Cahlean of About A Dog Photography in MN | The 52 Week Project is a blog circle with a theme for every week (which means we all link to each other, links are found at the end of the post).

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The theme for this week’s 52 Week Project was colorful. Recently I was on a short notice quest for a vintage modern low back chair with no particular color (I was really hoping it wasn’t going to be a 70s olive green, red or blue would have been awesome).

First stop to one of my go to thrift stores in St. Cloud, with high anticipation but a worry that the quest for THE chair on such short notice (needed it in 5 days). Past various assorted pieces of furniture, a chair with ok lines but awful fabric when this piece of perfect caught my eye:

Orange vinyl with a “elephant skin” leather texture and wobbly leg (just needed to be tighten with a couple twists). Very vintage, with a solid spattering of white mildew on the outsides of the arms and up the back but otherwise in very good shape. I scooped it up, thinking it would weigh a ton – nope – actually it was very light! One handed carrying was easy to do and I strolled the rest of the store in case there would be a second chair to go home with me. No other chairs were found that day.

A solid scrubbing cut down on most of the mildew and the rest didn’t show in images. The chair’s first photoshoot was under my strobes and it performed wonderfully. (A huge thank you to Gus @gusgusinthecity for coming out to help me test out my lighting!)

Back at home, I decided I wanted to try some outdoor images with the chair plus a very colorful vintage blanket to really have a strong pop of color for the colorful theme. The chair is a little smaller than I originally wanted (would be tricky to have a person and bigger dog sit together on it) but it worked well for Bender. He worked on his fashion model posing (don’t look at the camera, look stoic) both with and without the blanket, then as the sun warmed him he rocked a happy pant (a very uncommon thing to capture in portraits of him as he’s not an avid panter).

Modeling is just soooo stressful (insert a dramatic eye roll from me, all he has to do is sit and eat treats haha!). Pulled the blanket out of the frame so the chair could show off its color. I love the modernish lines, the bold color and the fact that the back is low profile so if its used against brick, a wall, any backdrop it can still be seen behind the chair. (Wingback chairs are a very solid love of mine, but their backs tend to be a bit too tall for the look I want.)

Back to the blanket (made by Tennessee Woolen Mills, not sure the rough vintage but its a soft, vibrant acrylic). The orange in the blanket perfectly matches the chair! 

Next visit Jessica Wasik with Bark & Gold Photography, celebrating the joy and love between Pittsburgh pets and their people to see her colorful images!

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The 52 Week Project is a blog circle with a theme for every week (which means we all link to each other, links are found at the end of the post).

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Headshots was the theme for the 52 Week Project and we could imagine them in any manner we wanted, from corporate level SEO of snuggling to what might be on a dating profile.

Of course I picked dating profile haha! A new blue wood backdrop was setup, a varsity looking jacket and a pair of shades as well as a pair of nerd/hipster glasses were assembled. The tasty treats were ready and at hand.

Guess who was enthused…
Seriously this dog… you’d think I was asking Bender to clean his room, do the laundry or some other mundane chore, not sit and look at the camera for a slew of tasty treats. Sigh (why he has to “die” when it comes to props, I have no idea.) The jacket and glasses were removed.

Fine, we will do “naked” images. (He posed himself…)

“Oh I see you has treats mom… is this what you wanted?”

{ Cue the dating profile questions with a quirky game show theme song }

What I’m doing with my life: 
I spend my days lounging on the couch, protecting the house from rogue rabid squirrels, meddling neighborhood dogs and odd things that move in the wind

The first thing people usually notice about me:
You tell me.  What was the first thing you noticed? (oh hey girl… wink)

I spend a lot of time thinking about
How handsome I am. And when treats will be put in my mouf (I’m pretty serious about it)

On a typical Friday night I am
Snuggled under a blanket with Grandma. Don’t judge.

My self-summary
I’m a lover with adorable ears (they really are adorable even though I don’t show them in pictures). Food, walkies, and naps in the sun make me happy. I’m a laid back 60 lb doggo who has traits like a kitty cat (laying on the back of the couch to soak up sun rays, sign me up!) and a growing number of freckles. My mom spoils me, my grandma makes me rotten. 

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The boys were swapped, along with the background (the blue was too clashy with lumberjack plaid red). Axle being the old pro allowed me to put the blazer on him and assumed a sit. The result, deadpan. In. Every. Image. That’s just who he is.

{ Cue the dating profile questions with a quirky game show theme song }

What I’m doing with my life: 
I spend my days waiting to go outside and retrieve thrown items. I particularly like tennis balls, racquet balls, glow balls, sticks, frisbees, water bottles…

The first thing people usually notice about me:
Underbite and jowly pout. Or the toy I’m shoving in their crotch. I spend a lot of time thinking about
Outside. Playing fetch, patrolling the yard, when my swimming pools will be put back out, where my ball is, where my stick is, who is going to play with me…

On a typical Friday night I am
Napping in my crate, dreaming of chasing tennis balls and sticks
My self-summary
I’m an active, go go go type guy, playing, retrieving and swimming is my life. My manners aren’t always the best, and a I’ve got a leg that bothers me sometimes (old “war” injury haha) but it doesn’t keep me from running through all of the mud in the yard. I enjoy when Grandpa lets me out without supervision so I can play guard dog and keep an eye on the yard (no old lady will be passing without a stern talking to!).

These two… good thing they aren’t in the actual dating market haha!

Next visit Little White Dog Pet Photography – Sioux Falls, SD to see her take on headshots!

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The 52 Week Project is a blog circle with a theme for every week (which means we all link to each other, links are found at the end of the post).

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Minnesota dog photographer About A Dog Photography here for this week’s 52 Week Project: get close. Likethisclose….

No macro lens lives in my arsenal and reverse macro tends to have a little bit of a loss in image quality (if you don’t know how to reverse macro – take your 50mm, un-mount it from your camera, reverse and hold it against your camera and move yourself inwards as you focus – you will be mere inches from your subject but the image will be magnified like a macro! FYI 35mm works but you pretty much have to touch your subject, wider doesn’t work, you would have to pass through your subject to be able to focus and 85mm is… wonky – no magnification just messed up bokeh…) so I skipped reverse macro.

The lens of choice, my favorite, 135mm. Minimum focusing distance is 2.87′ (87.5 cm) which on a lens is approx 1 am length or less away. Nikon’s 70-200mm has a minimum focusing distance of 3.61′ (1.1 m), while Canon’s version 3.94′ (1.2 m)! Minimum focusing distance also means I can get in very close and isolate the details.

I wonder what Bender thinks when he models for pictures. Half the time I’m doing the darnedest to get his attention and ears up, the other half of the time I’m focusing on his details and don’t want him to look at me. Either way, he’s not always the most excited about being photographed (the 52 Week theme Favorite Song showed his enthusiasm…) and probably thinks “oh dear she’s got the black box thing pointed in my direction again…”. Luckily the get close theme just needed him to hold a sit/lay and get fed treats. Pretty easy haha!

Next visit Linda Perdue with VPShoots Photography serving Tampa Bay in Florida to see how she got close for this week’s theme!

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The 52 Week Project is a blog circle with a theme for every week (which means we all link to each other, links are found at the end of the post).

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The theme: a day in the life.

Let me introduce you into Bender & Axle’s routine. Good morning. 
I open the door the “porch” (which is basically the living room of my parent’s house – the dogs are sectioned off from the rest of house so they don’t eat the cats) and Axle greets me. He sleeps on the loveseat at night. 

Axle stretches good morning, leans in for some pets, then shifts to the back door. 

“Can I go out now? I’ve got to pee…” He’s let out into the fenced yard to make his rounds. Bender waits in his kennel (we have been on a crate and rotate schedule for approx 4 years).
Still a little sleepy Bender?
Axle trots back into the house and is kenneled for the morning, at least until 10:30/11ish. 

Bender is let out of his kennel. He has some variance in his morning – sometimes he stretches giant stretches, sometimes he trots with his big Kong, sometimes he sniffs my shoes & pants, some mornings include a bit of each. This morning he was interested in snorfeling & whiffing my pants.
The master of escape, Bender always needs to be hooked up on a lead and have an adult with him during potty breaks and outside adventures. The harness is a faded blue 2 Hounds Design Freedom No Pull harness and a gerry-rigged lead made from a braided leash + a red cow lead (haven’t found a lead that’s softer in hand but strong and long – nothing like having a smooth/tight weave to give you rope burn if Bender sees a critter to chase or dog to bark at). It lives on the floor like a coiled snake in the trackings of mud/dirt from outside.
We commence the morning potty break as well as a survey of the goings on around us (kids are being dropped off at the elementary school, the big building in the background). If he dawdles, I bring him in (still cold outside in the morning here in Minnesota) and we take a poop break later.  Now its time for breakfast! 3 cups for Axle in the blue “slow down” bowl (he vacuums his food, because who chews their food?!), the silver bowl gets 2 cups for Bender.
Axle is fed in his kennel. 

If a poop break is needed, Bender will bark at the door. “I has to poop now…”

Inside after a poop is find the Kong and run back and forth from door to wall as I “try” to catch him. 

After a good run or five, Bender finishes his breakfast. The rest of the morning is spent lounging, watching the neighborhood, chewing the Kong & sleeping. 
10:30/11 arrives. Axle can tell time and typically begins to whine right about 10:30. Bender is kenneled, Axle is let out. 
He shimmies to the bucket that holds his toys and balls. He is the type of dog who is particular about which ball he is playing with for the day, so I usually let him pick the ball he wants to play with. We head outside into the mud of the yard, with today’s choice: a racquetball.  After a bit of fetch we go in (he’s developed a bad habit of turning tail when he’s asked to come into the house when he doesn’t want to go in) but knows that it works on my parents more than with me. He lounges for the rest of the morning. They are switched for who’s out of the kennel around 1ish, 3ish, 7ish and in the evening when everyone retires to bed.

Next visit Linda with VP Shoots Photography serving Tampa Bay, Florida to see what a day in her life consists of.

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This week the theme for the 52 Week Project was revisit and re-edit. I reached back into the archives, to just before About A Dog Photography came into being. The subject, the derpasaurus himself, Axle, as a wee 7 month old pupper in December 2011! (No idea why I didn’t edit the blue tones in the original image…taken with my Nikon D300s + 50mm f1.8)

** Slide to reveal the new re-edits **
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Isn’t he adorable???? When in the world did he get so grey?
Also proof that he’s always been a derpasaurus… (taken the same day in December 2011 as the pupper picture above).

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Fast forward a couple of years to 2013 and the arrival of Bender into the pack, originally as a foster. Check out that baby hunk!
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One of my favorite early images of Bender (which I did extensive editing to in 2013). Left is the old edit, right is the new edit (they might be consecutive images vs the same, was hard to tell them apart haha!)

Much improved over the original:

Reaching into the archives meant I came across images of Icey & Mick, both who have since passed away. It was fun to see the different way I edited (and check out my “vintage” version of my logo!), shows some really neat growth.

Mick. My first dog, one of the best dogs ever and sporting those mega cute ears.
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This image I’ve always liked but never corrected it for the crookedness… until now!
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The original.

Icey. Master farter, biggest princess and my velcro dog.

One of my favorites of her, inspired by William Wegman’s work with his weimaraners. It also shows the kitchen of my last apartment.
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My sister’s baby kitty Elle! (She is much fluffier these days!) Not my normal type of edit, just something I wanted to learn and experiment with.

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Next up visit Linda Perdue at VPShoots Photography serving the Tampa Bay area to see how her edits have evolved.

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