This week's theme is "Beautiful Sky". I prayed for a nice Texas morning, that did not look like a super cell or tornado was going to blow in. I got what I asked for! Beautiful blue skies, with lots of sun, about 1 hour after the magic hour (we got started a bit late...). My friend, Emily Hurt and her 3 dogs met me at a wonderful little park of her choosing. It has this pond, and fountains, and large pavilion areas with HUGE sun shades that look like sails and all sorts of colored walls. My theory was to have her athletic dogs do some jumping and I would catch them against the sky. But I just had to use those fountains and sails! I also had a couple of firsts for me on this shoot. I bought a new rectangular reflector, my old triangular hand held was just not making for me. I also had my new Sigma 17-35mm wide angle lens. For post, I have a new editing package, that is more intuitive for me. I like the results so far.
We started with some frisbee near the pond, where one of her dogs could get some air. There was a cool streak of sun coming in from the left near the fountains and some of the very light, faint morning wisps of clouds were still in the sky over there. Got some interesting subtle lens flair.
Next we met up with her husband and her little Pom for some cuteness in front of one of the sets of "sails". This little girl just had to come over and check me out.
I just had to get some more of the sails and this section of colored walls. I love how the sunlight reflected off the white sail and lit up a bit of the red wall while more frisbee madness was going on. This Border Collie girl sure can fly!
Last but not least were the two Border Collies showing how good they can be by posing, one on top of the other. Things were going great until the one on top finally stepped on the other's tail! Used my reflector to get some sharp fill light. You can see the other two locations with the sails, in the background.
I hope you enjoyed the beautiful blue cloudless Texas Sky, and Emily's girls.
"Beautiful Beasties is a network with forums, blogs and chats for professional pet photographers, where we can get advice, share images and support each other". One such forum is the 52 Project Challenge. Each week, a new theme is chosen by a forum member, then we have a week to go out and shoot our interpretation. The themes allow us to stretch our creativity and shoot something distinctive. There is nothing better to improve our craft than to go out and practice/shoot. Results are then posted to our individual blogs and linked to one another to form a blog ring. We use blog comments or the forum to leave feedback. This is a wonderful way to get peer insight and ideas from one another. Each week, please go to the end of each blog and click on the link to the next one in the circle. You will not be disappointed.
Please follow the ring to the next member blog about "Beautiful Sky": Susannah Maynard of Cincinnati OH Suzi Pix Photography.