Fill the frame is a classic rule of composition that takes your subject and uses them to fill the frame of image from edge to edge. Utilized its a grand way to show off eyes, or detail elements in the manner of paws, tails, and bums.
The 20mm lens often ends up employing fill the frame from treat loving pups. Sporting a minimum focus distance of 10.9″, this lens allows dogs to get MEGA close. As in close enough to lick the lens. Or boop it with their noses. (This lens out of all tends to have the most spit and nose goobers on it.)
A recent session with Mishka the 6 moth old husky puppy gave us some epic fill the frame images.
Minnesota dog photography – About A Dog Photography | Weekly 52 is a blog circle with a theme for every week (find the link for the next in the circle at the end of the post).
February, the season of romance, flowers, chocolate and the expression of love. The 14th is the formal day that we celebrate love, though we believe that love should be celebrated year round. Btw, we love you!
A stroll amongst garments of the Mart yielded a pair of Valentine’s shirts, one sized me, one sized Bender (randomly he fits a boys 5T…). Light set up, Bender dressed and semi willing to work (he knows he gets treats when the “big light” is out and is a tiny bit more eager to work as a model) and the loveseat dressed in a buffalo check blanket.
That pose… man he cracks me up! The dainty paw cross, the dewy eyes and softly held ears. The best awkwardly suave model around.
We moved the loveseat and Bender showed off his up/beg skills.
Wardrobe change! The white shirt (sized for me) was a bit big on Bender and didn’t read as well as we thought it would – it says “Love is everywhere”. The white shirt was paired with the flowers we gave Kris for our 4th Kissiversary.
“Mom… this is completely ridiculous… who does props?”
We swapped back to the “Cupid’s wingman” shirt then wrapped up for the evening.
This in not the end of the Love theme. Pass a few days of time, a little rooting around in an artsy crafts box and ta-dah – Valentine’s string lights!
There’s a technique that involves a mask with a shape cut out it that turns your bokeh dots into whatever the shape is. Rummaged around and found the masks we had created a couple years ago.
The first time we used the masks was in 2017, awwww Axle! (Geez he hardly has any greys! To see more: 52 Week Project | Love)
The thought was a beg with lovely little hearts hanging out in the background behind Bender. The lights were strung across the loveseat, the flashlight of the cell phone our main light source.
The trick is to not get the hearts looking like butterflies, Pacman or cat ears…
It wasn’t working to hold the mask in front of the lens and with the same hand encourage Bender into an up/beg (he watches for the visual cue – which is why longer distances apart make it harder to get him to beg).
We took a break.
Kris arrived home – huzzah for an extra set of hands! He’s an awesome helper with wrangling Bender as well as the human “light stand”.
Swapped out lenses from 35mm to 50mm. Better hearts, but all the room we had was for tight headshots!
Bender was pooped out so we wrapped up and snuggled in on the couch.
St. Cloud MN dog photography – About A Dog Photography | Weekly 52 is a blog circle with a theme for every week (find the link for the next in the circle at the end of the post).
Shades of grey. The first thought is to a clichéd book with a plethora of kinks within (we haven’t read it personally). Not the direction we’d like to interpret this theme…
The weather held a balmy mid 30s on Friday (it trended into 40s over the weekend, heat wave for Minnesota!) with a dainty dusting of snow on the trees that lent to a crunchy contrast with ample depth of greys. The sky held onto overcast grey, the scene was fitting.
Loaded up Bender and headed out to Bend in the River (an every photographer’s photographed there location). Tiffany of TEM Photography (just down the road neighbors in St. Cloud!) had mentioned a quaint less used area just across the road from the main hub of Bender in the River and we decided to point our adventure that direction.
Bender is in protest against photography these days and he was a solid butthead. Looking at camera? Bah, there are far too many smells. Being a freeze baby, he shook like a rattle every time we paused. He hardly looked in the camera’s direction. GAH!!!
Take a breath [with mumbles of how much of a royal pain in the arse he can be – we even had über tasty treats with…]
Luckily we had reached out to Tiffany of TEM Photography – she has a pair of shelties, one who is merle colored – and they would be in route shortly. What better for shades of grey then a dog who literally IS shades of grey?
And… the EASIEST dogs EVER!
Ranger & Finn pranced around, we set them up in the first spot. They sat. And sat. And sat. AND looked in the direction of the treats / camera!!!
(Is it something to do with them being shelties & not a pittie?)
Ranger is merle, with the chillness of a hipster. He preferred trampled paths over forging through the dog leg deep snow.
Finn, the rowdy, is super fluffy and full of puppy spunk – he’s a mere 10 month pup! (Plus he’s got a HUGE mane!)
They frolicked in the snow.
Back to posing. Ranger was literally plopped into position and worked it like the master model he is.
The tall grass gave texture as well as a hint of a shade of grey.
A bit more depth of greys were found in the area of the fallen log. Look how dainty his wee feet are draped over the log.
Ranger wrapped up the posing nestled into a small tree clinging to its leaves. Many shades of grey & textures!
Being that Ranger is merle, even in color he fits the theme shades of grey. Slide to see the color vs the black & white
St. Cloud MN dog photographer About A Dog Photography | Weekly 52 is a blog circle with a theme for every week (find the next in the circle at the end of the post).
Texture. defined as: the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance
Each dog holds textures, from the direction of hairs, the length and thickness, to the fingerprint of nose and pads on paws. Eyes, whiskers, chewed on nails, the ways skin folds all lend to the textures that create our dogs.
The method of capture: vintage 55mm f3.5 macro & 85mm f2.8 tilt shift
Minnesota dog photographer About A Dog Photography | 52 Weeks 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).
Oh Mr. Blue Sky, how welcome you are, especially when you blanket us with those lovely warm temps and dapple with poofy white clouds akin to drawings of children. Granted, those clouds often congregate, sewn together like a lumpy quilt to hide the blue or become whirling dervishes of teenagers full of thunder and deep greys, peeing everything in their path. Ah the bipolarness of early summer in Minnesota.
Blue skies in the morning, the early sun heading into the upward crest of day. We considered, strolled out to the peonies, considered further. The neighboring park was neatly trimmed, set with a smattering of trees, two playgrounds on each end. Too flat. Nothing exciting. A glance out the front door after an inspection of Bender barking sparked an idea. We’ll use the front yard.
A white not wood picket fence tucks a corner, skips over the sidewalk, then strolls the rest of the length of the lot, ending at a row of bushes horizontal to it.
Previous owners have developed the garden nestled in front of the fence to be a display. Currently the flowers are tones of purples and pinks, roses, poppies and peonies (and purple flowers that we haven’t the clue as to their lineage). In the corner tuck, on the backside are irises in purples and yellows.
This corner area is on the corner of the yard as well as the street, the park residing kitty corner, a main artery of street the separation. The openness of the street lends to a perfect little cutout of sky above the white picket fence. Charming indeed!
The newest of the strobes was put into employment, (this in itself is a minor battle of just lug it vs not lug it out, end result is always good but getting to just lug it out is still a push to create the habit), Bender was suited up with a collar and we began.
Ugh! Not quite the “oomph” we were looking for…
Alright, this resembles where we want the end result to be…
Drat, the camera battery is dead. Swap to spare, hope the whole rig of lighting isn’t spontaneously inspired to take flight in the manner of a kite.
It stays.
We resume.
Right handed key light worked, but didn’t quite carry the “look” that we were aiming for. The strobe was moved, the sun scuttled behind the clouds, manipulating the exposure of this chunk of the world.
We waited. Reloaded on treats, allowing the clouds to make their passes at the sun. (Can you tell when we had full sun?)
Note that little touch of odd blur on the catching images – ambient light! Since there was full sun it added extra light, so while the image is frozen by the strobe, the sun “stayed on” when the movement happened. An interesting effect indeed.
“Mom… this is completely ridiculous… who does props?”
