Blog Ring

This week’s 52 Week Project theme was silhouettes. Icey, my rottie, was this week’s model. She’s been aging gracefully in her 10 years, though her hearing has been departing her as of late. This means those head tilts she has been known for are replaced with direct stares of body language reading. Luckily, she has a plethora of hand signals under her belt and since she watches me its easy to direct her (unless she’s in the yard facing the fence, only then does the biggest bellowing get her attention, sometimes).

Loaded up for a car ride, our destination 5 minutes away and the light fading fast. The destination, a little used sand pit, loomed like faux mountains against the sky. We spooked up a whitetail who veered away from us into the brush lining some of the smaller sand “mountains”. In rounding one particularly “hairy” mountain (it was covered with tall stringy plants and grasses) when a snort was issued and 3 whitetail deer shot out of the brush! They gave me a solid start and Icey watched with interest as they bounded away. The light was continuing to die (clouds on the horizon, ugh!) so we made our way to a small rise that was less “hairy” than some of the others. Behind this little mound of dirt was a calm little pond that was playing host to a trio of sandhill cranes! They gave a couple of squawks and flew out of view.

The silhouette images started. Icey watched me most of the time, though I wasn’t able to use words to get her to look away from me for a profile shot. Luckily, there were lots of little rocks that I could toss past her to catch her attention.  The end results.

Visit Northeast PA Pet Photographer, I Got The Shot Photography to see how she captured silhouettes!

This week’s theme was shadows. The evening approached and I snagged the slightly tuckered out Axle for a short walk to the elementary school in search of shadows. Without proper motivation (the biscuit just wasn’t enticing enough) I managed a handful of images before Axle decided that actually going on a walk was more fun. We popped over to the playground to see if we could get some interesting shadows out of vibrant pieces of equipment, then meandered around until the mosquitos threatened to carry us off.

Next up, stop over to I Got the Shot Photography, Elaine Tweedy, Northeast PA Pet Photographer and see how she interpreted shadows.

This week’s 52 Week Project theme was reflections. In my mind, I had Axle chilling in the lake, his reflection crisp against the little ripples. So we loaded into my car and headed out on the hottest day we’ve had for a while. Axle was notably happy to be going swimming in the lake….

We arrived to beach on the far side of the lake. Not a single other person was in sight, which meant we had the beach all to ourselves! There’s a tennis ball that lives in my car, which for the dog who doesn’t stop retrieving even in his sleeping hours, is a great way to engage him. Unfortunately the tennis ball had had a better life and on a misdirected throw managed to sink happily below the surface. Buggers. Axle swam around convinced that I had merely faked him out with the throw. I tried to direct him to where the ball was, but he swam the opposite direction and I gave up trying to point him where to go. This did allow me the chance to snag some reflection shots even though the water was rippled by the wind so that the reflections were more abstract than crisp.

The ball was abandoned to the lake, and a driftwood branch was commissioned into retrieving mode. I wasn’t getting much in the realm of reflections I had wanted, so I transitioned into some super low angle shots that captured the waves on the beach and the water dripping off the underside of Axle. As long as the stick was thrown, Axle didn’t care which angle I was photographing him at. Poor boy pouted majorly when I told him we had to go home.

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Later…

In the evenings the window by my desk lets in a ton of light and the cats like to sit and bask. Snuggles found the sunspot and had an interesting reflection in the window. I believe she was starting to fall asleep sitting up… I love the texture of her fur!

 

Next up visit Northeast PA Pet Photographer, Elaine Tweedy to see her interpretation of reflections!

White balance for mood was this week’s theme for the 52 Week Project. Axle was the model, and I wanted to capture his impeccable “play dead” to create a different mood by pushing my white balance in Lightroom. We managed to get a couple of images but in typical Axle form he wanted to play more than play dead! Another benefit with Axle is those mega pouty jowls that make him look a little sad when he’s not panting.

White balance refers to the temperature of an image. Cooler colored images (more blues) tend to make things feel a little more sad and gloomy, while warmer images suggest a little more sunshine and happiness. Do you prefer the warm or cool white balance?

And since we were in the yard playing with the new Orbee-Tuff Luna ball by Planet Dog (super durable and glows in the dark!) I couldn’t resist getting shots of Axle in action!

Next stop over to Charlotte NC based photographer Kim with BARKography and see how she worked with white balance to create a mood!

This week’s theme for the 52 Week Project was sky. Easy enough…. until the sky gods decided that those adorable poofy clouds were not going to be anywhere in sight. Icey, my rottie, was quite the trooper (she’s also been doing this for YEARS – pretty much since she’s been a 10 month old pup – she’s 10 now!). It may have also helped to have the tasty chicken treats with… She is definitely a food motivated dog! Her pink tag also attests to this (it reads: Feed me and tell me I’m pretty) and its from none other that the fabulous Bad Tags based here in Minnesota!

The first attempt we trekked over to the school, me with treats and my camera with my super wide lens on it. Day two had us on the edge of town by the soccer fields, once again with the super wide lens. With Icey being the pro model she is, she doesn’t have much in the way of looks… hahaha unless of course she’s barking on command!

Next visit Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area to see her take on the theme of sky.