Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography & Art

Hey there everyone…I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was very hectic with my mother-in-law in town and my daughters softball playoffs, etc. I wanted to post a few photos from a photoshoot last week of a sweet dog named Yankee. Her owner wants a digital pet portait painted and she requested to have Yankee pose in a location that reminded her of Va. Beach….so off we headed down to the Va. Beach pier which is one of my favorite spots to photograph my dogs and here are a few of the photos…I will post the completed painting when it is completed.

Here are some shots from a recent photoshoot down at the beach…My client wanted a few shots of her and her dog Bear and she was interested in getting a digital pet portrait done as well. Here are some of the shots along with the finished digital paintings for you to see…

I downloaded a trail version of a software called Photomatix which is used mainly for HDR processing. HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. This technique allows for a greater dynamic range in your exposures than normal digital imaging. Using a process called Tone Mapping along with bracketed exposures gives you a final image with exaggerated dynamic range and lighting that is impossible to achieve through one digital exposure. I have been playing around with the technique lately and have by no means mastered it…it is tricky to get your images perfectly lined up even on a tripod with wind, moving waves or people involved and there are also problems with weird artifacts and shadow noise that I have not figured out how to avoid yet…but overall it is kind of fun to play around with, even if it can get over the top pretty quickly. There are people out there who love HDR and those who do not…it can get gimmicky if taken to far, but I am all about trying new photographic processes and learning new things…If you want to see some samples of people who excel at HDR, check out this Flickr group and see for yourself http://flickr.com/groups/hdr/. Here are a few of my attempts below, not perfect but fun! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

My goofy daughter….

Lynnhaven Fishing Pier

Caroline

I just received my copy of 1,000 Artist Journal Pages by Dawn DeVries Sokol and I am so happy to see my pages published among so many great artists that I truly admire. I LOVE working in my art journal and find it to be a really great way to express myself and use a lot of my photography in a more meaningful way…This book is total eye candy, no how to’s or projects. It is 1,000 artist’s journal pages and nothing more. Another book I just purchased that is a bit more instuctional is L.K. Ludwig’s True Visions book. It is really well done and I found it to be inspiring…check it out!

I did a photoshoot last week of two really cool dogs…One was a chocolate lab named Alice and the other was a Chinook named Sandy. Alice was the goofball…all about swimming and her tennis ball. She had a fun, outgoing personality and was all dog. Sandy was a more gentle spirit…She’s a little bit older, wiser and just more contemplative in general. Both were a lot of fun to photograph as well as their human parents. Here are a few shots form the shoot.

Welcome everyone…I am so excited about this new blog…I have to thank my buddy Jamie over at Cowbelly for turning me on to all this coolness! I was having major large photo envy and decided I had to join in! Please bear with me as I try and figure out how this new setup works and please let me know if you encounter any bugs or problems.  Wow…is this photo too big? Maybe I have over done it?