Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography & Art bio picture

Welcome!

To the Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography and Art blog. My name is Jill Beninato
and I live in Virginia Beach, VA with my husband, daughter and four crazy
dogs. Here you will find the most recent info about Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography
as well as samples of my other art projects. Come on in and take a look
around...it's bound to brighten your day!

Mugs & Stella

Friday, June 19, 2009 at 1:42pm

Hey everyone…meet Mugs (the fawn English Mastiff) and Stella (the black Cane Corso). I photographed these two pups a few weeks ago and they were a lot of fun. Mugs was the silly, goofy one….Stella was definitely a bit more guarded and not too sure about things. I seem to get that alot lately. Maybe it is the two dog household dynamic where one dog assumes the more happy go lucky role and the other hangs back and is more shy…Mugs was just hilarious in his expressions I have to say and he acted like a big goofball most of the shoot. We just missed the rain that day and I was happy to get their photos taken before the storm. Here are a few…

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9 comments

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Simon - Great set!

melissa - hi jill! wow! what a fabulous shoot! i love them all!

nick - Haha I love that necklace on stella and that drooly shot of mugs :D

leesia - that third one is absolute perfection! love these. you always rock the wide angle!

Linda O'Neill - I love these dogs! Beautiful shots, Jill. I really like the one of the three of them on the beach.

Wendy - Jill!! All terrific shots!!! I love the Hannes_7 shot.. on the deck laying down. Warm and wonderful colors. What a lucky client to have this collection of photos!

claire - what a fab shoot! i love that first shot.

Rachel - I love Mugs. I want to pet his smushy face and kiss him on the head. Does that sentence make sense? I guess it does to dog people. ;) Great photos as always Jill!

manon doyle - My gosh Jill! You take such fabulous photos!! Awesome work! I got the zine today and I must tell you how terrific it is!

A Few Dog Wash Photos…

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10:12am

We had alot of fun at the VBSPCA dogwash benefit this past Sunday…The weather held out for us and alot of really cool dogs came out for the event. Two Brother’s Dog Wash was kind enough to let us use their awesome facilities to hold the dog wash and they donated the proceeds to the shelter as well. If you live in the Hampton Roads area and have a dirty dog, go visit Two Brothers Dog Wash on Newtown Road! Have a great day everyone!

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Linda O'Neill - Oh my god those are good! They really had me laughing! Dogs look so silly when they get a bath.:)

melissa - hi jill! oh how fun! your shots are amazing! i feel like i was there too!

Dog Wash This Sunday at Two Brothers Dog Wash

Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 7:36am

This event will directly benefit the Virginia Beach SPCA so come on out and support a good cause!

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4 comments

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Heather - Amazing photo for a great cause!

melissa - oh how fun jill! i wish i could come!

Blue Mutt - SPCA rocks!

leesia - ha! what a perfect photo! hope it went well.

McKenzie – Part II

Monday, June 8, 2009 at 9:23am

You may recognize McKenzie from a month or so ago…I photographed her in a more urban setting. This time around, we hit the beach….Her owner is getting a Photobook and he wanted to have a variety of shots in a few different locations to put in the book. McKenzie enjoyed playing on the beach but she was still a little wary of me and my camera. I just recently purchased a new long 70-200mm lens to help me work with camera shy dogs. I have had a lot of those lately and I think being able to shoot from more of distance will help make them more comfortable. Here are a few of my favorite images from the day….

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leesia - gorgeous, jill! love that blue sky and all the paw + footprints in the sand.

Jill - The colors are unreal! awesome job!!

Jennie - Loving all of these!

Blue Mutt - These are so good - I love the blue sky... gotta love the beach!

Two New Paintings…

Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 2:08pm

Hey there! Here are two recent painting commissions I thought I would share with you guys. The first one is of Emma…I posted her photos on here a week or two ago. She was really camera shy, but loved Hagen Daz ice cream. Her owner ordered a slightly different version of this painting. It had pink dog bones in the background instead of the swirls. I liked that version as well, but wanted to post something different here. The second painting is of the two cute little pugs I photographed about a month ago. This one is bit more traditional but captures their silly, goofy personalities I think. I am posting one that is a standard painting and one that I played around with and posterized a bit…I just got a new monitor and some of my images are looking pretty saturated on my screen…I hope these are not too crazy looking on your monitor. I need to calibrate! I hope everyone is having a nice week…it is already almost the weekend again! Time is flying around here lately.

Dog with swirls

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melissa - hi jill! oh! i LOVE them all! the pugs are fabulous! :)

Rebecca - These are so wonderful Jill! I like the posterized option too on the puggies.Sometimes I will posterize at the end and then paint on top of that layer ...you can get a very graphic illustration quality doing that. Clients usually like the softer stuff but sometimes the crispy stuff is fun.

manon doyle - These paintings are gorgeous Jill! I really love the red in Emma's!

Emilee - I love the pug painting! You did an absolutely fantastic job on these, Jill! Wonderful! :D

Pammy - OMG Jill these are fantastic! LOVE LOVE LOVE them

kathy weller - These are FANTASTIC!! These pugs are lovely, adorable. I love the painting.

Dogs Rule gets published in Somerset Gallery Magazine

Monday, June 1, 2009 at 11:36am

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend…I wanted to let everyone know that our collaborative project from last year “Dogs Rule” has been published in Somerset Studios Gallery edition that hit newstands today! I am so happy to see everyone’s work in print and I love the additional PR it will bring to A Place To Bark  animal rescue. I have posted photos of the magazine page spreads and I believe you can see a few more bonus pages here. I wanted to thank all of the artitsts who participated again…You are the best! I am currently working on the zine for the newest project called “Party Animals”. Check back in a few weeks for information on how you can buy our zine and bid on some wonderful one of a kind dog art on Ebay in the Fall….

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5 comments

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melissa - hi jill! what a great post! thank you so much for including me in your wonderful projects! :) melissa

rebecca - I have been meaning to post on this too. Love how you shot the mag against wood ... very good choice.

Wendy - Great post Jill! The photos are fantastic!!! Thank you once again for inviting me to participate in this great art collaboration! Checking the local Bookstore tomorrow for my copy :)

Christine - This is fabulous! Congratulations! I read a lot about it through Linda and Rebecca's blogs, but it's great to see these layouts! If, in the future, you find yourself short a dog artist for one of these collaborative projects, please give me a shout!! Keep up the great work! ~Christine (i heart dogs studio)

manon doyle - The pages look great! I bought extra copies for my family!!