Posted on October 16, 2010 in Animals, Pet Photography
If you saw yesterday’s post, you read that the quest to photograph the cats in their Halloween costumes has begun. Yesterday Sebastian sported a pumpkin bandana. Today it was Tara’s turn to try on a fuzzy orange and white elastic collar with a pumpkin on it. I think Tara and Sebastian are neck and neck when it comes to seeing who is the most ‘uncooperative’ subject! 🙂 Stay tuned for more feline Halloween fun in the days ahead.
Posted on October 15, 2010 in Animals, Pet Photography
No, this is not Sebastian’s Halloween costume. We have to gradually work up to the full-blown costume, so we’re starting with just a pumpkin bandana. With pets you sometimes have to take baby steps! Sebastian is terrified of a flash and so cameras aren’t his favorite thing. These images were shot with the Canon f/1.4 lens at 1/60th of a second handheld in natural light. Today’s session lasted 10 minutes tops and then he was on his way. Still, I’m pretty happy to have captured a couple cute shots of him wearing his festive Halloween scarf. I think he’s currently under the bed trying to figure out how to get back at me for this adventure. I’m sure his plan includes waking me up at 2:30 in the morning by banging on the mini-blinds…one of his new ‘talents’! 🙂
Posted on October 14, 2010 in Animals, Pet Photography
I’ve been busy the last few weeks preparing my presentation for the Pet Photography class I’m teaching next week. I’ve had fun going out and photographing dogs and cats for the specific purpose of showing examples to support class discussion. One challenge that we’ll cover is photographing animals with black and/or white fur. It’s so very important to pay attention to your histogram to avoid blown out highlights and too dark areas. Different lighting situations cause the camera to react differently to the very white or very black fur. I’ve already had to underexpose images of dogs with black fur because the camera lightened the image and the dog looked almost gray. On the other hand, I’ve had to overexpose in other situations when the you couldn’t even find the dog’s eyes amidst the blob of black. Each lighting situation is different. The key is being able to think quickly, know your equipment, and adapt. Above and below are a few images of an adorable toy breed – the Japanese Chin. I love this tiny dog’s short nose and big big eyes! The profile image below really shows that smudge of a nose!
Posted on October 13, 2010 in Fall, Nature, Painting Effect, Topaz
The Fall color in my area this year has not been consistent. It seemed vibrant several weeks ago, then became very drab, spruced up for a couple days with bright reds and yellows, and now seems to be headed straight to brown. I’ve not had much interest in going out to photograph the colors, but I did snap these 2 images recently at the Lake. The leaves had gathered near the beach in the shallow water and there was quite a variety of shapes and colors. I think these images would make fun {and difficult!} jigsaw puzzles! Both were processed with Topaz and the one below followed up with a painted effect.
Posted on October 12, 2010 in Animals, Pet Photography
This pretty pooch has beautiful fur and a cute layered style that reminds me of “beach hair” … you know that tousled wind-blown look so many of us girls are after! 🙂 I know that I am never happy with my hair, but being jealous of a dog’s style is going WAY too far! 🙂 🙂