Project 52: Doorways

This week’s theme is “Doorways”. When doing outdoor shots, it’s always good to offer some with a frame of some sort… between trees, amid flowers, between posts, or, very simple, in a doorway.

Below is a recent photo in front of the owner’s french doors. It was a challenge because of the windows, but I think it frames the big guy very well.

One of my first clients was a cute frenchie. When I came to the house, the husband directed me to various locations in the backyard. He was proud of the hard work his wife had done with their yard and I attempted to accommodate him. However, I finally said, let’s go in front of your front door, which caught my attention as soon as I came to the house. It may not be a true “frame”, but that door certainly spotlights the dog.

Time to move on to Lynda Mowat from Heartstrings Photography, based in Hamilton, New Zealand and see how she interpreted this week’s theme.

Project 52: Head Tilts

As a pet photographer, one of my goals, especially for my shelter pictures, is to get the dog (and sometimes a cat) to give the cute, adorable, all-appealing head tilt. No one can resist that, and that’s what we want to see an adoptable animal be – irresistible!

I can usually achieve a great head tilt with an interesting noise; however, not all dogs react. At the shelter, I have a couple of favorite noise makers and if I can’t get attention and, hopefully, a head tilt, with them, I usually move on as the dog is probably a bit timid and fearful. But sometimes you can get some great ones.

Below are what I call decent head tilts:

This is client Corey with a great head tilt.

This is Piper with an ever so slight tilt.

Below is what I call an extreme head tilt – love it!:

This is Ace – isn’t he gorgeous. And he blends so nicely with the bone background.

With cats, I don’t usually use noise makers as cats are more visual and will react to some type of movement. At the shelter, I have a great assistant and she knows what to do. But, sometimes, even though I may not use a noise maker, I do get an occasional kitty head tilt.

Below is what I would call a decent kitty head tilt:

Karlos, a cutie kitten with a slight tilt

Below is definitely an EXTREME kitty head tilt:

This was Kimberly Hart. I’m sure she was looking at a moving something or other and just didn’t want to turn her body!

This was such a fun topic. Now, move on to my friend Kim with BARKography based in Charlotte, NC and traveling the US and Canada for her entry. I’m sure she has some great photos.

June 22: Take Your Dog To Work Day

One Week Away – “Take Your Dog To Work Day”

Ono Pet Photography Can Help

My sweet Chloe has been waiting several weeks for June 22 which is “Take Your Dog to Work Day”. That’s one week from today. Check out this link to see what this 20-year old celebration is all about. Then look at the list of possible ways to celebrate. I’m sure some of you will be inspired to make it a very special day.

One of the ideas on the list is to have photographs taken. Ono Pet Photography would love to come to your working place and document you and hopefully some of your fellow employees with your dogs. Ono Pet Photography will provide each pet parent with a 5×7 print. In addition, you will be able to share the photos from the Ono Pet Photography Facebook page. Contact me at [email protected] if you would like to take advantage of this offer. One stipulation: you must actually take your dog to work. If you work at home, you would not qualify. (NOTE: For the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, AL and surrounding areas as well as Pensacola, FL area only) Notify me of your interest ASAP.

This beauty is Mylie and she’s looking forward to June 22.

Ono-licious: A Healthy Hawaiian Recipe

If you are into food and what’s happening out there, epicurean-wise, have you ever heard of Dr. Terry Shintani? Well, in Hawaii, he started his popular “Hawaii Diet” in the late ’90s. He developed this diet especially for native Hawaiians who, unlike their ancestors, were obese (many morbidly), had high cholesterol and blood pressure. He feels that people spend too much money fighting the results of a poor diet. He looks on proper food as the best medicine and he promotes that medicine. You can go to Amazon to check out his books, shown below (click on each one)

What I want to share here is, not the philosophy or science behind his diet which you can check out on your own, but one of the recipes (shown below) that I re-discovered. You will notice that he doesn’t cook with oil or high-fats. While getting used to this may take time, both my husband and I enjoyed this one from the get-go. Try it…. it’s ONO-licious!

POTATO ZUCCHINI STEW (from the “Eat More, Weigh Less” Cookbook)

1-1/4 C Onion, chopped

1 stalk Celery, chopped

2 C Potatoes, cubed

¼ C Carrots, sliced

½ C Broccoli

½ C Zucchini, sliced

½ C Kale

¾ C Vegetable broth

1 clove Garlic, minced

½ tsp Salt, or to taste

½ tsp Paprika

½ tsp Dill

¼ C Red Wine

1-1/2 Tbsp Tomato Paste

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

Spray nonstick skillet with olive oil cooking spray and heat. Saute onions for 5 minutes in 3 tablespoons of vegetable broth. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 10 more minutes or until done to taste. Makes 2 portions (1 portion – 338.9 calories, 1.4 grams fat, 12% protein, 79% carbohydrates, 4% fat)

Project 52: Revisit & Re-Edit

This week we are revisiting and/or re-editing a past project. I initially was not going to participate, but last week I took photos at the local shelter where my camera volunteers, using a woven basket I’ve used in the past. It’s a small basket, so the animals, usually kittens, have to be fairly small. The shelter doesn’t get too many that small, so it hadn’t been used in a while. But they had three tiny kittens and we took a photo of each one in the basket. So cute!

I then recalled a similar photo I took about 4 years ago when I started taking photos for the shelter. Looking back, it was a horrible picture. I think I had my camera on auto, didn’t really focus it on anything important, and then snapped! As soon as you see it below, you’ll understand what I mean. Before I posted it here, I used the lightroom plug-in you can install to see where the focus point is, and, as you can tell, it was on the basket. It’s so bad, I didn’t even watermark it.

One Sunday morning in October 2016, I opened the Living section of the area newspaper and this horrible photo was staring at me. Wondering if that was really mine, I went to my computer and searched for it. Yep, it was mine. (see below). Even though it’s a bad picture, I kept the newspaper (why not!). Notice that the credit was “AL.com file”. During the time that I took the photo, the shelter I work with was submitting a pet of the week to the local newspaper (when they were truly “daily”). That’s the only reason I can think that the newspaper had it. Fortunately for me, I didn’t get the credit.

Compare that to the one I took last week. Same basket, different cat! The focus point is on the right eye. And it’s a photo I’m proud of, hence, the watermark.

I need to do more of these comparisons. Makes me see that, every year, I’m getting better.

Time to move on to Sandra McCarthy Photography to see what she has highlighted from her past.

Ono-licious!

Some of you may not know that, for over 30 years, I lived in the Land of Aloha, Hawaii. Besides the great weather and people, there are plenty of small little drive-ins, cafes, restaurants where you can eat some of the local food. This is especially important since Hawaii’s primary industry is tourism and all those great people want to experience the local cuisine.

The locals love their “plate lunches”. What is that? If you go to one of the small drive-ins, you could probably get a plate with two scoops rice, macaroni or potato salad, and some kind of protein such as teriyaki chicken, meat or fish. There’s also sushi, poke (pronounced po-key) which is actually raw fish mixed with vegetables, and perhaps some kind of marinated vegetable like seaweed or kim chee.

One thing that Hawaii people love is spam! Yes, SPAM. In fact, Hawaii has been called the spam capital of the world. There are aisles in grocery stores just full of different flavored spam. OMG! But my favorite use of spam was always spam musubi. Basically, it’s seasoned rice formed into a ball or square, topped with a slice of cooked spam, then wrapped with dry seaweed. Below is a recipe if you are adventurous enough to try.

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice
2 cups water
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce

1/2 cup white sugar
1 (12 ounce) container fully cooked luncheon meat (e.g. Spam)
5 sheets sushi nori (dry seaweed)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Soak uncooked rice for 4 hours; drain and rinse.
In a saucepan bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in rice vinegar, and set aside to cool.
In a separate bowl, stir together soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Slice luncheon meat lengthwise into 10 slices, or to desired thickness, and marinate in sauce for 5 minutes.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Cook slices for 2 minutes per side, or until lightly browned. Cut nori sheets in half and lay on a flat work surface. Place a rice press in the center of the sheet, and press rice tightly inside. Top with a slice of luncheon meat, and remove press. Wrap nori around rice mold, sealing edges with a small amount of water. (Rice may also be formed by hand in the shape of the meat slices, 1 inch thick.) Musubi may be served warm or chilled.

When you go to Hawaii, make sure, after you have eaten one of these plate lunches or spam musubi, you say “ono-licious” or “broke the mouth”. Both mean that you particularly LOVE what you have just eaten; that it was delicious; that your mouth is tingling. Personally, I like ono-licious – I’m sure you can figure out why. (HINT: my last name!!)

Project 52: Comic

As soon as I saw this week’s theme, I knew the photos I wanted to share.

I’ve recently added horses to my portfolio and during my first session, I managed to get a few humorous encounters. My friend, who owns and runs a pet sitting business, also boards her horses at a local stable. She knew I’ve been wanting to practice photographing horses, so she invited me along when she fed them. Her one horse, Mariah, is so gorgeous and, apparently, a retired polo horse (we have polo matches locally). Several photos were rather amusing and perfect for this week’s theme.

Below is Mariah giving me a lip curl. Although rather amusing, my friend said that it was her way of analyzing scents.

We all know that dogs roll in the grass. Well, so do horses. Since there were a lot of droppings in the pen… yes those kind of droppings… I inquired if horses roll in that, too. “Yes” was the response. Yuk!

I’ve always felt that this photo demonstrates Mariah’s feelings about what I was doing. Sorry, Mariah!

Keep the loop going and click on to my friend, Linda Metcalf at Dog Shotz Photography serving the Indianapolis IN area to see her amusing photos.

Why it’s good to be the Dog

According to 365 Dogs Page-A-Day Calendar’s entry for today (October 29), there are 10 reasons why it’s good to be a dog – I particularly like #10

No matter where it itches, no one is offended if you scratch.
No one ever expects you to pay for lunch.
No one expects you to take a bath every day.
Others comb your hair and manicure your nails.
No one thinks you’re crazy if you chase your tail.
You never have to worry about table manners.
It’s not improper to look at a friend’s behind.
No one cares if you have hair growing in weird places.
Your family is happy to see you when they have a bad day.
If you gain weight, it’s someone else’s fault.

Can you think of additional reasons? Let’s start our own list. Click here and return to my Facebook page and indicate your own reason. Let’s see how many we can gather. Feel free to post your own photo! Let’s have fun!

Please share!