Beautiful Beasties is an online resource and forum for professional pet photographers where we can share and learn from each other. 52 Project is a group that is provided a different theme each week to stretch and grow our creative minds.

It is now week 46 of this year long project! I have been on a self imposed hiatus from participating, due to a tragic house fire this past June. But, it's time to move forward and attempt to create a sense of normalcy in my life. Taking part in this weekly photo/blog project is a big step for me towards that end.

The theme for this week is catchlights. This is a term commonly used by photographers. For those of you not familier with it, Wikipedia's definition is: "Catch light or catchlight is a light source that causes a specular highlight in a subject's eye in an image." It's the "twinkle" in the eye and is really what brings life to a portrait. Be it human or pet.

There are many different ways to create catchlights. If the photographer is using artificial lighting, then the type of light diffuser or modifier she uses can affect the shape of the catchlight.

In Greater Cincinnati, summer is long gone and Autumn provided one last (we think) glorious weekend of weather. We headed out to Cincinnati Nature Center since the dogs love going there and smelling all the smells.

I decided to start breaking Huck in as my new little model. Let's just say he is a work in progress. This first image is how not to capture catchlights!

I was finally able to coax him to look at me. Since I wanted to capture natural catchlights from the sun, I made sure it was situated at my back. This would be critical if you want to capture natural catchlights in your subjects eyes.

Cute Huck with catchlights and derp face.

Click through the blog circle to check out everyones take on catchlights! Next up is MJ Photography!