Mar 15, 2013
This week’s challenge was to show off some texture.
One thing that I love about Baxter (among other things) is his amazing fur! It is so unbelievably soft, and along with his wonderful personality he is one gorgeous snuggle bum. For a challenge involving texture, what better subject than my beautiful boy!
And so, here is Baxter showing off his silvery, shimmery self – just look at the texture in that coat!
Next in the blog circle is Denver Pet Photographer, Deanna Hurt at StinkDog Photos. Please take a look at her texture theme for this week.
Dec 31, 2011
- As of December 2011, the Posh Pets Blog is officially one year old! Hard to believe that this was begun on December 19, 2010 with one small post that said we had gone live. At the time, I had no idea what I would find to write about for the whole year, but it really has come together for me. I find that sometimes I simply cannot get all the ideas I have written quickly enough!
- Posh Pets joined the Beautiful Beasties Project 52 in March 2011. That has been an awesome project that allows me to shoot images just for me. For an artist, it is vitally important that we get an opportunity to stretch and push ourselves to try different things and also to explore ideas and concepts that we would not otherwise do. I really have enjoyed seeing how each member interprets one theme – I hope you have too!
- Posh Pets was featured in the Toronto Star on November 12, 2011 alongside one of my mentors, the very talented Teresa Berg. That was something that I could not have even dreamed of at the beginning of 2011. It was a complete surprise to be recognized for my work.
- Posh Pets began photographing the Toronto Animal Services Adoptables on November 2, 2011. I began with Greta, a beautiful brown tabby and ended the year with Pete, a gorgeous husky. In between, there were a total of 76 animals who posed for my lens – that is a lot of furry faces in just 2 months! I am so happy to report that Greta has since found her forever home along with 57 of her fellow adoptables and I hope Pete and his friends are not far behind.
Of course, I know that I could not have done this all by myself. So, I want to take a few lines to thank all of the people who have helped me during 2011.
♥ Thank you to all of my clients who trusted me to capture the beauty and grace of their beloved pets for I could not be working at something I absolutely love without you! I have enjoyed meeting you, snuggling with your furry family members and presenting you with final images you can treasure for years to come.
♥ Thank you to Kathy and her staff at Toronto Animal Services – North Region. Every week I go in to meet the newest group of adoptables, I am amazed by the hard work and dedication they display towards these animals who have no home, no protection and no voice. They really do care!
♥ Thank you to my family who have shown me such support during this last year. My Mom and Dad and sister have always been there, encouraging me to do what they know is a dream for me. I hope you know how much I love you guys!
♥ It would be hard to have missed the many stories on the blog of the kitties my husband and I share our home with. Ripley and Lady Jane are the best models, patiently putting up with my never ending requests for photography time. Ripley is now 17 years old and Lady Jane is 15, so they have many long hours of napping in between, but I would be remiss not to thank them too!
♥ Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my dear husband. Dean has always believed in me, even when I did not believe in myself. He is honest to a fault and I can always count on him to tell me the truth about any of my ideas, business or my photography. At the same time, he knows exactly what to say and do when I am feeling frustrated or down. I truly do love you honey!
I will leave you with an image of one of our success stories from 2011 – this is Hank, who found his forever home last week. I do hope you will all stick around for all the Posh Pets’ excitement in 2012!
Sep 23, 2011
In our house, mornings definitely have their routine. I think they are a comfortable part of our life because you can go about getting things done without much thought – a great benefit if you are not one of those “morning people”. Living as long as they have with us, our kitties have learned our routine. Although honestly it is hard to say who trained whom – whether they adapted to our way of doing things, or the more likely idea that they trained us! In any case, we get up out of bed each morning (usually because we have been nudged/licked/pawed/meowed-in-the-face by the resident felines) and begin our day with feeding Ripley and Lady Jane. Then, and only then, do we get something to eat.
Amidst all of this activity, Lady Jane has discovered something very important. We humans drink milk! At this point in her life, Lady Jane knows if we are having cereal (which means milk!) or toast (which means no milk…sigh…). If we indulge in the former, she levels a stare at us urging us to please hurry up and finish. She does this only because she knows she will get the little dregs of milk at the bottom of the bowl. Sometimes, when it is particularly urgent in her mind, she will perform a little “prairie dog” pose in order to encourage us to hurry up. The other morning was such a morning, and you can see Lady Jane simply cannot restrain herself from reaching our a paw as the bowl is being lowered. Look at the concentration on that little face!
The other routine we have is “first to the bed”. After all the feeding and necessary morning business has been done, Lady Jane insists on finding herself a spot on the yet-unmade bed (we like to leave it to “air out” before making it each morning). She loves our bed and, once she has found a spot, will do her best to render herself un-moveable. Here is her look of, “You wouldn’t be so heartless as to move cute, loveable me…would you?”
Note: I often get asked about Lady Jane’s left eye. Simply put, half of her left pupil does not contract in bright light and it has been that way since we brought her home from the shelter over 14 years ago. However, Lady Jane is one of the happiest, contented kitties I know, so she doesn’t let this little thing stop her. It does mean that her depth perception is a little off and sometimes she misjudges things. But, that is what makes her our furry, clumsy, little goofball.
And there you have it – our kitty’s morning routine! Now, please check out Amy Riddett of Bark This Way and see what the morning routine looks like in her home.
Aug 19, 2011
Welcome back to Project 52!
When the theme for this week was chosen, I was excited and, at the same time, a little daunted. Why? Well, mainly because it is completely different from how I normally process images. We were encouraged to use “textures”. For the uninitiated non-photographers out there, please let me explain. Textures are essentially a picture file that you can overlay over the top of your initial image, thereby providing a “finish” to the final image that wasn’t there when you shot it. Clear? Hmmm…let me try again. Imagine what the image would look like if you photographed something through gauze or some other translucent material. Wedding photographers will often do this when they take an image of the bride behind her veil. Well, this is the same thing, except that it is done after the fact using software.
The benefit of this type of post-processing is that, as I discovered, you can take a fairly mundane image and evoke a certain whimsy. My inspiration for this week’s image is a story I remember from childhood, entitled The Velveteen Rabbit. It clearly described what it meant when a childhood toy was “Real” – a quote that still bring tears to my eyes when I read it. Every. Single. Time. As the old Skin Horse explains to the Velveteen Rabbit:
“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand… once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
With that, please enjoy this week’s image. Two old stuffed cats (who remind me of my own truly live cats), sitting on a table, somewhat “hugging” each other. Initially, a rather simple image, but I love it!
Now, please check out fellow pet photographer Ann Kearns and see what textures she incorporated into her images this week. Over to you Ann!
