Good light, good shadows

    Light and shadow, the two go so well together, and it's always nice to have a good combination of them both in an image. In this image of Demu, our brave little husky, you can see both good light and a nice shadow on the wall adding some impact on the image. Best time for playing with shadows is usually in the morning or in the evening, when the sun hits the ground from a low angle, all this of course if you prefer natural light, like in this pic. Then you can always use some artificial lighting if you feel, and make good shadows when ever you like.

   

More kittens... (sigh!)

  Working on my flash technique and trying to figure out how to use a reflector by my self. Really, I feel like I need one more hand, two for the camera and one for the reflector or flash. I guess an assistant would be even better... maybe one day. So, anyway, the kittens are growing and we even got rid of with two, both went to good homes. One'll stay, so it means three to go. Meanwhile, as I feel it's too hot to get out, I'm shooting kittens inside. As said, I'm trying to hone my lighting skills. Still quite faraway from Joe Mcnally, Frank Doorhof and other lighting gurus, however I'm trying. So here they are, more kittens, enjoy. ( I'm sick of kittens already, but what can I do? )

Cats, cats, dogs and one wife...

  During the past two weeks I've hadn't had too much of spare time over for photography, but when there's been those moments it's mostly been pets in the focus images. So here's a few.

             No flash or any other equipment than camera and a lens. Very convenient.

                          Some extra light added with a white card from the left.

                                            Kitten version of Count Dracula.

                                     Clean towel and your new box home

                                               Kitten with a flash.

                                Kittens with a flash and a reflector on the left.

                                ...Same as the previous.

                                The dogs need some attention too ( and my wife. )

                               Anu, Sussu and high speed sync... What a combination!  

When I'm frustrated I shoot cats and dogs

  From time to time it happens that you get blocked, you just don't know what to shoot or how to shoot. Just a feeling that you are stuck. Not really a nice thing. When that happens to me I usually start shooting pets. I'm lucky to have nine "babies", two dogs, seven cats. It can be a bit crazy from time to time with such a big "family", but at least you get lots of photo opportunities. Sussu is our new comer, an adorable mixed breed female dog. She loves to bark cars, howl at the nights and to give kisses, as I probably mentioned in one other post. Sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to make a photo of her, she goes away, moves her head in an unwanted direction or comes too close. Yesterday I was lucky, she was too lazy to move. So I laid my self on the ground at her level and started shooting. Here's too shots, pretty similar, but still there's a small difference. Personally I love the first one more because of the dandelion, although I love the shallow shallow depth of field in the second one too.

When you are not alone

  Combining a photo walk with walking the dog can be a bit frustrating sometimes. Just when you are ready for the shutter click, a dark shadow appears from somewhere and makes the subject run away or the backdrop is hidden behind a dog or the subject is smashed or you get a wet kiss or... that's life with a dog(s). So you understand there is a reason why I usually decide to go alone or at least not with a four-legged buddy, if I'm trying to achieve something more serious. Then there are those moments when the dogs are with you and you can try to make the picture when they are sniffing somewhere further away from you. You can always try to command, usually with quite a little success. And then you can hope that the that your furry friend can be used as a main subject or at least as a prop. Here's one from today... you can decide what's the main subject and what's a prop.

  

Photography, animals and Ikea

Our soon 10 year old Ikea chairs make a fantastic backdrop for pet photography. I've probably shot all of our cats in these chairs. I love the olive green color, the simple stripes and even our cats seem to enjoy these old, soft furniture. Cats tend to be small, and if they are kittens there is place for at least six pieces of animals. It's not uncommon to see two grownup cats enjoying a nap on the same chair. It seems though, that not only our feline friends like soft, olive green Ikea furniture. Our big boy, who most of the time dwells outside, decided a couple of days ago that it's enough. He wanted to come inside the house, were all the other of his friends are. And guess where he hauled his large, furry and smelly bottom?   

One gone

  It's always sad when your pet dies. Not that cats can't be a big pain in the... you know where, but you still get used to them hanging around, wanting in, wanting out, meowing around here and there and clawing and scratching things they shouldn't. Some are more annoying than others, and Tassu, the one on the right in the image for sure was one of those more annoying ones. But still, you get affected to them and they become like family members, at least in our small family of two human beings, one dog and a bunch of cats. Animals do have only one life, so please take good care of them...

               Moses on the left, and Tassu who were hit by a car two days ago, on the right.

New toys

  After a great amount of thinking, I finally ordered a light stand, holder for a speedlight and a shoot through umbrella. I placed my order on Thursday evening, and was hoping the delivery to arrive earliest on Monday, but surprise, it came today. As there is ambient light less and less, and this will go on at least till the end of December, I'm happy that I can use some light from a speedlight flash unit to boost my images and even practice some portrait photography with an off camera flash. Naturally I started immediately shooting with my new toys. Opened the package, and way to go... Cats of course!  

Cat with a flash

  Thought that I should start to use my old faithful flashgun more and more. So today I was trying to use off camera flash in various situations. Mostly this happened with people, but as I love to shoot our pets, of course one of our cats ended up as guinea pig...

 Our youngest one got a bit tired, so it was pretty easy to try some flash techniques on him while he was resting.

  And one more image. A beautiful woman with a kitten, a nice conclusion for the day.     

Kitten

  Quite a bit of negative space in this image but I still like it. Probably wouldn't get trough QC in stock agencies, too much of noise and such. But here in my blog I can always publish what I want so here it is, one more cat pic.