Barkelona Day 3 and a puppy named Bimbo

Our photo shoot on our 3rd day of Barkelona was in the evening in a small seaside town called Sitges. Check out these google images if you're not familiar with the town. I loved it and could've spent several days hanging out here. It was about a 15 minute ride from our villa in Olivella. When we arrived in Sitges we were paired up into smaller groups and I was with Joanne Brown of Big Bernese Photography.  Joanne and I got along great during the workshop and we stay in touch and talk on the phone frequently.  She and I are both starting up our photography businesses so we have a lot of discussions about our business models, pricing and most recently on website development. It is so nice to have someone I like and respect to bounce ideas off of and someone who is going through a lot of the same stuff I am right now. Here is one of Joanne's recent photos:

Back to day 3 at Barkelona, shortly after arriving in Sitges, the dogs we would be photographing joined us. I was immediately drawn to the chow named Bimbo and this photo location was the suggestion of Kaylee Greer of Dog Breath Photography. We'd actually spent about 30 minutes photographing him, then we photographed another dog (that'll be my next post!)  We'd photographed a dachshund in this doorway and Kaylee said, we need a taller dog. Bimbo was walking by with his owners and we asked if he'd model for us some more. He did and this is the result.

Every time I see this photo of Bimbo, I get emotional. It brings back all of the emotion from this trip: the memories, the people, the food and the incredible experience that it was.

Here is another favorite of mine of Bimbo. He was so good, especially for a puppy. He was off leash the entire time and occasionally he'd wander of a little so his dad would pick him up and put him back in place. I smile every time I see this photo.

I have a ton of photos of him. Here are a few more.

I don't know why but when I look at photos of Bimbo I get super melancholy. I miss Spain the most it seems when I look at photos of him. Perhaps because I used to have a chow named Bear and I get the same feelings every time I think of Bear.

I miss this dog. I miss this town. I miss all the beautiful doors in this town.... it was amazing. I hope to make it back some day. BARKography in Sitges.... omg!!!!

BARKography

I officially launched BARKography on June 11th and here is the new logo design. When I decided to start a photography division I tacked on photography to See Spot Run and then later learned that the name was trademarked by another photographer. Before that led to any issues, I decided to be proactive and change the name, hence BARKography. Once I decided on the name, the next process was developing a logo. Here is the winning design:

Another attendee at Barkelona referred me to 99Designs.com. 99Designs.com is a site where you can have graphic artists from around the world enter a contest to design your logo. I originally thought I wanted a logo using my dog Moose but all of the designs using him looked like clipart to me.  The original artwork submitted to me was this:

I was immediately drawn to it but I wasn't sure it was exactly what I wanted. After a few days of going back and forth on ideas with the artist, he created this and I love it!  What do you think?

Project 52, week 27: Sky

For our Pet Photography Project 52 week 27, we are taking a break from the book and we have a freestyle theme, sky. Most of you know that my regular job is as a dog walker and pet sitter.  Most days in the summer time, I am pet sitting 7 days & nights / week while my clients vacation. That means I am working during sunrise and sunset and since I've started this dog photography thing, I drive around at dawn and dusk and dream of being in a great location with a dog so I can photograph him. This week with our theme being sky, I decided to make certain that I got a dog in front of a sunrise or sunset. My other challenge with trying to do sunrise, sunset or photography when the focus is supposed to be the sky is finding a location. Charlotte NC is beautiful and a great place to live, AND it is full of trees. Those trees make it difficult to find places where there is a lot of open sky. However I am pet sitting with Ursa again this week and while out walking her I discovered a large, steep hill. Does anyone else do this?? Please tell me I'm not the only one because I immediately thought, "That spot would be a nice place to put a dog for a photograph!"

The night we did this quick session with Jack we were really lucky because there was a breeze so it didn't feel like it was 100°. However even with the breeze, Jack was warm but at 12 years old I think he did great! I do think he was happy to be back in the car in the a/c though!

I had an opportunity with Ursa the next morning to take a few photos of her too.

On those days when I don't have my camera with me, every time I see a great sunrise or sunset I get a pit in my stomach and I yearn to be out with my camera and a dog. Perhaps I am a little obsessed. :)

Remember this is a blog circle and next up is Little White Dog Pet Photography - Sioux Falls, SD. If you continue clicking the links at the bottom of each post, you'll end up right back here. I'm excited to see everyone else's sky shots.

Project 52, week 30: Quality of Light

Quality of light is our topic for week 30 of our Pet Photography Project 52 challenge. As we have over the last 2 weeks, we were supposed to pay attention to the direction of light as well as whether or not the light was shining through our subject or on our subject and we were to access the intensity of the light. I am afraid this particular assignment would have been a better suited for cooler weather. Temps have been hot (95+) and humid in Charlotte. My full time job is working as a dog walker so I am out in the heat every day from 9am-3pm-ish. This past week when I've not been outside walking dogs, I've opted to be inside in the a/c.  The fact that this week we are discussing the quality of light seems rather ironic since I was shooting in lighting conditions I've never shot in before and there wasn't much to assess. The conditions were poor but I made the best of it and I had a blast!! On Saturday, I volunteered for 4 hours for the Humane Society of Charlotte at the Mega 500 Adopt-a-thon. I was the photographer at the "Finish Line." I took photos of each adopted dog or cat and their new family so they'd have their first family photo. It was pretty easy for me to assess the light. I can sum it up in one word: poor.

Thankfully we were indoors in the a/c. Not so thankfully, we were indoors... the quality of light inside the building wasn't great for photography.

True story - I'd filled out an application to volunteer at the Humane Society of Charlotte a week ago and I received a response back on Friday afternoon. I replied back to the email asking if they ever needed a photographer. I got an immediate response back asking if I was available on Saturday (the next day!) I was, so I volunteered.

Now, mind you, I am not an indoor photographer. I do have an external flash for my camera but I rarely use it. I figured if they didn't have me they'd be using their cell phones and I was pretty sure I could do better than their phones.

I met some wonderful people and a dog I wanted to adopt. I did not adopt the dog but I keep thinking about him. My husband even asked me tonight if we could trade our brown dog for the dog I met on Saturday. (He was teasing but crazy Moose has been a bit challenging the last few days. Perhaps this dog walker needs to hire a dog walker for Moose! :) ) To see all of the photos from Saturday. go to the BARKography facebook page: click here to see all the dogs and cats that were adopted. 

Here is a sneak peek.

Next up in the blog circle is Northeast PA Pet Photographer, Elaine Tweedy. Be sure to click the link at the end of each post and you'll end up right back here. Happy Reading!

Project 52: week 29: Backlight

First of all, my apologies to the other photographers for my late entry into our project 52 challenge. I've had an exciting couple of days and I have been distracted. I was really excited when I saw the challenge for this week because I love images with backlight. I had the pleasure of working with Charlotte Reeves of Charlotte Reeves Photography when I was in Spain in April at Barkelona. She is famous for the way she backlights her subjects so I got to learn from the best. However learning and then actually doing proved to be 2 different things. :)

Here is the story of my shots for this week.

I've been working on getting a new logo made for BARKography. My thought was to try and use my lab Moose (you know.... the crazy one) as the model for my logo. My goal was to use him in these backlighting shots and also create an image to use for my logo. I had been texting with a friend about this and she offered to help me with crazy Moose.... get this, at sunrise! She is a good friend.

We met at Freedom Park which is a nice park, with a large lake and stone bridge. I have an app that helps me see where the sun is going to rise, it gives you the golden hour times (the app is The Photographer's Emphemeris) so I felt pretty prepared.  The app is fairly complicated (to me anyway) and what it would've told me but I failed to do was check the elevation. It will determine elevation and the surrounding terrain and factor that in and I skipped that step. If you've been to Charlotte NC before, there are lots of tree.  Lots. Of. Trees. Said trees were interfering with my sunrise shots.

My biggest takeaway from the weekend was to assess the location and work with what it is giving me. I'd gone into the session thinking that I could take photos of Moose with the lake in the background and the backlight behind him which was perfect because the sun was rising behind the lake. What I didn't learn until after the session was that all that water and sky behind my dark brown dog was tricky at best to get the proper exposure.

This is a blog circle. Click the link at the bottom of each post and you'll end up right back here. I can't wait to see the other's photographs using backlighting. Next up is St. Cloud based & serving central Minnesota, About A Dog Photography.

Pet Photography Project 52: week 26, 27, 28: See the Direction of the Light

For this week's challenge, we are talking about the direction of light. Using front light when taking a photograph is usually the easiest and what most people do because it evenly lights the front of your subject. Side light can be more challenging especially if you're only using natural light because whatever part of your subject isn't lit, will be in the shadows. This week we are to post images that use both front lighting and side lighting. I also have another purpose for the photos that I am taking this week and for those photos, my intent is to use my dog Moose. Remember him from a few weeks back? I used him as my model and we had a few instances of chaos, broken sunglasses and a photography assistant who ended up on the ground when Moose started running too fast and she was the one holding the leash. Does that ring a bell? If not, find the blog post entitled Horizons and you can read about our escapades.

Why do I want to even attempt to get another photo of Moose? I want an image of him that can be used in a new logo I'm creating. The logo that I use on my See Spot Run page is actually an outline of our yellow lab Willow's head.

Why am I creating a 2nd logo? I made a BIG announcement this week and for those of you who have either "liked" me or my See Spot Run page on Facebook, you've seen the news. See Spot Run Photography has a new name.

BARKography

BARKography was officially launched on June 11 which also happens to be my mother's birthday and she is probably my biggest supporter so it seems fitting.  My new facebook page is BARKography by Kim Hollis. Please visit, if you feel so inclined 'like' the page and comment. If I haven't liked your page, please feel free to send me an invitation. We need to support each other! I commit to doing better at commenting on others' facebook pages. Too often I wonder if anyone is ever reading what I write. I promise to comment more often so you'll know someone is reading what you write. :)

I am so excited for this I can't stand it and I'll blog about all of this soon but back to Project 52 and the Direction of Light. With the photographs of Moose, I needed a background without a lot going on so we went up to the top level of a parking deck. I wanted a side shot of him so I could use an outline of him. This was the result.

This next photo is an example of what the graphic designer could do with the photograph. I can tell that this is definitely Moose but to me it looks like clip art I could get anywhere on the web. Back to the drawing board and trying to get more photos of Moose. If anyone has any suggestions on what might look good, I'm all ears!  btw - Moose was leashed up this entire time and he was very well behaved. It was super hot outside so I think that zapped some of his energy. That also explains the tongue hanging out of his mouth here. I definitely got some great photos to post for "Tongue Out Tuesday" on Instagram!

I didn't have photos of Moose where the direction of the light would be side lighting so for those, I'm using a model named Ursa. She is a pet sitting client and I love her eyes.

As I was writing this post, I got an email from the graphic designer. She is going to show me a couple of logo proofs today. I'm so excited. I've been up til midnight twice this week (and that is sooo late for me) working on my logo. There are a ton of fonts to choose from so I'm excited to see what the graphic designer has created. Once I get the logo finished, then I'll be on to creating a new BARKography website.  My See Spot Run dog walking and pet sitting site will remain but I'll have one dedicated specifically for photography.  AAAAHHH (angels singing emoji would be appropriate here!)

Remember this is a blog circle. Click the 'next up' link at the bottom of each post to see each photographer's take on our assignment this week Direction of Light. I always enjoy reading Northeast PA Pet Photographer, Elaine Tweedy's posts. Her sense of humor and personality come through when she writes. Makes me wish I could meet her some day... but I digress (as I always do!!) Keep clicking the links until you end up right back here. Happy reading!!