Project 52 - week 20: Colorful

This week our theme is colorful. Should be an easy and fun theme, huh? Before I describe my week, I will commit now to circling back around to this one very soon and trying again. One of the goals in participating in this 52 week pet photography challenge is to be out there photographing every week. With my schedule and full time dog walking & pet sitting job, it is easy for me to leave my camera in my camera bag for days. I am sure that is probably the case for a lot of us.

However, one of my personal reasons for participating is to learn. I want to learn more about photography any and every chance I get. What I didn't necessarily expect to get out of this, was to learn about myself. But I have. I have learned that I shouldn't procrastinate and today Thursday 5/19 is a good reminder. This blog post with its colorful images will go live Friday morning. Waiting until Thursday to plan to take the photos I'm going to use and then I wake up to rain is a problem since I only shoot outdoors. As I am typing this, I am wondering should I try for colorful photos inside my house? Should I wait and see if the rain clears out and try to get some photos later today or tonight? That is the question. Keep reading and you'll find out because as I'm typing this right now, I'm not sure of the answer. Ha!

I did actually do some research for this theme this past Saturday. On my giant and ever growing "To Do" list is finding new locations for photo sessions so as I was out scouting around, I found a really great colorful wall of graffiti. The problem is when I found it, it was about 1pm in the afternoon and even if I did want to take photos then, I had no four legged furry friend with me. I do have a cell phone photo of the wall (and I may just post it so you can see it and I can prove that I really was trying to find a colorful location.) I am committing to getting a dog in front of that wall soon. When I do, I will post the photos so be sure to check back.

In looking through my archive photos, I don't have a lot that I would really call colorful. I love colorful though. Think Dog Breath Photography (go to her site if you don't know it and you will see lots of color!) Recently I saw a photo of a dog in a field of tulips. It was amazing and seriously brought tears to my eyes when I looked at it. (I am a sap but photography does that to me. Really.) I plan to add more colorful images to my portfolio.

The rain did not let up so here are a few somewhat colorful images from a photo shoot of mine 3 weeks ago. This is Fisher and he deserves his own blog post which I plan to do so consider this a sneak peek.

I love my job! I can't believe this is my job!!

Next up in the blog circle is Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area. Be sure to click the link at the bottom of each post to see the other photographer's take on this week's theme.

Barkelona Day 2, Photo Shoot with Sasha

If you've read my previous posts about my day 2 photo shoots at Barkelona, you've met Taila, Pepa, Teo, Forca and now let me introduce Sasha. Sasha is a 4 month old Samoyed. After this photo session with her, I knew one of my goals when I got home was to try and find a setting similar to this so I could recreate this first photo of her with my dogs and my client's dogs.  I love the dirt path that leads to her and the canopy of trees framing her, and the sun coming through the trees above her. I believe I have found a location in Charlotte to recreate something similar this photo. Unfortunately it isn't super close to where I live (so I am on the hunt for a similar location closer) but I hope to get my dog Moose up to this location soon and once I do, I will post the photos and we can compare them. Eeeeee :)

Back to Sasha.

She was such a great model and if my memory serves me correctly, I believe I told the others in the group at the time, I knew these would be photos I would love. I'm having a difficult time editing this first one.  The setting is beautiful but it is requiring some photoshop trickery and I've not quite mastered it yet.  I'm sure I'll continue to play with this photo... I'm curious to see what I might do to it next time.  Again, if you've read my previous posts you know I was searching to create my style. These are getting closer to it, particularly the 2nd photo.

We changed locations and the lighting was gorgeous. In the next set of photos, Sasha was backlit but the setting sun. The photos I took during this time are quite different from the earlier ones of Sasha because of the lighting.  Which do you prefer?

I hope you've enjoyed these photos of Sasha.  We had one more set of dogs we photographed on day 2.  You'll meet Pruna and Boira in my next Barkelona blog post and there were a couple of photos from that session that I stood out to me too. :) Be sure to check back!

Project 52 Week 19: Patterns

This week we are continuing our study of lines and specifically patterns this week. In our workbook, this phrase in particular stood out to me: "The stronger the pattern, the stronger the expectation that the pattern will continue to repeat, and when it doesn't, that contrast has great visual mass and will captivate our attention." When I was in Spain, one of the photographers took several amazing photos of a dog standing in between some stone columns. That visual is exactly what comes to mind when I read about this exercise. I am hoping she will participate this week and use that photo (I may have hinted to her that she needs too!)  It is one of my favorite photos that anyone of us took in Spain. In our workbook for this week, one of the photos used as an example was taken in Africa on a safari. It was a landscape image with antelope and a Land Rover creating a pattern with eye being drawn to the antelope. My take on this week's assignment is similar since I couldn't find any stone columns and a dog that would hold a sit/stay for me. :(

Let me set the stage.

I was pet sitting with this cutie Millie and her canine sister Sadie. Millie was rescued as a puppy from a bad breeding situation and now 5 years later to say her life is better is an understatement. Just look at this yard AND her frequent guests that keep her (and me!) entertained.

I'd grabbed my camera before heading over to her house knowing that I was loosing light quickly. I wish I would've had my long lens but I didn't so I made do with my 24-70. I cranked up my ISO and was at f/8 to try and capture the entire scene in focus. To say Millie is a ball of energy is an understatement. If you sit down or crouch down (to take a photo), you need to know where Millie is because she will be on you in a heartbeat and loves to smother you in as many kisses as she can. She may hold the record for most kisses given in under a minute! I am not kidding!!  In low light at f/8 and a high ISO, if Millie moved at all, she wasn't going to be sharp. In the first image she isn't but I've included it because this was my first indication that something was going on....

This was mine and Millie's view last night. And yes, my view of Millie was pretty much of her hind end the entire time!

This is a blog circle so next up is Northeast PA Pet Photographer, Elaine Tweedy.  Be sure to click the link at the bottom of each post to see each photographer's interpretation on this week's assignment.

Barkelona Day 2: Second Photo Shoot with Forca

I met Forca during our 2nd photo shoot on day 2. After another incredible meal at Casa Felix, we were introduced to 3 more sets of dogs that we would be photographing outdoors, around Casa Felix just before sunset. I can't even describe how beautiful it was around our villa. Some of my favorite photos from my time in Spain were taken during this photo shoot. Because of that, I'm going to walk you through each individual photo shoot.  My group started with Forca. She is a beautiful chocolate lab. This is literally the first photo I took of her.

She is a trained therapy dog and was so calm. Her parents were with her and her mom spoke a little English. You know when you meet certain people and you just like them? That's how I felt about Forca's mom. You could tell she just adored this dog.

As many of you know, I have a chocolate lab named Moose that we rescued 1.5 years ago at the age of 8. Forca made me miss my man Moose although my guy has a much different personality because he wouldn't sit and pose like Forca did for us. She was a great dog and I hated saying goodbye to them.

I love profile shots of dogs. I have two 20x24 photos of my dogs Willow and Buddy hanging in my bedroom are both are profile shots of them that I had taken by a professional photographer back in 2012 before I'd ever even thought of becoming a photographer myself. I like profile shots when the dogs are captured looking up as Forca is in this one. I can see the love and adoration she has in her eyes as she is staring up at her mom. This is my personal favorite image that I took of Forca. I just love it because I know she is looking at her mom and that look in her eye and the happiness in her face just gets me every time.

Project 52 week 18: Use of Diagonal Lines

In week 18 of our 52 week challenge, we are to use diagonal lines in our images to create energy and lead our viewer through the image. As many of you know, I am fairly new to photography so I've been working pretty hard at honing my skills. Part of the process for me has been trying to figure out my style or perhaps I should say develop a style. I have been on a journey (literally to Spain) to help me figure this out and one of my "ah ha" moments was meeting and getting to know Kaylee Greer of Dog Breath Photography. I've seen and admired her work and as I got to know her, it hit me like a ton of bricks that her personality shows through in her photography. She is fun and gregarious and truly one of the most sincere people I've ever met. To me, her photography is fun and gregarious and there is also a sincerity about it. When I look at the images I took in Spain under the direction of the three instructors, the images that are my favorites are the ones that are clean, simple, dreamy, natural and calming. Most of those words are words I would use to describe myself. Perhaps I am onto something here. Progress feels good.

I believe my style doesn't lend itself to a lot of lines in the actual photos. I see images that others create that contain a lot of lines and I like some of them but I generally prefer a more understated image.

I'm cheating a little here because I am posting a photo I took in Spain of a dog named Pepa. (We are supposed to post photos we took this past week, see below for those. :))  It is one of my favorite images that I took on my trip. I like the simplicity of it and the white wall behind the mostly white dog (and the white wall has very subtle leading lines.) In looking at the photo, I noticed today that Pepa is lying on a brick floor with a diagonal pattern. I'm not sure that these diagonal lines add much to this image because they are fairly faint (and perhaps that is why I'm not bothered by them.) In this image, Pepa is lying at an angle to the camera... hence she is the diagonal. :)

I had a photo session at the end of last week and I set the puppy up on some moss growing in between the pavers.  I was hoping to use one of those photos for my diagonal lines shot but in my photos, the puppy is sitting so that the lines are not diagonal at all, they're straight so I needed to come up with another plan.

Enter Howie, Lola and Otis. I was pet sitting for them earlier in the week. They are Malteses (should that have an 's' on the end or no?  Anyone know what the plural of Maltese is?? :)) Otis is the old man of the crew, Howie is the young pup and Lola is the sweet girl that is happy to play or be loved on pretty much all the time!  They have brick pavers in their yard so my thought was to try and get shots of them with the pavers coming towards me on the diagonal and in this first one, Otis is diagonal too.  I know this probably a stretch for this week's assignment (sshhh don't tell anyone!)

Otis doesn't hear well (if at all) so I was lucky to get a shot of him with the brick pavers going the direction I wanted.  Howie is VERY food motivated and sat nicely for a treat while I took his photo. :) I was also able to snatch a few photos of Lola.

This is a blog circle so click here to go to Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area .  If you continue to click the links at the end of each post, you'll end up right back here and you'll get to see some cute furry kids along the way.

Barkelona Day 2, 1st Photo Shoot

Our Barkelona workshop included a combination of classroom and on location photo sessions. In the morning both Nicole and Sam led classroom talks. Day 2 of Barkelona had 2 photo sessions. We did one inside the villa we were staying in and then in the evening we photographed several dogs outside and around the villa.  I don't have the right words to describe how beautiful is was. There I met Forca, a chocolate lab. She is a trained therapy dog and she made me miss my man Moose. However unlike Moose, she posed perfectly for her portraits... but I'm getting ahead of myself. More on her in a bit! For the indoor photo session, my group started with Taila, a golden retriever / cocker spaniel mix. She was a little unsure of all of the attention she was getting but she posed beautifully. Even when we put her in the chair and in front of a chess set! She must've thought we were crazy. And we are: crazy dog photographer people. All of us!!

This 2nd photo is the amazing Kaylee Greer of Dog Breath Photography and a little behind the scenes of her setting up the shot of Taila.  Ingrid is Taila's dog trainer giving her some instructions too.

Our next model was a dog that caught my attention when she arrived.  Her name is Pepa and she's an English Bulldog.  In all my years of dog walking, I've never met a bulldog until April 16, 2016 and I had to go all the way to Spain to do it!  Pepa was a great model and even tolerated more of our crazy dog photographer antics... see below!

We then moved outside and photographed a jack russell terrier.  I hate to say this but there were two JRTs and I'm not sure if this is Elsa or Teo.

We took a short break after photographing all these cuties and then we had more classroom work.  After an early dinner, 4 dogs came to our villa to be photographed during our student led shoot.  That's where I met Forca.  Stayed tuned for the next blog post....