This was going to be a fun challenge where I could take Hermes to a bridge or a dirt road, or, or, or... but, when it snows and the wind blows at the same time there is just no way I can ask Hermes to go out in it. So, this week we're back indoors. Leading lines was the challenge for this week. Leading lines in an image usually require space and a wide angle lens. The idea is to use lines to draw your viewer into the part of the image that you want them to focus on. I had no idea what I was going to do to show leading lines indoors, and then this happened... Hermes had wrapped himself in the throw just like he always does, but this time he didn't quite make it underneath before turning circles to settle. I tip-toed to my camera and silently whispered over and over, please don't wake up, please don't wake up. I knew I wouldn't get a second chance at this one. He was completely worn out. Poor guy. Setting up the shot at just the right angle showed wonderful leading lines. Not exactly the standard shot you would get with a bridge or a road, but I think it's kind of cool. Thanks for helping, Hermes! ;) If you are enjoying our Friday blog circle posts, follow along this week starting with Lynda from Heartstrings Photography, Based in Hamilton New Zealand.
Have a wonderful weekend! Does your dog have a daily schedule that they routinely follow? This is often dictated by families who work outside the home or have kids who go to school. There is a routine that is always in place and the dog usually adapts nicely. Hermes knows when it's Wednesday (every time!) and anxiously waits for me to get to the part where I pick up my keys so that he can go out the door with me headed to doggie daycare. Any other time he goes to his bed when I get my keys and looks at me as if to say, "See you later." Other than that, his days could be described as, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-days. We go for walks, we sit outside, we play "where's the rabbit." We just do what we want, when we want. Dash on the other hand, could care less what day it is. He has the same routine day in and day out. It doesn't matter what you have planned, his plans are always the same. It goes something like this: He wakes up bright and early (cough) around 9am. He goes outside to do his business, runs back in, checks the dog bowl to make sure there is food in it for later, then heads back to his kennel. When he is alerted that there might be something outside, he runs to the front door and barks like mad. (Most of the time it's a false alarm, but by gosh he's ready!) Towards the afternoon hours Dash leaves the front room for better sun bathing options in the kitchen and a good view of the back yard. This is the time of day when the squirrels are out and thus, this is when Dash's "work day" truly begins. He sees a squirrel, runs to the door and barks his little head off telling that squirrel to "GET OFF MY LAWN!" (He's such a crotchety old man sometimes.) Dash sprints out the door into the yard, kicking grass and dirt, (or snow) everywhere, runs the track around the tree, then jumps repeatedly at the squirrel who is now perched in the tree spewing a string of obscenities in Dash's direction. When Dash has ended the conversation, he trots back inside and plops down on the couch or in front of the fire if it's cold out. This is the first of about 15 or more "Let me out...let me in" rotations that last for about an hour or so until Dash has worn himself out. Honestly, sometimes I'm worn out before he is. At the end of the day, Dash likes to lay on the couch beside me while I watch Netflix, whine a little to let me know that I should be scratching him, and then finally goes to his kennel when it's time for everyone to be in bed. Yep, that's his whole day unless I convince him that it is warm enough for him to go for a walk with Hermes and I. It's a dog's life for sure. This post is part of a blog circle, so to see what other pet photographers' dogs in might be doing with their day, start with KME Photography in Minneapolis, MN. Have a great weekend!
This week's challenge was to "Revisit and Re-Edit" so I decided to go back to the beginning for this one. Back to the shelter... I started volunteering at a shelter over 10 years ago. When that shelter closed a few years later, it was sad and I missed it, but I was also busy with my kids and other volunteer work so I just accepted it. I loved and admired the people that I worked with and am grateful for their encouragement towards my photography. Never in a million years did it even occur to me that it might lead to a job that I love so much. So, for the challenge, here are some re-edits and I have to say the "revisit" part was sooooo much fun for me. :O) The challenge this week was a fun look at the past, but it didn't stop there. I have been so inspired this year with the number of people taking part in this challenge who work with rescues on a regular basis. I've been missing that connection for awhile now and decided that I'd like to change that. Today I was notified that I have been accepted as a HeARTs Speak Artist. HeARTs Speak is a 501c3 international nonprofit organization who's mission is to unite art and advocacy to increase the visibility of shelter animals. HeARTs Speak artists provide their services pro bono or donate their work to animal shelters, rescues, and advocacy groups. I know the difference a good photo makes for a shelter animal when needing a new home. I love being part of that process and am looking forward to working with these animals (and the people who work so hard for them) again. You can see more from other photographers in this blog circle each time there is a challenge post. This week start with Pet Love Photography, author of "Rescue Dogs: Portraits and Stories," serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area. Have a great weekend!
Are you one of those people who always has a song in their head? I wake up with a song in my head all the time. I wasn't dreaming about the song (I don't think) and I didn't wake up to the song on the radio, it's just there. This week I had a song stuck in my head that refused to go away..."gotta cut loose, footloose; kick off your Sunday shoes..." Imagine my surprise when the theme for this week's challenge was "favorite song." Now, if you ask me what my favorite song is, there is NO way I can give you one. I can give you a list of artists: Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Simon and Garfunkle, Queen, Nickel Creek, Garth Brooks, Alanas Morissette, Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Imagine Dragons, Andrea Bocelli... (I love everything except maybe jazz), but I could not narrow it down to one song. Footloose might not be my favorite song, but it's a happy song, makes people want to dance, and I thought it might just work well for this week's theme. When trying to come up with image ideas for this song, all I could think of was this one from 5 years ago. Even though he was mid-jump to catch a frisbee, this picture is FULL of Hermes's personality... his "crazy, fun-loving, bouncing off the walls, will try to get away with anything" personality! Since there is really no way to duplicate something like this I figured I'd just let Hermes be Hermes and see what happened. "....everybody cut footloose!" :D
If you'd rather not have this particular song stuck in your head, see if there's one you might like better by following the blog circle. :) You can start with John Bouma with MaxNorman Pet Photography serving the South Florida Area. Have a great weekend! I was a "collector" in my younger years. I was very sentimental about things even as a teenager. My dad traveled the world with his job and would bring gifts home for us kids. One time he brought me 3 unique, spiny sea shells that he picked up off the beach (I can't even remember which country now) and I still have those shells simply because my dad picked them up for me and carried them home from a place I'd never seen. (Ok, so maybe I'm still sentimental). I collected so many things through the years, but the constant moves that come from being married to an Air Force pilot and having 3 little boys with all the things that go along with having 3 little boys brought a new way of seeing things for me... it was all stuff and it was a pain to pack and un-pack year after year. I soon became a minimalist....NOT! Ha! Honestly, I'd love to be one, but it's just not in me. I like things that make me smile when I see them, whether from their beauty or from a memory associated with them. So, let's face it, my house will always lean towards the word, clutter rather than, tidy. Minimalism has a place in art and we see it in photography as well. This image of a leaf in the snow would be considered minimalist. There is very little (if anything) to compete with the subject of the photograph. I consider my Sioux View images to be minimalist photography. These images have what we call "negative space," (the background is void of clutter), they are for the most part linear in nature, and I remove the color from these images so that the viewer "feels" more of the textures, contrasts, and even emotions presented in the images. Since the purpose of this 52 Weeks project is to think outside the box when it comes to pet photography, I needed to come up with something that would be considered minimalist with Hermes as my model. I knew the snow would be perfect for this week's challenge, but I also knew that Hermes and snow don't always play nice together. In the end, he was kind enough to take about a minute and a half out of his day for this shot out the back door. Once back in the warmth of the house he told me to take all the time I needed for this shot on the couch. :D To continue around the blog circle and see what other pet photographers and their models have come up with for this challenge, start with Tracy Allard of Penny Whistle Photography fetching family portraits in Coppell Texas and surrounding communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
This week's challenge was to photograph using a wide angle lens, so on the first nice(ish) day Hermes and I headed out with my 17-50mm lens. Using a wide angle lens can let you show more of an area rather than just a portion of it. Landscape photography is perfect for wide angle shots. With a wide angle lens you can take a picture of a lake, but you can also get mountains behind it and the shore in front of it instead of just the lake. In this first image I wanted to show the new snow that we got and how perfect it was before all the kids got out of class to play and build forts and snowmen. My wide angle lens was perfect for this. The snow was up to Hermes's knees, but he'll do almost anything for a treat. ;) A wide angle lens will "open up" places that are "walled," so to speak, making it a great lens for things like paths and bridges. The stairs and railing on the playground equipment fan out in this image inviting us to "come and play" with Hermes. With a wide angle lens I'm able to include Hermes's ears and Dash's long legs in the picture! And, if you get really close you can create some fun images. ;) If you'd like to see more from the pet photographers in this blog circle, start with Lynda Mowat from Heartstrings Photography, based in the Waikato New Zealand. Have a great weekend!
I love silhouettes almost as much as black and whites... almost. ;O) Silhouettes are another way to make sure that emotion trumps over things like clothing style or hair color. For me, the tricky part is finding a place without buildings or too many trees that can get in the way of your silhouetted subject. Here is a silhouette from a fun session a couple of years ago. With our weather lately, I thought I was going to have to get creative and figure out a way to get a silhouette indoors. But, we had one evening that showed some color. My husband and I took Dash and Hermes out for just a few minutes and I was able to get one shot of each of them before they turned into pupsicles. It always amazes me how fast the sky changes colors just before sunset! This is a blog circle post, so if you'd like to see more silhouettes from other pet photographers in the group, you can start with Darlene with Pant the Town Pet Photography serving MA and NH. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Today is Chinese New Year and 2018's Chinese zodiac symbol happens to be the Earth Dog. Here are some fun facts about the Year of the Dog. Dog is the symbol of loyalty and honesty. Some of the best traits of human nature are used to describe our furry companions and these traits are supposedly passed on to people born in the Year of the Dog. They are honest, friendly, faithful, smart, straightforward, and often have a strong sense of responsibility. (Sound familiar?) If you were born between Feb 4th and Feb 3rd (of the following year) during 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 or 2018, then you were born under the sign of the Dog. You also have something in common with these famous people: Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Bill Clinton, Herbert Hoover, Golda Meir, Voltaire, Marcel Proust, George Gershwin, Jane Goodall, Socrates, Prince William, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Ellen DeGeneres, Jessica Biel, Kelly Clarkson, Kirsten Dunst, LeAnn Rimes, Queen Latifah, Shirley McLaine, Susan Sarandon, Uma Thurman, Andre Agassi and Confuscius. (Not a bad crown to run with if you ask me.) If one of your kids brings home a stray, you might want to think before you say no to keeping it. A dog will bring good fortune to those who bring them into their home this year. The Chinese word for the barking sound – 旺旺 wàng wàng – actually means “prosperous prosperous" and barking dogs are considered to bring prosperity and wealth to one's house. (I honestly don't know if Dash's bark is worth the possibility of early retirement or not.) And, in case you plan to buy a lottery ticket you might like to know that the numbers 3, 4, and 9, as well as other numbers that contain these, are lucky numbers for people born in the year of the Dog. I went to a four-day power packed photographer's conference in Cedar Rapids this past week and had a great time making new friends and learning from some of the top photographers in the nation. Since it left me with very little time to come up with a unique picture of the dogs for this post, I've made you a little Chinese New Year's gift instead. It's printable on standard 8.5x11 paper or card stock. Simply click on the image. Hope you like it. :O) If you'd like, please continue around the blog circle by starting with Tim Evans of Tim Evans Photography - photographing people and pets throughout south Mississippi. Have a great week!
I've decided that the name Project 52 was just a bit too stressful for me. So, from now on I'm calling these posts, 52 Fridays-Give or Take. ;O) Dash has had me worried. After two trips to the vet and three nights on an IV, he has spent the last week and a half laying around and sleeping most of the time. He has finally started feeling better though. Want to know how I know? He barks at the squirrels constantly!!! (I'm glad you're feeling better, Dash, but you really need to give it a rest.) Since the theme for this week's blog circle is Fantasy, I thought I'd create an image that reflects something that keeps popping up in my head these days. I call it, "Why can't we just all get along." This next one is called, "Dash and Er-nie sit-tin in-a tree....." (you know the rest) ;D We're all having a bit of fun with the theme this week. Hope you enjoy it! To see more, start with Wag to my Heart Photographer, Danyel Rogers, providing photography needs for the Portland Metro area.
Have a wonderful weekend! A friend recently posted a link to a Tedx Talk. The speaker was Dewitt Jones, a Photographer for National Geographic. Dewitt's talk had so many "quote-ables" that I knew I had to share. Dewitt says that National Geographic told him to... "Go out and celebrate what's right with the world." Everything we see and hear these days - the television news, the newspapers, Facebook... they all tell us what's wrong with the world (and a lot of times it's exaggerated or not even true.) We need to look through what Dewitt calls the "lens of celebration" instead, and celebrate what's right with the world instead of what's wrong. Remember a few years back, when everyone was posting pictures of their food on Facebook and Instagram? We (ok, I) soon got sick of seeing post after post of what people were eating (and laundry, what??), but those people were showing something that was "good" in their day. They were sharing happiness. As a bonus, imagine how those pictures made the people who created that meal feel. I'm pretty sure that there was a huge grin on the chef's face whenever they saw their restaurant tagged and then saw something that they created in the image. "When we 'celebrate what's right with the world' it gives us the energy to find the next right answer." I feel like we need to try a little harder to balance the good with the bad that is always being thrown at us. It might take a minute for someone to see the good in a sea of bad, but if you try you can usually find it. My family lives in and around Houston. During the flood last year, my five siblings were each effected in different ways, one personally and the others spent weeks helping friends and neighbors. My sister sent me a picture of a friend sitting with her husband in a lawn chair with all of their belongings (most of which were ruined) piled in the yard behind them. In the front corner of the image, on what looked like a beach cooler, was one of those little word-art blocks. The block said, "Collect moments not things." And, they were smiling in the picture! For a moment at least, they had found what was right with the world. If you'd like a little pick-me-up, or just a fun 18 minutes of listening to a great guy with a good message (and quite a bit of humor), take a look at this Tedx Talk with Dewitt Jones. I've watched it a few times now. ;)
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Quoted...I can't really get them to say "cheese," but I can almost always make them smile. -Kelly Categories
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