Meet (from left to right) Jasmine, Baxter and Boomer. Look at them pose for their pet photo session! I had about half a minute to snap this portrait before Baxter jumped up and left the scene. These three were having a great time playing in their backyard. Actually, Boomer and Jasmine did. Baxter was pretty shy and not so sure about what we were doing. But, he was a great sport and we did get quite a few images of him. The following is my favorite:

Turns out Boomer is the  ”fun police” as his dad put it so we had to put him inside while we played with Jasmine. Here’s Boomer watching us out the window.

Jasmine (below) took a break after running around awhile. Isn’t she a beauty? She has quite a story actually. Jasmine was rescued from a puppy mill and was very shy, timid and almost not workable when this family first adopted her. They did alot of work with her and I could never, ever tell this was her background. She seems super well adjusted and a happy, playful, loving dog! Great job family! I love hearing rescue stories like this and seeing their success!

Baxter actually was a rescue from a puppy mill as well. Again, he is doing so well! I just love his “sad eyes” that his parents say he is known for and everyone notices and comments on when they meet him. What a lover!

My favorite images are ones like the above (Baxter getting some love and attention from his mom). Like they say: who rescued who? It’s a phrase that we hear ALL THE TIME but it’s for a reason! These dogs are SO lucky to be a part of this loving family but isn’t the family just as lucky to have this unconditional love, devotion and loyalty that our dogs provide for us? That is why we love them so! They just seem to get it, don’t they? Comfort when we have a bad day, a buddy to hang out with, someone who needs us…

Speaking of buddies to hang out with, Boomer and his dad have a special connection. As you can see, Boomer is an amazing guy. He is HUGE and one of the most handsome dogs I have ever met. Take a look for yourself:

Boomer’s dad has a special portrait request before I left. He wanted a professional photo of him, his car and his dog. Love it! I was happy to oblige.

The three Bernese are not the only animals at this house. They also have one cat named Sneakers! Their daughter named Sneakers when she got him in 6th grade (now in her 20′s)! Love the connection between those two:

Greyboy Pet Prints loves to reflect the bond between pet and owner with fine art photography! Thank you so much to this family for allowing me the honor of photographing them and creating wall art to enjoy in their home and to YOU for reading this post! Let’s keep rescuing animals in need and letting them enrich our lives!

Specializing in pet photography, Greyboy Pet Prints aims to provide you with images to love. You will experience exemplary customer service as you and your pet are treated with respect, patience and compassion. You can expect quick responses to your inquires and quick turnaround in presenting and delivering final artwork to you. I value your business and strive to delight you!

We Provide Pet Photography to the following Orange County and surrounding cities:

Chino, Chino Hills, Aliso Viejo, Anaheim Hills, Brea, Corona, Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Dana Point, Foothill Ranch, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Rancho Santa Margarita, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Ladera Ranch, Orange, Silverado, Villa Park, Trabuco Canyon

ABOUT Greyboy Pet Prints’ artist:

I’m Mandi Pratt, artist for Greyboy Pet Prints, who loves to photograph people and their pets in Orange County and the Inland Empire. I’ve been working professionally in the art field since 1996 as a graphic designer and professional photographer. In addition to being the owner and photographer for Greyboy Pet Prints, I also own and run my graphic design company, AP design and photo. I enjoy volunteering at church with photography needs, mentoring aspiring photographers, and partnering with The Pet Rescue Center to provide portraits of pets needing forever homes.

Why Choose Greyboy Pet Prints? We:

•  specialize in pets
• are patient with you and your pet
• have an experienced artist creating your images and artwork
• provide you with high quality, archival, custom artwork that you can enjoy for a lifetime
• are relaxed yet professional
• make this convenient for you (and comfortable for your pet) while we come to YOU
• are timely in returning inquiries, creating your artwork and delivering it to you
• photograph with creativity that reflects the bond between you and your companion and also shows your pet’s personality

I’m excited to work with you and look forward to your email or phone call! (909) 843-5454

Some of our recent work:

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Here is the last photo session completing the special project I am working on for the veterinarian group in Orange County. This is one of the main veterinarians and her animals. (The other doctor’s animals were shared in my last post.) Today’s post will just share the images of her pets, though I did photograph her family as well.

She has two cats and one dog. This is what she said about her cats: “Our cats are Kiki (female – approx 4 years) and Dakota (male – about one year old). They are Siamese snowshoes. Snowshoes look like a Siamese with white feet and they tend to be more outgoing and “dog like”. Kiki is short for Chiara (a cub from Lion King 2). She was named by my daughter. We adopted Kiki a few years ago, when she was relinquished by an owner after her leg was badly injured. Her back leg was amputated by one of the doctors at the ER and we adopted her a few days later. She is a bit fearful of new people.” Don’t you love her milk mustache?

Here are their stories in their mom’s words: “All of my pets were adopted due to some sort of illness / medical problem. Eddie was taken from a cat hoarder and did not have vaccines so was going to be euthanized. He is an old grey tabby and the love of my son’s life. Eddie was named after my son’s favorite football player at the time (Eddie George from the Tenn Titans). He is always with my son and minds him like a dog.” The image below is Eddie sitting in Ethan’s lap on their couch.

“Phoenix, a 14 year old majestic orange tabby, was relinquished due to a urinary obstruction. He is named by my son after the Phoenix Coyote hockey team. Phoenix likes to lay wherever he wants. We have nicknmaed him Richard after the Tiger from Life of Pi.” Here is Phoenix doing what he does best: laying anywhere he wants.

“Pippin (Pip) was adopted from a women that no longer wanted him. He is an 11 year old black scotty dog who loves to eat and is a bit big boned. (Yes he is plump!) Pip stares at our fence because he loves to bark at our neighbor’s dogs.” While I was walking around their yard when I first got there to figure out where we would photograph everyone, I watched Pip sit in only one spot on the patio and not move. Ethan explained to me that Pip has a Napoleon complex and likes to be in control of everything. What he says, goes! Pip’s favorite thing to do is sit just like the picture (below) and keep his eyes on the neighbor’s wall because he thinks it’s his job to watch for the neighbor’s dogs.

I got to see this Scotty in action later when we came back out back. The neighbors just happened to let their dogs out into their yard so Pip immediately ran right up to the fence and barked through the little crack in the wall where he can see them. Here he is doing his thing:

This next photograph was taken after Pip calmed down and decided to lay and watch the wall. I love his feet and tail!

“Duffy, our 9 year old white westie, was relinquished to my hospital due to an inguinal hernia. He had a silly name when we adopted him so we quickly changed it to Duffy because of his naughty, silly nature. He likes to play ball and is in everyone else’s business.” Isn’t this guy extra cute!?

Duffy and his mom are taking a little break here sharing some love. She was talking to him and he kissed her nose. This dog is a little busybody but a lover too.

Finally, “Vinny, our newest addition, was obtained by a young girl that could not care for him. He is a super crazy 7 month old dilute grey tabby named after a gangster rapper. He is constantly running around the house at all hours and getting into trouble. My pets have won the lottery!!” Very true! This little whippersnapper, Vinny, was ALL OVER the place and made me laugh when I looked over during our photo session and saw him in my camera bag. Yes, IN my camera bag! You know how cats like to squeeze themselves into any cozy looking space. He was hard to chase down and keep in a photo but we did get a few. This was my favorite of Vinny because he found a way to be a part of what we were doing even though he was not allowed to go outside with us. He jumped onto the windowsill and pried open the wood shutters so he could be up against the screen and see what we were doing.

This family was fun to photograph and get to know. I look forward to sharing with you more about this veterinarian and her practice!

I love getting to know each animal and hearing of their personalities and place in the home. I’m sharing with you in Amanda’s words about each of her pets. They all have quite the stories! First meet Gita, one of the 3 cats who thinks it’s all about him (can you tell by this expression below?):

Gita had a different name when he came to us, but we decided he was a crazy German, and started yelling Gita at him and Gita Shizen (which is our fake German) and it stuck.  He was a shelter reject, his knee was bad and he had major surgery.  He tried to die after surgery, but we pulled  him through.  Gita is about 6-ish.

Bunny was very photogenic and we had TONS of images of her. She really loved her cheese that her mom was bribing her with. The male pug, Hawk, pictured below is going to be a real heart stealer. What a handsome guy! Here he is standing by the edge of the pool watching his mom from across the pool.

Here is Bunny’s beauty shot, below, with the sun going down behind her. Don’t you love their yard? Etel said she loves to garden, which definitely showed!

Below is the last image of Bunny I will share for today: the head tilt!

This black and white photo above is of Bruno’s buddy, Kara. She is ready today to be adopted and is quite the lovebug. There are many other cats and dogs available at TPRC to be your forever love. Here are the others:

Murray, the sweet tempered beagle dachshund mix on the top left is my favorite. Remember his previous images taken after he was rescued? Bradley, the black lab mix is a puppy ready to be loved. Lorenzo cracked me up as he was full of energy and really seemed to love my son who happened to be present with me for the photo shoot. Daniel, the Shiba Inu seemed like a serene, loyal friend. Did you notice Frankie’s extra toes? Audrey is a beauty ready to meet her forever family.

AND, saving the best for last: the baby kitten pictures! Here is Pink with her 3 babies. At the time these kitten portraits were taken, they were 11 days old.

I thought we would try and get a cute image of all 3 of the kittens curled up in a basket. We settled for two!

Here are all three of them together looking for Mama who was right there beside them watching over her kitties.

Thanks for taking a glance at these pets deserving a home. To find out more about them, please go to The Pet Rescue Center website which gives the interesting stories and info on each of these cats and dogs.

1. How many megapixels are really necessary in a camera for a hobbyist?

If you were only posting your images online, 2 megapixels is enough.  For enlargements, 12 megapixels is really enough, 16 is gravy.  24 and 36 is getting excessive for the beginner or hobbyist, to be frank.  More megapixels will also be more taxing on your computer and hard drive storage, so budget for a computer upgrade if you insist on getting a 24 or 36 megapixel camera.

Everyone focuses on megapixels as the top line spec, but there are many, many other questions to consider: how well is it built? does the system offer the lenses and flashes that I need?  Will the system offer an upgrade path when my abilities or needs change?  Is the viewfinder bright and clear?  Can I autofocus fast enough for what I’m shooting?  Will the continuous autofocus mode keep up with moving objects?  Is it too big or heavy for me to carry around?  (This is the #1 reason most SLR’s end up staying home.)

2. Do people buy point and shoot cameras anymore?

Yes, compacts still make up the largest slice of the camera pie, but it’s a shrinking slice with fierce competition.   Interchangeable lens cameras are growing.  Mirrorless compact system cameras, which I use everyday, are growing fast in Asia, not so much in the US.

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/why-cp-was-so-grim.html

The biggest threat to point and shoot cameras is, of course, smartphone photography.  Despite the proliferation of phones and tablets, most people are still making albums on a desktop or laptop.  A USB cable is probably the fastest way to get your photos off your phone.  However, some cloud services are moving in to make this seamless, or at least wireless.  You use an app to copy your images to the internet, then download them back to your computer.  That also provides the benefit of a backup copy in case you lose your device or even your computer.  Google+ has an “instant upload” feature that automatically copies your photos to the cloud.  Dropbox, Skydrive, Evernote, and Apple also store your internet images for sharing or for retrieval from any computer you own.

The 18-55 lens that comes with the camera is a good first place to start.   Good technique (which comes with time) is more important than good equipment.  World class lenses will not make up for bad technique.   So keep your camera bag very spare at first.  Believe it or not, the kit lens, when used properly, makes great images when given good light.  I think photographers spend a lot of money on “fast” glass so that they can shoot in lower light.  Low light shooting is an important benefit, but you should always be looking for better light, not looking for poor conditions to test yourself or your equipment.  The next lens you get depends on your unique needs.

If portraits of your family are your favorite thing to do, the 50mm f/1.8 is a good place to start.  If your budget allows, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 is about the best SLR lens $500 can buy.  It has the qualities I look for: solid build, sharpness, and beautifully smooth bokeh (out of focus area) rendering.  A lot of people suggest the Canon or Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, but to be honest, they aren’t as good unless you can find a good deal used.  For group shots in tight quarters, the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 is a good deal at $200, as is Canon’s 40mm f/2.8.  Neither will blur your backgrounds, but both are very sharp and relatively compact in size.

If outdoor sports is a frequent pastime, consider getting a 70-300 zoom lens.  If your budget allows, the $500-600 midgrade version is much better than the lower cost versions at Best Buy.  The lower cost alternatives are the 55-250mm zooms.

If closeup photography is your favorite, than a macro lens would be your next purchase.  I really like the Nikkor 55mm f/2.5.  It’s well under $100 used.  A cheap adapter makes it work on your Canon camera, also.   It’s an older design without autofocus, but most macro shooting is done manual focus, anyways.

Finally, if you are into astrophotography, I really like the Rokinon 8mm fisheye.  You can photograph the whole sky at once.

Unless you have specific research that says otherwise, stick to the same lens brand as your camera.  In general, the Canon and Nikon lenses cost more, but offer better optical quality, build quality and resale value.

Resale value is important, because nowadays, people buy and sell a lot of used lenses.  Like a car, we should buy and sell lenses as our needs change.  You don’t always need a minivan, and you may not always need the same lenses.

http://photofocus.com/2013/02/04/what-camera-lens-should-you-buy/

4. What is the best tool to soften a pop-up flash?

There are ceiling bounce reflectors I’ve seen, but I haven’t tested them.  I don’t think most pop up flashes could produce consistent results with the limited power.

Honestly, the best use for a pop up flash is fill lighting when the sun is behind your subject, and you are 5-10 feet away.

(A note from Mandi, photographer at Greyboy Pet Prints: when I first started out, I used Gary Fong’s Puffer Pop-Up Flash. This is an easily affordable, simple solution.)

http://www.garyfongestore.com/flash-accessories/puffer-pop-up-flash-diffuser.html#.UVDSX0bR5Js

5. Which one is “better” Canon or Nikon?

For still images, Nikon is making better cameras at several different price points while Canon has an arguably better lens catalog, depending on your needs.  Canon is widely regarded as better for video, especially the 1Dc, but that’s probably out of the budget for most hobbists.  In terms of market share, Canon is dominant like Microsoft Windows, and Nikon is a strong minority, like Apple OSX.  There are people who get great results with either system.

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2013/02/roger-buys-a-camera-system-screening

6. Good resources for a camera newbie?

My favorite site for a camera newbie is Digital Photography School.  The writing is consistently good, and the material is accessible to beginners, yet still interesting for more advanced photographers.

http://digital-photography-school.com

Thank you Vu Le for answering our questions! Vu is a dentist with a practice in Foothill Ranch (Orange County, CA). You can see Vu’s photography at http://www.vulephoto.com/

His dental office (Orange County, CA) website is http://www.simpletooth.com/

Sophie is brand new to her family (1 week with them at the time of this photo session). Her new owners had a Springer Spaniel for 17 years that they loved to pieces and just recently had to put down. Broken hearted, they immediately went looking for a Springer puppy and found her in South Dakota! What a find! This delightful little girl enjoyed prancing around the grass in the front yard while the grandkids played and played with Sophie. This little puppy just wanted to run, run, run!

You can see already how much love this little Spaniel is going to receive! These girls were having such fun giggling and playing with their grandparents’ puppy. One of the twins went nose to nose with the puppy and got a kiss on the face!

One of Sophie’s toys (“baby”) was perfect for tug of war. This puppy was also happy in the arms of the girls (shown below with the oldest granddaughter). Sophie was enjoying the love and attention but also curious about the camera in front of her.

We tried to get Sophie to lay down in the grass towards the end of her puppy photo session, but she wasn’t interested in doing that until we gave her my squeaky toy we had been using to get her attention. Here she is, gnawing away, trying to make it squeak:

In closing, most of us understand what it’s like to lose a pet you have loved for so long. It’s hard to know how to heal that void in your heart and help diffuse the grief. I’m glad for Sophie’s family that they have this new little bundle of joy to help them through missing their old dog and to add memories of another life that brings love, devotion and happiness. Congratulations on your new puppy Dawn!