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.

Project 52: Day in the Life

This week’s theme for the Pet Photography 52 Project is “Day in the Life”. Of course, it had to be my muse, Chloe, since my other dog goes into hiding when I bring out the camera. The weather has been rather iffy, so we were inside most of the time. But it was a good time to practice using high ISO’s and/or practicing using my speedlight, which I don’t usually use.

This is what I usually see when I’m trying to make the bed in the morning. Chloe is so comfortable from her night’s sleep.

After I change cloths, wash my face, comb hair, this is what I see when I come out of the bathroom. Chloe’s still waiting for me. That white blob on the left is my senior westie, Bonnie. If she knew I was taking a picture, she would be hiding instead of sleeping.

Then Chloe and I are off for the walk down our dead-end street and back which includes, ummm, her business. (These photos were taken with my iPhone; please excuse)

Now it’s meal time. Twice a day, the two dogs and three cats get fed. While everyone, like Misty, one of the cats, is watching all the movements, waiting for their turn, Chloe takes the waiting time to gnaw on her large nylabone (for super aggressive chewers!)

But, occasionally, Chloe will stop her chewing to see the status of the meal prep.

Then everyone gets their meal… Chloe finishes hers in about 1-2 minutes! (iPhone shots)

Since I’ve had her, Chloe has gone into the master bathroom after eating to pick up one of the cat dishes (my cats eat at various locations in the house). She’ll lick it (even though the food has been totally eaten by the cat) and then, I guess ’cause it’s plastic, she starts chewing on the rim. I’ve had to replace so many dishes because of that. Eventually she will take the dish into the kitchen so we can wash it. (This photo I used a speedlight that was pointed back and up to the ceiling). Note that to the right is Chloe’s crate… which hasn’t got much use lately!

After she’s been fed, especially in the morning, it’s time to check what’s going on outside. Many times, the sassy cat down the street prances on our neighbors’ yards, which drives Chloe crazy.

Once I go on to my computer, she curls up in a small bed next to me. She’s always there.

A couple times a day, everyone gets a treat. Chloe is great at catching what I throw her. Of course she has to sit first before she gets anything.

Several times a day, she goes out into the backyard to sniff my husbands’ vegetable garden (sometimes to dig it up, too), bark at the next door neighbor’s dogs through the fence, or just sit and enjoy the weather.

After a busy, busy day, Chloe is ready for bed…. even before we are! I’m so glad we can be there to make her life so smooth and easy!

You can now check out The Hoof and Hound Photographer covering the Lancaster UK area to see how her dog passes the day.

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.

Project 52: Wood

Textures – of which wood is one – always adds interest and character to a photo. When I have a photo session, I always strive to have pleasant surroundings but I sometimes fail to look for textures. Something I have to improve on. In the meantime, for this exercise, below are two examples, one very old and one very recent.

The photo below is of Old Dan. As an aside, that’s an odd name since he was only about 1-year old when I took that photo. And that was about 1-1/2 years ago. The client and I were walking around her yard finding interesting spots to take photos, and she mentioned that Old Dan loved to climb the pile of logs that they kept for their fireplace. Because of that, I wanted to take a photo of him on top of them. But they lived in a subdivision and, if I had, I would have shown all the roofs of the near-by houses. So, I just asked Old Dan to pose by the pile of logs. PS – you can tell it was an older photo; I removed the leash, but the collar is still positioned as if the leash was still there – Oops!!

This next photo was taken at my most recent session with Jack. Not only was it my favorite picture of the session, but it turned out to be the client’s favorite one too. I think it was a combination of the wooden fence as well as the leading lines.

Continue the arch by going to Darlene with Pant the Town Pet Photography serving MA & NH and see how she interpreted this week’s theme.

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.

Project 52: Before and After

Several years ago when I started taking my photography seriously, I swore I would never use post-processing and always get it right in camera!!! Right! How naive! It is something I still strive to achieve, but, of course, post-processing is a must! Presently, I go between Lightroom and Photoshop to post-process. Most is done in Lightroom, but I’m starting to use PS to remove leashes, blemishes, distracting background, etc. I took an on-line course last year on PS Layers and do understand them a little better, although I should use them more often.

This past Christmas, I had a client who wanted to photograph her two white dogs for a Christmas card. She owns a beauty salon and that’s where we took the photos. She covered her small vintage-type couch with a white sheet, brought in some artificial greenery and holly, as well as a “Merry Christmas” sign. She even put the decorative bows on her dog. I picked one photo for the card and, below, is how it looked straight out of camera. The client wanted a winter-type scene. Well, we live in Alabama and a white winter doesn’t happen. I found a product called “Twinkle Blanket” (similar to fiberfill) from Hobby Lobby and fluffed it on the couch. We then placed the dogs on the couch. Well, one starting to eat the “snow”, roll around, and, well, just be a dog. So, as you can see, there’s very little “snow” left. But I liked their expressions, they were close together (as opposed to on either side of the couch), and they were looking up at the owner. But I had to do a lot of work.

In PS, I cloned a lot of the “snow”, smoothed out the wrinkles, and cleaned up the dogs, using Spot Healing Brush, Patch Tool, Clone Tool, etc. The dog on the left, Ruby, only has one eye. But in this photo, that one eye was covered by her hair. So I copied a more visible eye from another photo and placed it over the covered eye in this one. Also, the dog laying down, Moonlight, had a bow that was hidden by the “snow”. I did the same thing and copied a more complete looking bow and inserted it in the photo. The result is below.

The photo below is a scan of the card. (NOTE: Just in case you wondered, I did not have the watermark on the card) Perhaps to some in this group this is no biggy and I’m sure you might see where I could have done it differently or better. But to me it was a huge accomplishment, and the client was happy.

Click over to Linda of DogShotz Photography serving the Indianapolis IN area to see their take on this weeks’ theme.

Project 52: Negative Space

Negative Space is the topic of the week. Negative space can be defined as “the empty or open space around an object that defines it.” I don’t think my selected photos are a true example of negative space as there is something in that area, but busy week, so I grabbed this one as a possible example.

Just a few days ago, I photographed Glenn, a senior dachshund (about 17 years old). This little guy can’t walk well and is incontinent, but he still has a lot of energy. After trying, not too successfully, to take some photos on a bench, the owner suggested putting him on the floor. Shortly after she did that, he looked up at her and I knew I had a good picture. Have not yet finished the post-processing, but the direction of his eyes told me a bit of space was needed. Below you can see the difference from the two different crops. I favor the second one as it tells a bit of a story. Those eyes seem to be asking: “Why am I down here?”, “What do I do now?”

Head on over to Natural, Playful & Soulful Pet Photography in Melbourne, Australia to see their take on negative space.

Project 52 – NEW

I’m finally back in the groove with Project 52. I’m determined to continue thru 2017 – at least I’ll try.

New. So many ways to interpret. My first photo below was taken on the last day of 2016. I classify it as “new” since this is my first full-bodied horse shot. Although I say first, I have attempted horse photos in the past. With my dog and cat photos, I tend to shoot close with my 35mm. Did a little research before I shot this photo and one writer suggested to use a 70-200mm lens to shoot horses. So, I did. But my habit of getting close is hard to break, so many of the photos I shot that day were only half, or 1/3 of the horse. In and of itself, they weren’t bad, but I wanted that full-body shot which I finally achieved with this one. It’s not perfect, but not bad.

The next photo is only of people and not pets. But I wanted to classify it as “new” since I broke thru my fear and trepidation to take it. A photography friend of mine had a family emergency and had to go out-of-town. He was able to reschedule all his shoots, but this one. I initially hesitated since it’s not my usual thing, a group of people. Plus, I always meet the people (always with their pets) before hand, scope out the area, etc. Wouldn’t be able to do that this time since it was the next day. Seems that the grandparents would be returning to Florida the day after the shoot, which was Dec. 29 so they could not change to when he would return. He asked me to take the pictures and he would post-process them when he returns. Like I said, I was very hesitant, but the fact that he knows a lot of other photographers but he asked me, made me think that he has faith in what I could do. The way he explained it via FM messaging, it would be the grandparents and their daughter who lives locally. Well, it was those three, plus their other daughter, their two sons-in-law and three grandchildren. NINE total! Plus, it was very windy, chilly, and a bit overcast. Plus, one of the children decided that she didn’t want to cooperate, would rather run around, and didn’t want to even look at the camera. Now, if this were a dog, the owner would put a leash on the dog. Couldn’t do it this time!

This does not mean I’m going to start including family pictures in my portfolio. I prefer pets and will continue that way, incorporating people now and then with their pets. But I’m proud that I overcame my fears and just pushed thru it.

Please move on to Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and San Francisco to see how she interpreted “New”.

The story of a photo session

Not too long ago, I took a photo that was going to be displayed at a local business. The family had a gorgeous French Bulldog and I was excited to go and shoot the photo. The husband was on the front stoop with the dog when I pulled in. I immediately noticed the front door and thought that would be a great place to take a photo. However, the husband had another idea so I followed him to the backyard. It was obvious he was proud of the backyard and commented that his wife worked very hard in how it appeared. It was lovely. Pots of plants, flowers, walkway, deck… everything was there.

When taking a photo of a pet, I always strive to take a unique photo where the pet will shine. Below are some of my beginning shots and they were fine, but my gut said “it could be better”.

Nice, but nothing pops... — Nice, but nothing pops…

The tongue is cute and is definitely the dog, but .... — The tongue is cute and is definitely the dog, but ….

Now, this could be something with a little bit of color, but .... — Now, this could be something with a little bit of color, but ….

I finally suggested to the husband to try the front door.

This is the process I go thru in taking those special pet photos. I hope to meet with the client before the shoot, but this time I wasn’t able. But it worked out and the mounted photo was on display for several months at a local business whom I partner with.

Call Ono Pet Photography at 251-490-5282, [email protected], or go to my website’s “Contact Me” page to arrange for your own furbaby’s WOW portrait!