After Christmas breather

It is now two days after Christmas and I can't believe another holiday has come and gone.  I'm thrilled to report that 3 out of the 5 dogs I photographed last week have been adopted.  I was hoping all 5 would have found new, permanent homes for Christmas, but I'm hopeful they will soon be united with their new families.    More dogs have been rescued from high-kill shelters and I'm excited to photograph them later this week.    Christmas in my house was a whirlwind of activities.  At least for me!  I spent most of Christmas Eve day and Christmas morning cooking and prepping for Christmas dinner.  I swear next year I will NOT over extend myself.  Yeah, right.   My husband is a saint for putting up with my "martha-ish" tendencies and to help with the cleaning and prepping of the house.  Mom stayed with us Christmas-eve night which I am thankful for.   It's nice for all of us to make sure she has company and not alone.   The stairs are a little too much for her I'm afraid.   She definitely wore herself out!   2012 holds much potential for myself and my family.  We are planning on taking all the kids on a Disney cruise in the summer, I'm excited to see where my pet photography and this website takes me, and I get to see Cesar Millan in February!   Who knows what else is in store??   Keep checking back and we'll find out together.   Happy 2012!!

This is a Blog Page, my Blog page to be specific

First Blog of firsts.    This is my first Blog posting on my first website detailing my first official dog photo shoot!   Whew, that's a lot of firsts!    I went to the local headquarters for Louie's Legacy animal rescue to take photo's of some of the dogs they have for adoption.   The photo's they have posted on their website are good, but I needed a great excuse to utilize my classroom skills I just learned from my Pet Photography course.  And to build my Portfolio.    I was a little nervous about setting up the equipment, making sure I had all the proper exposures and making sure the dogs were shown in their best light.  I also didn't want to come off as a total doofus to Emily, the woman in charge of Louie's.    I shouldn't have worried since she was so incredibly nice.   Since it was pouring rain, I suggested we set up on the covered front porch.  I thought the lighting would be nice and soft.  However, it was a little too soft and I needed to add my remote strobe.   Figures the first dog she brings out is Frank, the black lab mix.  Black dogs are super hard to photograph.  After a few test shots I still wasn't happy with the exposure.  Emily suggested we use the bushes as a backdrop since the light blue blanket I was using created too much contrast.  Much better.  From then on the dogs colors were a lot more forgiving of my novice skills.    However, they were all super excited to be outside and totally distracted by the local traffic patterns.    After an hour and 5 dogs, Emily and I were totally exhausted.   We decided to call it a day and tentatively scheduled another photo play date for next Friday.   Check out some of the photo's on my Adopt page.   And, if you're feeling it, adopt one of the adorable fuzzies shown!