinnati Observatory based on the interests listed in his questionnaire, I had no idea that he had already been a volunteer there for two years.
Normally, I try to keep my editing fairly natural, but it was too much fun to play with different skies here, given my subject’s passion for astronomy. I’ve done just enough astrophotography to know that most of these shots are “impossible” without editing. The sky needs to be done with wide-angle, open aperture, long exposure, while the foregrounds are done with longer focal lengths and different lighting. I did pair the aurora borealis and the star trails with north-facing images, at least.
Nico was a terrific subject. Although warmer than average for January, it was still nippy, especially with the wind on the top of Mount Lookout, and he was in short sleeves. However, he produced engaging, natural-appearing smiles on command. He could follow directions like, “Squat down between the arc and the analemma,” without missing a beat. Despite his blue eyes, he was surprisingly resistant to squinting and blinking with the direct sun and flash. And as a drum major for two years, I never had to ask him to check his posture.
I’m really excited to see where his astrophysics journey takes him!
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