Jan 22, 2013
It was a wee bit cold yesterday when I photographed these guys…not that any of them really noticed it! And the kitties were all warm and cuddly enjoying their day away from the elements.
This week we had 3 dogs and 3 cats to photograph…please take a look and share their beautiful furry faces far and wide! It would be nice to find them all their forever homes. They are all available at Toronto Animal Services – North and you can contact or visit them to meet these wonderful animals. There is also a little more about each guy or girl on the Posh Pets Facebook page (ID numbers and such).
See you next week!
Dec 3, 2012
Small little group this week…which is a wonderful ‘problem’ to have! So, here are a perfect foursome – 2 cats and 2 dogs. Equal and balanced, and all looking for their forever families. You can meet them all at Toronto Animal Services (North Region) and can also check out their basic stats on the Posh Pets’ Facebook page.
Nov 24, 2012
Here is this week’s adoptables from Toronto Animal Services (North Region)! There are a lot of dogs and cats all looking for new humans to adopt :), so if you see someone you would like to meet, please contact TAS North directly. They are also all featured on the Posh Pets’ Facebook page, so you can head on over there and find out a little more about each of them. Thanks again for sharing their images and helping them find their forever homes!
Nov 9, 2012
This week’s theme was to show all about sleeping and how our pets’ have their spots and routines. Well, Lady Jane LOVES our bed and she spends a great deal of time on it. This week, I wasn’t feeling that well and so I spent a morning resting in bed (Lady Jane thought that that was the best thing in the world…a bed buddy) and I thought that I would document how she sleeps. After all, it is the same routine at night and the light was so much better in the morning!
First of all, when it is time to go to bed, Lady Jane will call us. She comes into whatever room we are in and meows plaintively. If we get up, she will run to the bedroom, hoping we will follow. If we don’t seem to ‘get it’, she will stand in the doorway of the bedroom and let out these long mews until we show up.
When we finally come and get on the bed (she waits and watches to make sure we are really getting into bed), she will hop up and settle down.
Now, bear in mind that these images were taken with one hand at fairly close range. Why? Well, Lady Jane not only sleeps on the bed, she sleeps on…me. Yes, that fuzzy flesh-coloured thing at the bottom of the image is my left hand and arm and you can just about see how she has her arm curled around mine. The lovely pillow she is leaning on? Yes, that’s me too. My legs, to be exact. She will stay in this position for hours, changing only to lay her head down and go to sleep in earnest.
Now, what if I move my arm? Well then, I get this wistful look, as in, “momma…why can’t we just hold hands…?”
So, that is little Lady Jane’s nighttime routine. She doesn’t sleep there all night. She will eventually make it to her stool which is beside the bed – but she is certainly has more of a need to be close to us since her brother, Ripley, passed away.
Now, let’s see what other bedtime routines are like. To begin with, please head on over to the super-talented San Diego Pet Photographer, Westway Studio…let’s see what Terran came up with this week!
Oct 18, 2012
Here is this week’s round-up of adorable adoptables available at Toronto Animal Services (North). As always, we have a little more information about each of them on the Posh Pets’ Facebook page and you can get all of the details by contacting TAS directly.
Incidentally, Miki (the beautiful dog in this first photo) was our 299th subject for 2012! I’m sure you would agree that she is stunning and, in person, is such a calm, sweetheart who walks beautifully on her leash. Come and meet Miki and all of her friends today!
May 4, 2012
This is a chance to go behind the scenes at the Posh Pets studio to see some of the post-processing that goes into every Posh Pets image.
It used to be that a photo could be taken as evidence, even in a court room, simply because what was displayed in the image could not be altered. These days, however, with the vast array of tools at our disposal, images can be changed to such an extent that what is portrayed can be complete fiction. My style of pet photography is such that I like as much realism as possible and so, like a lot of photographers, I aim to get as much of it right “in camera” rather than relying on fixing it afterwards in photoshop. But there are certain things and situations that call for a little more manipulation. So, I let my clients know that, for example, while their dogs are always on leash during our session, leashes will be cloned out later on.
Every week, I volunteer my time to photograph the adoptables at Toronto Animal Services. In that environment, animals can be a little unsure of themselves and some do not necessarily want to meet the new person with the big black box (my camera) in hand, no matter what treats I offer. That was the case this week with this little guy, Bailey. Sure, he would take the treats and the little pats on his head, but turn the camera on him…and he took off. He really was the cutest thing though! So, I gave him his space and took out my 70-200 zoom lens. That way I could sit back and take images across the room. However, I couldn’t get close enough, so this is what I ended up with.
Bailey really is very cute in this image, but you wouldn’t know it because he is so small in the picture and his is surrounded by beige! So, it was off to a software program called Lightroom for a few tweaks. The first order of business was to check Bailey’s eyes by magnifying them. They have to be sharp or I essentially ignore the image. In rare instances, where I was purposely throwing the eyes out of focus (maybe focusing on the nose or a paw), then I am happy to see out-of-focus eyes. Otherwise, for my style of pet photography, the eyes are where it is at and they have to be in focus.
Second, I fixed the grey haze that all digital images seem to have. Truthfully, I never noticed it when I first started in photography until someone pointed it out to me. Now, I see it everywhere.
Third, I croped and straightened. Now, in this image, I cropped in a lot. In this situation, I felt confident to do so because I knew where this image would end up – as a very small picture on the web. I also photograph with a camera that has a large number of megapixels, so it can handle being cropped in quite a bit. However, please understand that I purposely used this image because it is rather extreme example of cropping and it demonstrates what is possible. But, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone routinely take images this far back and try to crop them in afterwards. In any case, it is amazing what a little crop and straighten will do for any image!
Lastly, I throw a little light on my cute subject. And, because I like the backgrounds a little darker, I often choose to do a little vignette. Not always, but quite often.
Then the image gets transferred into Photoshop where I will do any other heavy duty post-processing. This is where I will remove leashes on dogs, remove dandruff and fly away hairs if necessary. I might also choose to convert an image to black and white if I think it works.
After that, for every image, I look at the eyes and give them a slight pop (again, this is my style and not everyone will want to do that). Finally, every image gets sharpened and prepared for output depending on how it will be displayed.
Whew! Here is Bailey’s final image…what do you think?
So, that is about it for the Posh Pets workflow! I don’t use a lot of textures or actions (although I do like to experiment with my personal work) because I like to keep it as real and simple as possible. Hope you have enjoyed this sneak peak at the work done long after a Posh Pets Session has ended!
Next in the blog circle is San Diego Pet Photographer, Terran Bayer of Westway Studio. Please check out her work and the rest of the Beautiful Beasties gang this week. And please leave comments – everyone loves to receive feedback. Have a great weekend!
