3 Dogs and a Trainer

I met Bella, Berkeley and Fisher's mom last October at Barktoberfest. It was my first time photographing at an event and I had a blast. I had no idea that spending a few hours at this event would have such an impact on my photography career. This was one of the first steps that helped me get to where I am today. I owe a debt of gratitude to Berkeley pictured below.

Berkeley's mom loved this picture of her. She told me recently that it's still one of her favorites of him. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen photos of Berkeley already. (btw if you don't follow me, click that link and please do! I tend to post most on Instagram these days.) Berkeley was sitting on a bale of hay in the shot and I got low so the cloudy sky was in the background. There are things I would do differently if I had the chance to take this shot again but I believe it is because of this photo that I got to know Berkeley's mom.

Berkeley's mom is Courtney and she is a dog trainer with Off Leash Dog Training. In November she hired me to take photos of Berkeley and her 2nd dog Bella, a pit mix. At the time, I was just getting started in the complex and difficult dog photography world. I'd discovered how hard dog photography was. I loved it but translating that into quality images was challenging. Getting the opportunity to photograph a dog trainer's dogs was truly a gift. I was able to work on my craft with dogs that sat still. That is by no means a requirement for me to photograph your dogs but when I was new to dog photography, that was certainly a huge bonus.

Here are two of the better photographs from that first session.

I got a text from Courtney late winter/early spring that she was getting a puppy and she wanted me to photograph him once she got him. At this point I knew I was headed to Barkelona, the dog photography workshop so I scheduled the photo session for right after I got back. I knew I'd learn so much at the workshop, I wanted to be able to use that knowledge the 2nd time I did photos for her.

I met Fisher when he was just 8 weeks old.  Courtney commented that I seemed much more confident at the this  photo session and she was right, I was.

Confession - choosing just a few photos here was hard! I actually have a sample photo album I show to clients and they are all of Fisher from this photo session! A couple of weeks after our photo session. I got together with Courtney to reveal all of the photos to her. At the end she looked at me and said, I want you to take photos of Bella and Berkeley again. I can see improvement in your work and I'd like more photos of them.

We scheduled our session the day after Berkeley was going to the salon. :) What resulted were some of my favorite photos to date. There are still things that I would do differently if I got the chance to do this again. One of them would be to use a different lens. I've developed a love/hate (and actually more on the hate side) with my 24-70mm lens. Unfortunately when I got it, I was so new to photography I thought the problems I was having with it were my fault. Some of them probably were but after sending it back to the manufacturer for repairs because it wasn't focusing accurately, I've recently gotten it back and it is still soft. It is the generic Tamron lens, not the Nikon and if I had to do it over again, I would definitely get the Nikon. I know other people that love this Tamron lens, I am not one of them.

Courtney recently told me she is getting another dog.... yay me! I get to photograph another member of her family when that happens. I'm not sure where my photography business would be without Courtney, Bella, Berkeley and Fisher. I do know that I appreciate them more than you'll ever know. Life is Good.

Pet Photography Project 52 Week 30: Shadows

This week for our project 52 weekly challenge we are considering shadows in our images.  I feel like I say this every week with these challenges: there is an image in my head that I want to take but I can't figure out how to get the shot. Most of you know that my full time job is walking dogs and when we are out walking I always notice the dogs' shadows. For years I've taken cell phone pics trying to capture them but I just can't get my angle right with the leash in one hand and my camera / phone in the other.  To make matters worse, I can't take a one handed cell phone photo - I have not and probably will never master the selfie! I have a photo on my phone of 2 dogs' shadows painted on a brick wall that I took a long time ago. I just looked it up:  I took it on 2/25/16. I've had this image in my head for that long. That's the photo I want to try and recreate but I can't figure out how to get the dog's shadow cast that high. I think it's a physics thing and I didn't do so well in physics in school.

You remember Moose, my crazy choc lab. Well, he is a very early riser. Our dogs get walked when we wake up and this week it's been around 5:15am. (Our dogs get walked and then have breakfast as soon as we get up.... here in lies the problem and why Moose feels the needs to wake me up so early), his tummy is telling him it's time to eat! This week while walking them that early, I've noticed their shadows. Moose casts a great shadow with his long ears and in the morning when it's dark outside and the street lights are shining, the shadows are very dark. Hmmmm, I wonder if I can try one morning to take a picture of him in this kind of light? I'd have to walk him, feed him breakfast and then we'd have to go back out but after they get walked and fed then it is time for my coffee so this may not happen. (and it didn't - ha!)

This week I made several attempts at getting a photo of Moose's shadow. At one point he just stretched out on his side in the middle of the road - he was done with my camera and me! So these are the images I ended up with... one with him in focus and the other with his shadow in focus. I need a do over!

This is a blog circle and next up is Pant the Town Dog Walking and Pet Photography in MA. Be sure to click the link at the end of each post and you'll end up right back here.

Pet Photography Project 52: week 29: Reflections

For anyone who is wondering... you are on the right site and this blog post is about reflections! I have a new logo and I'm in the process of making some tweaks to my website. :) I wrote about that on my last post because I wasn't planning on getting a new logo for See Spot Run so there is definitely a story behind the new one. Back to week 29 and project 52. Some time ago, I took a few photos of dog I was walking because his ears were throwing these great shadows on the ground. (The dog's ears are great!) I don't love those images though so I wanted to try and recreate something similar for this week. However my attempts this week didn't turn out so great either.

My first attempt was at midday and the sun was directly overhead so the shadow was pretty much directly under the dog. My 2nd attempt was around 7pm later that same day with my choc lab Moose (remember him?) Well it was a blazing 100° outside so we weren't out for very long. Moose couldn't figure out that I wanted him to stand still and we were both hot so I gave up after just a few attempts. Now that I've read the assignment for next week.... looks like I'll be trying this again and I hope I have someone else who can hold the leash! That will help a lot!! BTW - now every time I get my camera out, Moose thinks he is either going for a walk or a ride in the car. He's been used a lot lately as my model! Poor guy - he doesn't get to go EVERY time. :)

While editing this photo from a session this week, I noticed the reflection in Murphy's eyes. If you're on your phone and can zoom in, you can see me, the white garage to the right and the trees behind us.

This is another one of those assignments that I'd like to try again. This is what I'd like to create: an image of a dog standing near water and seeing his reflection in the water. Next up in the blog circle is Cahlean of About A Dog Photography in St. Cloud MN.  See ya'll next week!

See Spot Run logo

I have a new See Spot Run logo!!!!! My website has just been updated and I think it definitely fits with See Spot Run. :) I hadn't planned on changing logos. I've been focused on creating BARKography's new logo and website so here is how the new See Spot Run logo came to be. A fellow BARKelonian (the dog photography workshop I attended in April) recommended a site to me: 99Designs.com. Essentially you can go on the site and create a contest and graphic artists from around the world will submit their logo ideas to you based upon a few documents that you complete. Initially I thought I wanted to use Moose as the muse but everything created using him looked like clip art to me.

I had over 200 designs submitted to me. I had a blast logging onto the site to see the new submissions for the 3 days my contest lasted. I narrowed my search down to three designs and two of them were by the same artist. When the '5 dog logo' was submitted to me, I instantly loved it but it wasn't at all what I had envisioned. After a few emails back and forth with the artist, he made a few changes and the BARKography logo was complete.

However, I kept coming back to the other one he'd created. It was of a dog jumping.... or running. Then it clicked. See Spot Run. A dog running and that's how I ended up with two new logos!

Btw, with 99Designs.com, you only pay a fee if you choose a logo. If your contest ends and you don't choose a logo, you don't pay anything. As I said earlier, I had a blast doing it and I ended up with 2 logos I love! What do you think?

Frodo and Twig

To say I had a great time at this photo session with Frodo and Twig and their parents is an understatement. It all started with an email a few weeks ago from their dad who wanted to schedule a session with their 14 year old dog Frodo. He suggested a location that I've wanted to try for a long time. It's about 30 minutes from my house and it was sooo worth the drive. I want to go back to this park soon and do some sunset photos. Anybody game? Frodo's mom and dad, Monica and Brent decided to bring along their rescued dingo, Twig. In these photos, Twig is on leash the entire time (and I edited it out through the magic of Photoshop. :) ) We started the session on a road flanked by trees. It was just beautiful and actually a setting I have been wanting to find because it reminds me of a photo shoot we did in Spain. Reason #1 I can thank Monica and Brent for suggesting this park. It was perfect.

I find that I want to use the term "rock star" a lot after my photography sessions and I'm going to now. Frodo was a ROCK STAR. He's 14 but you'd never know it! He had so much personality and energy, he's a testament to the great care he gets from his mom and dad. They are both veterinarians. My focus for the session was to concentrate on the dogs but the photo above of the 3 of them just gets me ever time I see it. I love this photo.

We snapped a few photos at the old cabin. I'd love to go on the tour of this park and learn about its history. I would love the know this building's story and know more about who spent time here.

These next photos might be my favorite from the day. I loved the trees (if you've read my previous blog posts, you know I have a love/hate relationship with trees.) I'll say it again, I loved the trees. ha! The setting was just beautiful.

By this time, Twig was fairly fired up by the other dogs and horses that were around. Yes, there are horses!! He was highly interested in them and wanted to go zooming around. He did and what do you know? Frodo got a burst of energy and started chasing Twig around. It was hilarious and I was able to capture their spontaneity.

Which photo is your favorite? I love it when that's a hard decision to make!

Pet Photography Project 52, week 28: White Balance for Mood

For week 28 of our pet photography challenge, we are talking about white balance and specifically how we can play with it to create a different mood in our images. This is where being create comes into play and I just don't feel like I am "there" yet with my photography. I spend all of my efforts trying to create a visually correct image and that includes trying to get the white balance correct. White balance in an image is the process of creating correct color balance in a photo so whites are white. Creating correct color balance generally means the neutral tones in the scene are rendered neutral in the photograph, without a color cast. If you take cell phone photos (or photos with a camera for that matter), look at them now and answer this question: do the whites look white? Do they look pink, green, yellow or blue? If they do that's common because getting the white balance correct is hard. I just scrolled through my cell phone pics and I learned 2 things: I don't take very many cell phone photos and when I do, they are either yellow or pink.

There are tools to use in Lightroom and Photoshop to adjust these but as my instructor Nicole Begley of Nicole Begley Photography said at Barkelona, just use a gray card before taking your shots. Then you'll know you have the correct white balance. How many times do I forget to use my gray card..... ?? I won't answer that. :)

So the above photos don't work when I try to adjust the white balance and create a mood so I set out to do that. This is definitely outside of the box for me and outside of my comfort zone. I just don't feel like I have the experience under my belt yet to be super creative with my photography but part of the reason I'm doing these challenges weekly is to step outside the box.

My first dilemma was this: should I keep the camera on auto white balance? Since my subject is a dog, if I adjust the white balance for the entire scene, the dog is going to end up blue, yellow, green or pink and I can't think of a scenario when that works. Below I've used a photo with auto WB and then in Lightroom I adjusted for blue and yellow white balance.

This is a blog circle to next up is Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay area . Keep clicking the link at the end of each post and you'll end up right back here.