The Most Difficult Subjects

They say the most difficult subjects to photograph are children and pets...but I think both are a lot of fun (and I will never attempt to shoot a wedding!).  These two brothers had the sweetest dogs and you can tell they are well loved.  Their mom was worried that the boy in glasses is not much of a smiler, but he couldn't be cuter IMHO. 

The Things We Do

I added a texture around Catalina in post processing, 

just for something different.

Catalina was another timid soul who was not sure she liked getting her portrait made. So, her person got down next to her to make her feel more comfortable.  Catalina is fairly new to her family and still adjusting to her new life, then add the busy atmosphere inside the hangar, and THEN add some pretty large and bright lights exploding in your eyes, and I can understand her reserve.  Oh, and I forgot she is also being a foster sister to a pretty rambunctious little male puppy who was rescued from Friendswood's Animal Control Facility.  I know from my own experience how tiresome little brothers are --- enough said.

Niles

  Niles is the brother of Molly and Martin and he was the least thrilled of his siblings about getting his portrait taken.  He is very sweet though, and just  a little timid.  Well, the poor thing had just been microchipped and he definitely felt the sting of that.  Plus it was a little hectic and noisy in Jones Hangar and then those lights kept blinding him.  I think he did very well considering.

The Sophisticated Martin

Martin is another Corgi and one of Molly's brothers.  He was very calm and collected during his portrait session and I got many really nice images of him.  I don't know if he is always as elegant and sophisticated as he appeared to be, or maybe he was just studying me to figure out what in the heck I was doing.

Miss Molly

 

I actually took some portraits of dogs who did not dress up.  This is Molly, a Corgi who was rescued by a member of my Friendswood Animal Advocates group.  She has 3 and they are all very cute.  I cannot remember ever meeting a Corgi before, and they are really such sweet and expressive dogs and a really good size ---- not too small and not too large.  Their fur is so soft too.  The last two images show what Molly does when she sees a squeaky toy...for some reason it makes her stick her tongue out in anticipation!

She's A Diva

Nikon D700, 24-70mm lens at f4.0 and 1/250th, ISO 100

2 flash in umbrellas camera right and left

Meet Miss Vienna, as in sausage.  She was right at home in front of the camera and had several very nice poses for me. I am not sure she is too thrilled with the red boa though....maybe she preferred a different color, or possibly a tutu. No, I bet she is mad that we forgot the tiara.

I started out the day with my main light on the right at a slightly higher setting (maybe 1/8th or so) and was using the flash on my left as a fill at a lesser setting like 1/16th power but once the shooting started and I had to keep adjusting the output of both flashes for the different colors of fur or human skin tones, I lost track of my actual settings and just looked at my LCD and histogram for the results. Many of my shots of the dark dogs were underexposed but I was able to bring the fill light up in ACR.  I also have a free action by MCP Actions called Touch of Light, Touch of Dark that I often use to add light with a soft white brush to areas that I want brighter.  Here I used it on the left of the image and to bring more light to her both of her eyes.

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

 Nikon D700, 24-70 lens at f4.8 and 1/180th, ISO 100,

2 flash in umbrellas camera right and left

Last Saturday my Friendswood Animal Advocacy group hosted several other local rescues at a Pet Adoption Day.  It was held in an airplane hangar that is now owned by the city of Friendswood and used for various events and it was a great building for that ---  the air conditioning was essential when it was close to 100 degrees outside.  We had some dog art for sale, lots of fresh baked biscuits, microchipping for $25 (a GREAT deal), a pet trainer to talk to and of course lots of pets available for adoption. I thought it would be fun and hopefully make our group some money to have pet portraits available.  I set up a brown background with two flashes in umbrellas on each side of the camera.  I knew that the lighter-colored animals would show up well against the dark brown and I hoped that I could use one of the flash as a rim light or a hair light to separate the darker animals from the background.  I also had a box of fun props available, for either/both human and fur subjects to dress up in.  It was chaotic at times, but still a lot of fun.  There were times I had a lot of adjusting of the flash when the subjects were significantly different in tone from the previous settings and I am not sure what can be done to make that any easier.  When planning, I thought about using a white background but then knew if I wanted it to photograph as white and not gray I would have to light it too, and I only have 2 speed lights at the moment and was thinking I would need both to light my subjects inside that hangar.  Also, I was able to successfully gel the flash for the fluorescent fixtures so I must be making progress in my journey to learn flash!

 

So my next few postings will be some of the portraits I took at the adoption event ---- just try not to smile at these!