I nearly panicked when I couldn’t find this, my very favorite, image of Fergie earlier. I let out an audible sigh of relief when I located it, so thought I would share it with you all. I love this girl more than anything, and in this image I think you can understand why.

My other little model for the workshop shoot in Santa Monica was Sophie the basset hound. She was a delight to work with, and quite possibly the sweetest, gentlest basset I have ever worked with. I hope that her images really show her sweet, sensitive soul. She is a therapy dog, and helps those who need a little bit of extra support. I can see how she would be really really good at this.

We started her shoot in the Viceroy Hotel lobby (the images seen here), then finished at the beach and park nearby. Although the lobby would have produced some cool shots, it was noisy and busy and just not good for doggies sadly. We were only there for a few minutes before we hit the outdoors, my favorite place to shoot anyway.

It was a gloomy day but Sophie’s smile lit up the whole beach.

Check out the ears in the mouth folks. Ah the things you need to worry about when you are a basset. IMO there is little funnier than a running basset hound. hee hee

I love the canopy of palm trees on the right below.

Here I was demonstrating how you can get shots of the owner and their pooch without them having to be cheesy and posed. I just said to Sophie’s mom “pretend we aren’t here and do what you would normally do with Sophie” and this is what she did. Love them.

Ha ha ha ha, basset teeth!!

At the tail end of our shoot I noticed the palm trees reflected in the cool wall at the front of the Viceroy Hotel. Reason #14 why I always try and keep my camera out of the bag until I am back in my car.

Here is something really wacky and crazy. So I photographed two basset hounds in California- Sophie and Buster. Neither of which I had planned for, at least, not until 2 days before the shoot. This weekend I am photographing two more basset hounds near Seattle. And, what is even wackier, the weekend I was shooting my first two bassets, my dear friend Nichole Smith was also photographing bassets (lots of bassets) for a TV gig she did. It’s basset fever around here! When Nichole and I stayed together in Long Beach we compared our basset images in lightroom/bridge. It was a riot.

Hope everyone is having a great week! I am trying to catch up on work and emails and getting ready for a super fun commercial job this Friday. It’s not a basset (lol) but it will still be a blast. I’ll keep y’all posted on that!

I was beyond happy, positively bowled over, when Ruby and Buster’s parents offered to come up to Santa Monica from their home in Orange County to allow the pups to participate in my workshop last weekend. Some of you may remember them from our Napa Valley shoot last fall. I was so happy to see them again (the whole family), I nearly cried. Buster has lost a whopping 12 pounds and is looking sleek and svelte. hee hee

Here are some of my favorite images from our shoot:

I processed these in Lightroom with a very bright, saturated hand. I wanted to give a colorful Southern Cal feel to them.

Rarely does a shot I take make me laugh out loud, but I had just gotten done telling the workshop group that greyhounds and whippets can look funny if you shoot them straight on, so I guess I just needed to inadvertently prove my own point (I forgot about this when I took this picture, but now I’m glad I did, lol)

It was some of the worst shooting conditions, being bright, midday full sun, but I like teaching about that in my workshops, because in the real world, you don’t always get to control where and when you shoot. Friday’s shoot was inside the very dark hotel lobby. That was also a basset hound, a total sweetheart named Sophie. I’ll share her pics later in the week.

Had to get the famous Santa Monica pier in the background. It was a Sunday, and extremely crazy busy that day, but the dogs were fantastic. They did *such* a good job. I’m so proud of them.

I *love* the pink with Ruby and am so happy that these turned out! Tristan you can wear a pink shirt to our shoots anytime!! lol

Tristan and Mark, thank you so very very much for coming all the way up to see us that day. I know the attendees had a great time, and it was so meaningful to me to see Buster and Ruby again. What a gift. I look forward to getting your whole gallery online! Oh, and if you talk to Lynn, tell her that her sneak peek is coming later this week. Sophie’s shots are even more challenging for me to pick from because she is so adorable in so many of them. I even have a shot of her running on the beach with her ears in her mouth!

And a huge THANK YOU to the workshop attendees for coming. Each and every one of you is special in your own right and I am excited to watch you all progress and grow. I plan to do another review post with some shots I took with my little point and shoot, so stay tuned for that!

Oh, and to the 3 people who don’t know, I am currently in LA on vacation, and won’t be returning to Seattle until Sunday. Off to Long Beach tomorrow, then San Diego this weekend for the big Loews Coronado Surf Dog Competition. Meeting up with some local pet photog friends for dinner tonight and my social calendar for the week looks like it did when I was 21! I’m having an awesome time and will post more soon!

I am needing a few dog models for my Workshops photo sessions this next weekend in Santa Monica.

Here is what I am looking for:

Several dogs, of any age, breed, looks or size.

Available to come and pose as models for photography demonstrations. Will be using mostly natural light, a little bit of flash, and in a natural setting (i.e. non-studio).

The dogs MUST be obedient and able to reply to commands, even in a distracting environment (this is important as we may be shooting at the hotel).

MUST have a proven track record of being both people and dog-friendly. MUST be well-socialized. 

Able to come and meet with us in Santa Monica either at the Viceroy Hotel or near the Santa Monica Pier at beach, on either Friday afternoon 6/12 or Sunday 6/14 late morning/midday. Would need about two hours max with the pooch.

Model parents would need to sign a model/liability release, and would receive a free mounted 8×10 print as a thank-you for their time (one 8×10 print for each dog who participates). Prints would be mailed several weeks after the shoot. 

It is going to be super fun, and from my experiences with the workshops last year, the dogs just ate up all of the attention, and loved posing for their very own personal pupparazzi. And I can’t think of a better setting than Santa Monica to do this in. 

If your pooch is interested in joining us, or you have a friend you think may be interested, please send Christina and I an email to workshops@cowbelly.com

Thank you!

2008 Workshops doggie models:

Bet ya didn’t know that I took off for a few days this week with my pooch, didja? Well, ok, if you follow me on twitter, you knew of my little escape, but I never mentioned it on the blog. I had plans to go the previous week but they fell through (very sad story) and I didn’t want to jinx this trip by talking about it. But it happened this time, yay! 

So the Fergermeister and I took off and stayed at the most lovely cabin on a bay near Freeland, and I brought my camera, and we did as close to nothing as possible. I took lots and lots of pictures, so I am posting lots and lots of pictures, because I found it impossible to narrow them down. Hopefully this will enable all of you to enjoy our trip with us vicariously!

This is what was awaiting us when we arrived on Thursday evening. Ahhh heaven.

I love these shots because even though they are both imperfect, they give me the feeling as if I was back there in that moment. 

There was a dedicated doggy area at the cabin (the owner is a multiple dog owner), and Fergie couldn’t believe her luck when she spotted the balls and toys. I have never ever seen her so happy. It nearly made me cry. 

The adorable neighbor pooch Cooper. He was a doll. 

I wish I had taken more shots of the inside of the cabin, but honestly we were outside almost the whole time. But the cabin was positively darling, very clean and comfortable and furnished exactly as I would furnish a summer cabin. 

The cabin had a fully stocked kitchen, washer and dryer, very comfy queen sized bed (and also a loft and pullout bed in the tv room, not pictured here), and sleeps up to 4 people. I can’t wait to go back and bring my mom and sister, who I know will love the place. I’ll leave details at the end of this post on how to rent the cabin for yourself. It is dog friendly, and even has a separately fenced side yard that you can contain your pooch in, and, get this, a new doggie bathing area outside with both cold AND hot water (awesome). The property is huge, and the most fun place I can imagine a dog being able to explore and sniff around while being completely contained by the fence around the property. 

Late that first night I could not get Fergie to come inside. She was having so much fun throwing her new toys around the yard that she didn’t want to go to sleep. So I brought my camera outside and decided to try and take some nighttime shots. That’s moon flare you see below. 

And that my friends, is the moon! Woohoo!! It took a long time for me to get this shot, but I finally got it, and it was worth it.

Our view the next day. 

There are gorgeous flowers in bloom all around the property, and I was even greeted by sweet-smelling fresh cut flowers inside the cabin. It was awesome.

The Cabin owner’s beloved passed german shepherd pooch is buried on the property, and Fergie and I spent some time laying on a blanket near her grave keeping her company. I only wish I have a spot as beautiful for Fergie once she is gone. Dogs live such short lives. 

The hardest part of the trip was trying to decide where to lie down outside. This was one of my spots under a giant cherry tree in the side yard, and this was my view. 

Warning: there are A LOT of Fergie images coming up. My lenses were focused on her nearly the entire time, so I ended up with like 450 shots of just her. Hopefully you will think she is just as cute as I do. Man I love this dog.

I’m thinking this one needs to go big on a canvas. 

I LOVE this shot. Totally imperfect, and I love it for it’s imperfection. 

This is the look she gives me whenever I ask a question. “Fuurrgee? do you wanna….?”, then this. She is sooo cute!

If you need just one reason why I love this dog so much, it’s looking at you below. I would do anything for her.

Sarah left a comment on one of Fergie’s Facebook images saying she had a little black olive nose. So the whole trip I referred to her as ‘little black olive’. Here is a shot of that little nose. 

Stick induced happy coma below. 

The sky changed colors throughout the sunset, and then I couldn’t believe my eyes when it turned purple. I tried everything to get the color right in the shots in-camera, and even went so far as to change the custom white balance (K) in 10 degree increments over about 100 degrees both up and down, and never got the color right in camera. That is one of the most frustrating things about digital photography- so often what you see with your eyes is nearly impossible to duplicate with your camera. I suppose seasoned landscape photographers would have told me I needed a special filter to get the shot. Oh well, in this case Lightroom did the job. 

I don’t have words to express how much I love this shot below. Fergie is such a good model, and held still while I craned my neck to try and get her in focus and the sunset perfectly exposed. 

Then we were off to Double Bluff beach, where it was hot and very dry. 

Look at her face in that shot on the left below. LOL.

A commenter had asked how I made the ‘flash’ file on Bella’s post. It’s actually really easy. It’s an animated GIF file, made in Photoshop. You just drag all of your images as layers onto one image, so you end up with a multilayered file, then go to ‘window’, ‘animation’, create new frames, and select the layer for each frame, set the duration of each frame in seconds, and then save for web as a gif. Here is a more in depth tut: animated gif tutorial.

And that my friends, was my trip to Whidbey Island with my doggie daughter! Hope you enjoyed the images and my cute little girl.

If you are interested at staying at the same lovely cabin we did, check out the listing on VRBO, and when you contact the owner Julia, be sure to tell her Jamie at Cowbelly sent you! Can’t wait for my next stay there.

Some more yummy puppy goodness for you all as promised. 

Bella puppy is a very unique looking dog because she is part black lab and part bloodhound. Can you see the bloodhound in her ears? Droopy, soft and adorable. I had so much fun during our shoot, I didn’t want it to end.

By the way, more and more these days I am using multiple lenses in each session. I am trying to get into the habit of doing at least 4-6 lens changes per session, depending on the setting and the looks I am trying to achieve. As always, my favorite shots come from the 20mm 2.8, but I am trying to use my 70-200mm more as well, like in these shots below. 

Puppies are known to get into things, driven by their curiosity to explore novel stimulus. The fluff from the trees provided all the entertainment Bella needed, and resulted in a pretty cute fluff-mouth look.

That’s a seagull she is going for below. Sooo cute. 

I forgot my treats at the studio (woops!) so we made a pitstop at All The Best at the beginning of the shoot. At the end of the shoot Bella remembered very well what the place was when we walked by. She walked right up to the door and wanted to be let in. It was adorable. 

I could have shown you guys all of the fun running shots I got of Bella, but instead thought you might want to see this funny series of her chewing her salmon treats. 

Hope your Monday is going great!

I have to preface this post by once again reminding everyone that I am *not* a studio photographer. Yes, I have my office in a studio, and I have done some practicing, but every shoot I have done in the studio thus far has been little more than an experiment.

I never picture myself being a studio photographer, and I pretty much suck at taking pictures with studio lighting, but from time to time I like to have fun. Natural light only, anything goes, no planning involved.

And with that said I bring you mine and my friend Victoria’s version of what studio photography *should* be. Can you tell we don’t take ourselves very seriously?

by the way, that’s me above. and seymour. I love him. A lot. 

And that’s Victoria. The lucky caretaker of Charlie and Seymour, the puggie pies you guys know from this blog since way back. I LOVE that they are both laughing in the shot on the lower left!!

We cracked up when we discovered that we could synch our head tilts with Seymour’s. I have many outtakes where we are each just doubled over laughing. For each of us taking pictures, we had to stop many times to laugh it out before taking the next shot. Ahhh, Seymour is awesome.  

Pugs are so gosh darn easy to get the head tilt from. Any pet photographer who hasn’t gotten a head tilt out of a pug they have photographed should be ashamed of themselves. ASHAMED I tell ya!

Anyway, it was time for some levity on this blog so I hope you enjoyed it!

Some of you may have seen my Bark Magazine ad in the current issue.

I updated the ad for the upcoming issue: July-August, 2009. I’m thrilled to finally be on the pages of one of my favorite magazines. Check it out.

I love the stripey background colors and wish I could get away with that on my blog, but tried it out late one night and wow (!), way too much color, even for me.

Oh, and yes, that does say consulting there in the ad. If you are interested give me a shout! I am finalizing details this weekend and hope to have all of the information posted as a page on both the workshops website and a page on this blog, by Monday. I’ll be taking *very* limited private phone and 1-on-1 consults this summer so if you are interested don’t wait to contact me!

I have been wanting to post to the blog for the past week, but life has been getting in the way. As some people know, my life has been challenging and not altogether happy over the past two weeks. There have been frustrations, there have been tears, there has been sadness, and there has been tremendous stress and exhaustion, physically and mentally. This is one of those times when I contemplate throwing in the towel, but I know I wouldn’t be happier doing anything else, so instead I take inventory of my life and business and determine what I can change, knowing that this will blow over in time. (And that my health will eventually improve).  

This is a change that has been coming for awhile, and one that didn’t surprise my assistant Christina at all, but I will no longer be doing Decopaw art commissions at any other time of the year besides during the holidays- so October through December. 

The Decopaw art has lived it’s useful purpose, and I know has brought many smiles to many clients, but I feel my brain changing in a way that makes it very challenging for me to design art proofs and stay motivated and creative the entire time, and really enjoy the process. There is something about designing art for gifts for people during the holidays that jazzes me, and it’s just a different time of year with a different feeling, so I would like to, for now, at least continue to do them for a few months of the year.

BUT, I need my primary focus to be on photography for as much of the year as possible. It’s what started this business, what I have always been MOST passionate about, and I can never lose sight of that. I miss getting outside and taking pictures when I am creating art, and that is really telling me something about what I should be doing. 

A series of unfortunate events recently have also really helped me learn that this is a decision I *have* to make, and make now. I am so sorry if this disappoints any clients who were hoping to have me design art for them this summer! I will of course be finishing the art projects I am starting and/or working on with current clients. (Bekki we will definitely still be creating some beautiful pieces of Mattie!). But from here on out I won’t be taking any more art clients until mid-late October. If you would like to get on my waiting list feel free to contact us at any time. Clients who have purchased regular full (non-decopaw sitting) photo shoots with me will be given priority. 

I should also note that I have raised my prices on the art pieces and have eliminated prints from the offering, sticking with the beautiful archival canvases. I took inventory and realized that given that I normally spend 8-10 hours per client per piece I really no longer had a profitable product anymore. My expenses have tripled in the past two years, but my art prices have remained the same since 2006, which was just hurting my ability to pay my bills. I considered nixing the product altogether last week, but I think this solution is a much happier medium, and I do look forward to working with my art clients during the final quarter of the year. 

This also means that I will no longer be doing my annual Decopaw wall calendar. (I know- I am so sorry!!). But never fear- I WILL be doing a super awesome photography calendar, and you can bet that your favorite colorful, funny pet shots will go in it. 

Since no blog post is complete without a photo, how about one of my all-time favorite art pieces? That’s Yax-Belle, a sweet spirit who lived in Austin Texas during her prime. She is now passed to go play in the big dog park in the sky. Awwww….

p.s. a huge and heartfelt thanks to my peeps who have been so supportive of me on twitter. It means more to me than you could possibly know.