Just Playing Around

No fine art here - just amusing myself with the girls and my 35mm f/1.8.  Sometimes you just have to have a little fun.

Abby looks particularly shifty-eyed in black and white!

Even in a 'silver' black and white she looks pretty shifty-eyed!

While this pretty much goes against my fundamental instinct to get down on Abby's level, I love the light on her head in this shot.

Shifty eyed, even in color.  Fi, meanwhile, has decided that me simply waving a treat around isn't going to work for her for much longer.

Nothing that would be made into 20x30 canvases, but still amusing.

Life Imitating Art

and art imitating life...

Here's the backstory to this image, in case you are curious: I recently ordered and received some sample canvases for my pet photography business, and one of the samples is of Abby.  I had the sample on the landing on the stairs because it is really stunning (seriously - once you see one of these canvasses in person, you'll wonder how you ever lived without one - the canvas in only out of focus because the depth of field for this photo; the image on the canvas is very sharp and vibrant).  As I was puttering around this morning, Abby was in her usual position as sentinel on the stairs.  I suddenly realized she was in the same pose as in the portrait on the canvas, and of course, I grabbed the camera.

A Few Photos from Today

Today was my six-month 'follow-up' with Winnie the Poodle.  I originally photographed Winnie when she was 14 (or so) weeks old, I wanted to get her at 6 months.  As usual, I got a bunch of photos in the one-hour session with Winnie and her older brother Lucky, but here are a few photos from today.

Yep, she's cute!

And goofy!

Being a standard poodle, it took Lucky a little while to figure out why I was throwing snowballs at him.  Once he figured it out, he enjoy catching them.

Hopefully I'll have the album ready for Winnie and Lucky's parents before my next shelter shoot this coming Thursday.

I also spent a little time today trying to work on lighting my human portraits.  I was reading an article yesterday where the author said she just spent a lot of photographing herself while tweaking lighting (aperture and flash power and shutter speed and location of the flash in relation to the person, etc., etc.) with a remote shutter release.  Since that seemed like the easiest way for me to practice lighting humans, I tried it.  I definitely had a lot more experimenting to do, but I think in time I'll be confident for when someone asks me to photograph them with their dogs.

This was the most natural looking lighting of me, but the girls are (obviously) too dark.

I'm a little brighter than the natural look I was going for, but the girls are less dark,

Obviously I've got a fair amount of work ahead of me to get the 'fill light' thing mastered.  And I have no idea what was going on with my hair today....

Snowball (Slushball) Faces

While the northeast is getting pounded with snow (Fi and Abby's black lab pal Dexter had to dive in and out of the snow just to get to a spot for his 'natural break'), we are facing very warm weather and melting snow.  But with the melting snow, I can toss snowball (well, slushballs) for the girls.

And they always make funny faces - exploding slushballs always make for good times!

Shelter Animals

I consider myself very fortunate to have the opportunity to photograph adoptable animals at the Salt Lake County Animal Shelter.  A friend of mine at work brought the opportunity to my attention, and I'm really glad she suggested I check it out.  I did my volunteer training right after the holidays, and recruited another friend of mine to also do the volunteer training so I could have an assistant (because I could totally see me knocking my camera against the kennels as I'm trying to wrangle a dog into a leash and out of the kennel and out into a play yard).   With all the training done, my friend Ginger and I went out to the shelter this last Thursday for our first official photography day.   Because Ginger and I are only approved for 'green collar' dogs, and because this was our first day, one of the staff members helped us figure out what we were doing, while also managing a couple of 'orange collar' dogs that needed glamour shots.    In addition to the orange collar dogs (designated so because they were shy), there were a couple of little dogs and some cats.

It was a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to going back - I've got a lot to learn, and I will definitely become a better photographer, and a better reader of animal body language the more I do it.  I might actually even learn how to attract the attention of cats!

But enough blathering - on to the photos!

This is Nisha a red Australian Cattle dog mix with gorgeous eyes.  She was my first dog of the day, and she was patient while I got myself organized!

Next up was Wes, a chocolate Chesapeake Bay retriever mix.  He is very handsome, and he knew it!   

Did someone say 'cookie'?

After Wes, we had Nena, who was shy until we broke out the treats.  Then she was totally not shy.

Nena knows how to work it for the camera!

And she's a gorgeous girl!

After Nena, we moved on to the little dogs.  Our first little dog was Hershey.  Hershey has this incredible underbite and big eyes - all of which made him look like a muppet.

That face!  That tooth!

Seriously, this little guy is a muppet in disguise

Not a perfect shot, but I love the backlighting!

After Hershy, we had Ziggy.  Ziggy was a bundle of energy, and I had to be fast on feet to get some good photos of her.  This is a case where as I get more experience, I will have better photos of the bouncy dogs.  In the meantime, Photoshop is my friend!

 

I see a tennis ball!

Will dance for cookies!

After the little dogs, we moved on to the cats.  How difficult could cats be, right?!?  Yuh.  I definitely need more experience with cats.  But again, it was a great learning experience for me.   The lighting wasn't optimal - fluorescent lights in a painted room, so I had to use a flash (and lots of kitty treats to keep the cats from freaking out about the flash).

The first cat on the list was Bagheera - luckily he was very mellow and could be bribed with kitty treats!

Hand over the kitty treats now or I will meow at you! 

Don't worry - he got his kitty treats!

Then we moved on to Bindy, who in spite of having only one eye was very interested in playing.

Lady, give me the cat toy.  Yes, that one you are waving in front of my face.

A very playful, silly girl.

Yep, she was all about the cat toys!

Then we moved on to Pebbles the kitten (who, I think, has already been adopted).  Pebbles was all about receiving scratchies!

BRIGHT eyes!

And then there was Oscar.  Oscar is SO handsome (and he knows it - he strutted around with supreme confidence) and he was ALL ABOUT getting scratchies.  He wasn't remotely interested in treats or toys, only in getting scratchies.  Of the various categories of cats at the shelter, Oscar is solidly in the 'Love Bug' category.

I am the most interesting cat in the world.

Oscar was rocking his lion cut - he swaggered around while we admired him and gave him scratchies.

The last guy, Thomas, was really Not Excited about the whole camera thing.  I tried bribing him with treats and toys and scratchies, but he wasn't interested.  So Thomas the cat and I had a little chat, and we decided that a profile shot would be perfectly acceptable.

I am planning on going back a week from next Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it.  I think I will learn to move faster on my feet, expand my repertoire of techniques for getting the attention of dogs and cats, and learn how to better approach shy and bouncy animals alike.   And hopefully the glamour shots will help these animals find their fur-ever homes.  Which makes this a win-win proposition, in my book!

A Few Studio Shots

A nice, simple black backdrop and a couple of dogs who will work for lamb lung treats.  Life is good.

 

Ho-Hum

More of the same.  You know the saying, "If you've seen one Doodle frisbee photo, you've seen them all..."  Actually I believe I said something similar about elephants when we were on a photo safari in Kenya.  In my defense, I was only 8, and we had seen a bunch of elephants, including some up close and personal while we were in a bunker...  I do however, remember the lions in the shade very clearly.

So, if you have seen "enough" Doodle frisbee photos, feel free to move along.  There is nothing to see here.

Heehee.

Up close and personal - just like with the elephants.

Like the lions - had they actually been interested in moving and not just snoozing.

I think I get bonus points for this last photo because while only Abby is in focus (on purpose), I have dual tongue action.  And synchronized enthusiasm.  Heheh.