Three years. Three years of a warm, dry, safe place to sleep at night. A full belly. An older sister you comforted and cared for. A little sister you adore. Conversations. Head bumps. Snuggles. Naps in a sunbeam. And lots of love from your two humans.
Happy Gotcha day Baxter! A celebration of the day you left the shelter behind and entered the Posh Pets family. Truly, our world is so much better with you in it.
xoxo
Everyone likes to receive nice mail. As in, printed material delivered by the post office. In this digital age, I think there is still something about holding print and paper in your hand.
So, I was very excited to finally receive the latest issue of Country Living. And I would be lying if I didn’t admit that part of the reason was because Posh Pets‘ very own Baxter was featured in it. Yep, he’s a published model now, earning his keep! So, go ahead, purchase a copy and look on page 66 – you can tell all your friends that you knew him first. (Thankfully, Baxter hasn’t let it go to his head – he still such a cuddly sweetheart.)
This week’s challenge was chosen by Posh Pets Photography (me!). I love black and white imagery – there is something so classic about it – and I love to see how a photo changes just by removing the colour. So, this week everyone was to produce a black and white image or an image that featured the colour black and/or white. I cannot wait to see what everyone came up with.
So…if you live in Toronto, you know how cold it has been this past week. I did not want to be outside and when I looked at Baxter, he gave me no indication of him wanting to step foot outside either (Baxter has gotten quite accustomed to the cushy life of an indoor cat in the 10 weeks he has been with us). So, I thought it would be a good week to practice my studio photography skills as well as introduce little Baxter to real studio lights. Which is exactly what we did…hope you enjoy the result!
We have a lot of participants this week’s Project 52, so please follow the blog circle around to see them all. To begin with, take this link to Eastern Iowa Pet Photographer, Mary Beth Arnold and see what beautiful image she came up with this week!
This week we were to try and perfect a new technique that would help ourselves and others in their photography. I decided to look at flash photography and to make it simple, I had two requirements: my source of light could only be a speedlight (no studio lights) and the flash had to remain on the camera. There are tons of other techniques using (multiple) studio light and beautiful images are achieved with off-camera flash, but I wanted to see how pleasing a light I could get with just one speedlight on my camera. In other words, something anyone could do!
Truthfully, I have never been a fan of flash photography for pets. Like a lot of people, they don’t enjoy being hit with a bright light and for some, it can really scare them. However, there are times when there simply is not enough quality ambient light and the photographer must supplement it.
For this exercise, I used my favourite boy, Baxter. Given that I was going to use quite a lot of flash I waited until he was napping (you will see in this series that he did not hardly stir during the whole process) and I tried to remain relatively in the same place.
So, here is the first attempt with the flash pointed directly at Baxter. Predictably, using a flash in this manner produces a rather harsh light. Fortunately, Baxter’s eyes are closed, otherwise, I surely would have blinded him. The flash lit up his face and everything else faded to black, creating an almost ‘natural vignette’. I was actually surprised at how much I did not hate this image, but as you can imagine, it would only work in very limited circumstances where you were after a certain ‘look’.
Here, the flash is pointed towards the ceiling. We often hear that we are to bounce the flash from the ceiling as ceilings are often light coloured and it spreads out the light a little more. I actually really did not like this look at all. The light is ‘ugly’ and is coming down on poor Baxter (who is still asleep).
And here is the technique I use the most when I have to employ a flash on camera. It is pointed neither up or down, but is firing directly over my head towards the wall behind me. Granted, if you try this technique in a room with richly coloured walls, you will introduce a colour cast from the light bouncing back onto your subject. But in this case, it lit up the still sleeping Baxter and gave the illusion of the room lights providing the light in the image.
And then I took one more image, just because I love his little black paws. And yes, he is still sleeping. It must be the reason why he is so gorgeous – he certainly gets his beauty sleep!
So, that’s it! As I said, so simple that anyone can do it…
Next in the blog circle is Victoria BC Pet Photographer Melissa McCabe of Unleashed! pet portraits. Please check out what new technique she tried this week and follow the circle all the way around until you come back to Baxter (who undoubtedly will still be asleep).
This week we had marvellous fun photographing the loveable adoptables at Toronto Animal Services! Lots of doggies are coming up for adoption and you get to see a sneak peak here – and there are even a couple of cats this week too! They are all waiting to meet you at Toronto Animal Services (North Region), but as usual, you can find a little more information about each of them on the Posh Pets’ Facebook page too. Thank you for sharing their pictures and their furry faces…it helps them to find their forever homes!
