One of my favorite subjects to photograph is dogs. I love dogs, and they always make me laugh. This guy was the perfect subject! Barkley is a Vizsla, and has the best expressions. I met him when I went to his home to photograph a newborn (I will share his image with the baby after my client sends out the birth announcements, but I would hate to spoil the fun for anyone that might wander in here and see it here before the announcement hits the mail, so for now this post is all Barkley). So since the session at the house was for the baby, I asked my client if she could bring Barkley to the studio when she came to see the newborn images so I could take a few images of Barkley just to humor me. So here a few from our little mini-session.
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arizona
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dog
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pet
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photographer
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photography
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scottsdale
Here is my collection of photographs taken in January for my "photo a day" project... and yes, if you count these you will see that I missed five days so I should call it my ALOMOST a Photo A Day Project. Still, I'm proud for the days I DO grab my camera and take a few minutes just for myself to get some fun images. February images are well underway, and I will share a few as we go. For now, enjoy a look back to January:
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arizona
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photographer
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scottsdale
For those of you who know Neela (my assistant during sessions, and a wonderful photographer on her own I might add) here are a few from her most recent session. As a fellow photographer, Neela knows just how hard it is to capture images of children in general, but especially YOUR OWN KIDS! So I try to do these sessions for her whenever possible so that she can actually have images of HER with the kids. Anyway, I thought those of you who know Neela would like to see her with her lovely husband and their two sweet and funny little girls! Enjoy...
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arizona
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children's portraits
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photography
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scottsdale
My husband and I went for a hike today to see if there was water still flowing in Cave Creek today (after all our rain) and found that the creek was in fact flowing (but not as much as we both thought it would be). Anyway, it gave me my photo for the day... there were a couple water crossings during the hike, and at this one I just loved the colors of the rocks under the water (as I crossed the creek in my bare feet - since I didn't want to hike the rest of the trail in wet boots!). I know those of you that live where water is always flowing in the river beds and creeks may think this is pretty lame as creeks go, but in the desert any water is precious and a reason to celebrate. Can't wait for the spring wildflowers!
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arizona
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cave creek
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photographer
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photography
I love still life photos... just pick your objects, find the right lighting, arrange appropriately, and have fun. Today's subject comes courtesy of the local farmer's market. I bought a bunch of flowers and took them home and put them in a vase. Later in the day when I walked past the flowers and saw them against the backdrop of the art on the wall I decided to make this my photo of the day. Then to illustrate the point of using different backdrops to get a new look, I moved the vase outside against the sky, and also used the water in the pool as a third look. I did not do a studio set up since I wanted to illustrate what can be done without studio lights and backdrops. In a later blog I will do a studio still life and discuss studio lighting techniques. The lighting you choose - from soft, ambient light, to high-tech lights - is critical in determining the mood of the photograph. Play with your own still life images using different lighting and backdrops to see how the same subjects can look so different.
Flowers inside against art on the wall gives a soft romantic look...
Outside against the sky a totally new look...
And against the soft reflection of the pool a nice color contrast...
Stay tuned for more fun with still life photography!
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arizona
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fine art photography
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photographer
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scottsdale
I have been PRETTY good about my photo a day project, even though I don't post all of them here on the blog, but yesterday I got busy and forgot to get an image before we were suppose to meet some friends for dinner. So I took my camera with me to the restaurant and decided to play with a low light situation without flash. Using a very high ISO (1600) allowed me to still hand hold the camera (shutter speed was 1/30 with a wide open aperture) to capture this view of the provisions delivered to the table prior to the pizza. The pizza disappeared too fast to get a shot without everyone's hands in the way! So next time you find yourself in a low light situation, try using a higher ISO and refrain from using the dreaded pop-up flash!
By the way, yummy pizza at Pino Cafe at Mayo Blvd and Scottsdale Road if you are in the area! And yes, it is owned by a frenchman, go figure.
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arizona
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commercial
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family
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pet
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photographer
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scottsdale
I wanted to get a quick shot of this cute little baby (we had just done a larger family reunion and were wrapping things up, but I just couldn’t resist this “over mom’s shoulder” grab shot as she was walking away) but the background was not pretty and the light fading fast, so using a wide open aperture (that is a smaller f-stop number for those of you just starting out) I was able to blur the background and just focus on her face. Learn your f-stops and shutter speeds so that you can quickly make the proper choices to either sharpen or blur your backgrounds based on the look you want to achieve (obviously in landscape images you may want a greater depth of field to get details in both foreground and background, but as a general rule for portraits you want less detail in the background so that the eyes stay on the faces in the portraits. Take your camera OFF the AUTO mode and play with apertures and shutter speeds until it all makes sense for you. Have fun…
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arizona
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children's portraits
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photography
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scottsdale
cherie commented on February 25th, 2010
Pam You captured him perfectly! Thanks :)