A Pet Photo Shoot
I have a vision. I know what I want on my personal Christmas card this year. I can see it in my mind. It includes one or both of my cats. I can be flexible. But working with animals can be tricky even the most cooperative ones.
Step one: Get the set ready.
Step 2: Set up camera and pre focus.
Step 3: Call the Cat. That was the easy part. Rocky came running, jumped into the set and slid taking the drape and set with him.
Step 4: Set the set back up.
Step 5: Catch a cat…don’t call it. Once again Rocky was more willing. He thinks he’s a little kitty rock star and that everyone should worship him.
Step 6. Try to communicate what you want him to do.
Step 7: Use cat toys, treats, funny noises to try to get your animal actor to perform.
Step 8. Pick up to try again another day Rocky let me know when he was done. Tail in the air he walked away like a true Prima Donna. I found him curled up asleep on my bed. I guess I wore him out.
It wasn’t a total loss. I managed to get a couple of nice pictures so I could create this combo that I call “Twins”, but it’s not what I want for the card.
I am not giving up. I’ll be trying again next time I have an hour or so to fuss around. Maybe a bit of turkey will hold his attention.
Just a Day in The Life
Not much to share. I missed my Monday post because I haven’t done anything newsworthy lately. Monday I had a busy day.
I started the day with a photo shoot for Christmas Cards at my friend Nancy’s house. We hung the stockings on the mantle and moved the love seat in front of it. Then we squeezed everyone, including the dog, into the love seat. It took more time to set up than take the pictures…kind of like cooking that Thanksgiving meal..hours of cooking for 30 minutes of eating! LOL. But I got to try out my new studio light set and it made all the difference in the world..no shadows..no motion blur from the puppy.
Then it was pack up and head to my next shoot. This one was a location shoot but at the last minute it canceled so I met the family for a consultation instead. Probably a good thing because it took longer to get to work than I expected and if we’d actually done that shoot I might have been late.
Finished the day off by working overtime 3pm – 8pm. So as you can see, not much to talk about and not much time to write even if I did have something to say.
I’m not going to give away the picture that the family chose for their cards but I will share one picture of Dawn. I love her eyes in this picture.
By the way, that’s not “dirt” on her face…it’s one of those temporary tattoos of a dog. 🙂
First Snow of the Season
OK I said a four letter word. Unless you are a skier or a snowboarder or one of those other winter sport enthusiasts, the weather the last couple of days was not to your liking.
The Nor’easter the swept through the region brought rain and high winds and yes, snow, to many areas already hard hit by Hurricane Sandy. New jersey, New York and parts of Connecticut had just barely got their power back when gale force winds plunged them back into the cold and dark.
Here in Taunton , Ma it wasn’t quite as bad. The wind gusts were stronger than for the hurricane but for the most part we only got rain…that is until Wednesday night. The 11 O’clock news had pictures of heavy snow and skidding cars in Worcester, MA..but here in Taunton it was rain.
But we couldn’t hold out. By yesterday morning we too had a touch of the white stuff….but only a touch.
The ground wasn’t even “blanketed” which is ok by me.
By the time I left for work it was gone…melted..just a hint of things to come.
No…the word of the day was not snow it was wind. Driving to work took both hands and I kid you not, the car felt like it was lifting right off the road. It was kind of surprising that my company had linemen working. Even they were sending messages that it was “too windy” to climb. (Meaning the utility poles) But we did the best we could and today the sun is shining and the weather folks are predicting a warming trend and calm weather.
I sure hope so. I think we all could use a break. Give those storm ravaged areas a chance to recover before Old Man Winter really gets started.