Tia & Callie

Sometimes I feel like I really nail a shot while at other times it really is all the dog. This photo of a pair of Australian Shepherds, Tia, on the left, and Callie is one of my favorites so far. That amazing look of Tia's gave me goose bumps the first time I pulled it up on a monitor.

Hit the 'read more' link for two more shots.




More Tia. So photogenic! Most of the shots of Tia that didn't turn out were errors on my part - bad focus or underexposure. It happens. But we came away with so many 'keepers' that Tia & Callie's owners, Coleen and Kevin, and I had a difficult time paring things down to a select few for printing.



This shot of Tia didn't make the cut -- for Coleen and Kevin anyway. It's one of my favorites though so I thought I would 

share.

What do you think?

Meet Mitzi!

... and David and Erin, too.

I tend to focus primarily on the dogs themselves but I also like shooting family portraits; either way, without fail, a sitting becomes a window into the love and affection we have for our companions. And in this case there was the doting -- lots and lots of doting -- over Mitzi. It was priceless. I knew it going in but our session confirmed that Mitzi means the world to David and Erin.
More after the jump.


Mitzi's a Miniature Schnauzer. She was 4 months old at the time of this photo. ManyMost dogs are just plain cute. Some have a sort of regal air about them. Mitzi has both. At her young age she hasn't spent a lot of time around other dogs, so it was great to see how she reacted to our Wyatt and Josie, who are both pretty gentle around younger animals. (I wonder if they feel the same sort of emotions we do around human babies?) It's thought that Mitzi may actually believe she's a person, so no telling what she thought of these two other... beings. She seemed a little timid at first but before long she was romping around, play bowing and having a blast with her new buddies.

Note Cards

Starting in March, I'll be adding note cards to my photographic quiver.

I'll use Josie here to illustrate the style -- very simple, just Jose against a white background. 

(Full disclosure and shameless plug: Josie is our girl. She's a big time cuddler with serious herding 'cred' in her lineage. She's two now. She almost killed us with abject fear last year when she ate a rug and had to have it surgically removed. This was no ordinary meal -- she ate the darn thing Lady and the Tramp style (think their spaghetti date). She unraveled it into a strand that ultimately went from her mouth all the way to her, hmmm, other end -- in one piece. I wanted to kill hug her and never let go.
More after the jump.
I got the idea for the cards this past Christmas after getting comments about a really hastily thrown together Christmas card:



We got so much positive feedback from this that we will be taking orders for Holiday Cards in September, possibly earlier. Here again, it's just shot against a simple white background, nothing to distract the eye from our subjects. 

(I've already introduced Wyatt and Josie. On the left is Digger. In January, just two weeks shy of his 15th birthday, Digger left us. I still can't 'talk' about it beyond that. We miss him a whole lot, but sadly his time had come.)



I'll leave you with this last example, a shot of Craig, a beautiful border collie. He's from strong herding stock as well (like Josie, from Idaho). Craig belongs to Marianne, a very good friend of ours. 
We'll be taking printed note cards of Craig, along with a few other samples, to our next agility trial. I think that will be the DOCNA trial March 14/15 at the Legacy Center in Farmington. I'll add a note to this post when we know for sure.

Thanks for visiting. I'll try and have another post up by Monday.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wyatt

I envision this blog as a means to share images and talk about some of the great dogs I am lucky enough to photograph. It will also allow me to talk about agility (dog obstacle course) and herding, as well as our family's pack. With this first post, I think I'll go there -- to family, and Wyatt, our Alpha Dog.

Wyatt's a pembroke welsh corgi. He's five. If you're thinking he doesn't look like other corgis you may have seen, you're right. He's a fluff. He came to use from Phoxhaven Corgis, in Mississippi, when he was just six months old -- and still small enough to fit in a carry on bag. 

Luckily for us, his long coat disqualified him from conformation (think 'Best in Show'), and his breeder liked the idea of him going to a home where he could herd and run agility. Otherwise, our paths might not have crossed.

Wyatt's smart and pretty athletic, a good thing for performance sports, but he is also spoiled rotten. That's not a good thing for sports where drive and obedience are required. We're working on that...

The shot above is of Wyatt patiently posing for me while I tried out a new flash. Those are his eyes at the top of the page. And over on the far right is a link to his website. Feel free to check it out and meet the other members of our brood.
Wyatt's a GREAT poser, capable of sitting in place for long periods. He's my go-to guy for trying a new technique or standing in for other dogs when I'm getting set for an actual shoot.
In fact, it was Wyatt who first showed me I can actually make nicely lit portraits. This shot was my very first attempt at doing so. He may be spoiled but he sure spoiled me by being such a willing and, if I do say so myself, handsome model! I shared this image with some friends and, through word-of-mouth alone requests and referrals for sittings began coming in. 

So thank you, Wyatt!