Bark! | Seattle Fine Art Dog Photographer

San Diego

I am excited to announce that I am in the final stages of planning a trip down to sunny San Diego in late September or early October.  I will only be offering a very limited amount of sessions during my time there.  Packaging/Pricing is not quite finalized yet, but I can promise you, it will be jam packed with goodies!

If you are in the San Diego area, have a dog, want to meet me, get a little dirty (ok, that is an understatement), have a rip roaring good time, and end up with gorgeous art pieces that capture the personality of your dog(s), then let me know asap!

I can't wait to meet some So Cal Dogs!

Quote

A quote that has stuck with me over the last 24 hours.

"A good photographer gets it right in camera, but has the vision to make it better if given the opportunity to."

- Chenin Boutwell -

Chenin, owner of Boutwell Studio, is a gorgeous photographer but even better is wickedly smart.  I love smart women.

An Equine Evening

When we turned onto the gravel road I felt a sense of peace. I was instantly transported back to the days of summer camp where the sights and scents of horses dominated the day. We stepped out of the car and I was in awe at how beautiful and peaceful this property was and the best part about it was that we didn't have to drive far to be transported into this special place. 

I had the opportunity to spend a gorgeous summer evening with my cousin in law (or something like that) Laura and her horse Wally. I have never captured a horse before, so I was excited to see what I could do. My intention, as with every time I pick up my camera, was to tell a story.

Here is what I saw.

(click on the images for a larger and more detailed version)

Good Thoughts

My precious Gracie got stung by approximately 20-30 bees today. Please keep her in your thoughts as she is under close supervision at the vet today.
....
Update: Thank you to those of you that were kind enough to send well wishes or think positive thoughts for Gracie. She is now home and doing well. Here's what happened:

We decided to venture out for a lovely walk. We always go down to the park close by and usually head back into the trails. Before we hit the trail, I saw a little note taped up onto a tree that said "Danger, bees nest in the log". I didn't think much of it because she usually runs straight for the creek and doesn't stop to smell anything, so I figured she wouldn't bother any nest. As I turned the corner, I could see she was already under attack. She must have had about 20 to 30 bees on her, so I got her out of the trails and into the field where I proceeded to see that the bees weren't just stinging her and flying away, but rather stinging her and hanging on for dear freaking life. I have never seen anything like it. By then the adrenaline was pumping, so I grabbed her and just started grabbing the bees and getting them off her. She was really freaked. We ran all the way home and by the time I got her inside I could see them all swelling up. She could barely sit down and was panting heavily.

I drove her to the vet even though they told me to just monitor her breathing. Yea right. She was there all day for supervision and now she is home. I just love the vet office we got to - Evergreen Vetrinary Hospital rocks my world. Gracie has had her fair share of spills and thrills and they have given her exceptional care each and every time.

She is now resting comfortably on her bed and will get plenty of spoiling and attention!

The Book

I decided to make a book of all the doggies I have met so far in 2007 (Jan - July) and it was so much fun! I just love the design and can't wait to see what it looks like. It will be a 7 x 7, softcover, with just under 70 pages.  I only allowed myself one image per dog, which was hard, because there are so many photos I love, but for design purposes I forced myself to do it this way.

I decided to keep it simple, with all black and white images on the right, and the name and breed on the left. 

Here is a glimpse into my design and what the general concept looks like.  I think it is going to look fantasically fun on our coffee table.  Maybe I'll sell them.  Maybe I won't.  Who knows?   What do you think?

This first shot is the back and front of the book ... respectively.

Bobblehead Friday

Oooo it doesn't get much better than a Bobblehead Gracie.

Especially on a Friday!  I keep laughing.  A lot.

Courtesy of Pete aka Arkworld from Flickr.

$15

$15 can buy you a lot of things:

- A decent bottle of wine

- A pound of Peet's Coffee (our fave)

- A bag of fertilizer

- A man's haircut

But what I like to use my $15 for is 5 hours of Doggie Daycare.  It knocks Miss. Gracie out for the entire day and even the next!  She looooooves daycare.  Everytime we go, we drive up this big hill and she starts wagging her tail.  Hard.  Her tail is like a massive weapon, I swear one day she is going to take a small child out with it.  Plus, my husband hates it because it is "just that height" to cause serious damage to a man! 

I hadn't seen her for a few hours so I went upstairs to check on her and this is what I found.

A tired dog is a happy owner.

The Girls

When I was taking photos of kids professionally, I noticed that during my free time when kids were around, I would never pick up my camera.  So this weekend when these adorable girls came to visit us at the lake, I actually wanted to take some time out to shoot the.

While capturing kids, I learned a lot about the various ages and stages of kids.  By the end, I was able to anticipate exactly what I was going to walk into depending on the age of the child.

2 year old's want nothing to do with a camera or anything remotely focused.  You really have to trick them into pretending that you are doing something else.  Something that they thought up.  They are really at a stage where they are asserting their independence.  Quite the movers and shakers they are.

5 year old's, on the other hand, are supreme posers!  You are able to get them a little bit more focused and maybe even still!  5 year old girls crack me up.  Somehow and somewhere (America's Next Top Model maybe?) they have picked up that ever so important pose. 

Add a developing personality on top of the age and you never know what you are going to get!  But what I love most about kids is their honesty and openness in front of the camera which you just don't get with adults.  For example:

Kids will stick their belly out as far as possible if you ask them to. 

Kids will think you are the funniest person in the world if you ask them to show you their best double chin (after we explain what a double chin is)

Kids will jump up and down for hours (if you just show them the LCD every few shots)

Kids really do believe there is a little rainbow with a leprechaun at the end hiding out in the lens (that is my favorite, although I do have to get into the particulars of what a leprechaun actually is)

. . .

Back to the shots.  I waited for sunset and we did a few minutes of shooting.

Ahhhhhh

It doesn't take much more than a glass of wine to make me happy. What can I say? I'm easy to please.

So here is a fun, summer, self portrait from me to you!

Gracie at Sunset

After a few days of rain in Seattle, we are back to gorgeous 80 degree days. Yesterday was no exception as Gracie and I enjoyed the sunset in our backyard. One of her favorite things to do in the summer is sit and stare at all the little bees hovering in the lavender. 

The bees are safe as long as they are in or around the lavender, but as soon as they decide they are done, that is when Gracie will snap her floppy lips and try to eat them.  I just happened to press the shutter when this was happening, I'm lucky I guess.  When I zoomed in I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had caught the bee mid air.  I even zoomed in so you could see for yourself!

The rest are just photos of Miss. Gracie around the back yard.  The light was just gorgeous so I just had to go get my camera.  Glad I did!  I especially love the shot of Gracie, happily munching grass while the sun streamed through the lines of the fence.  So much that I had to show them it in both color and b+w because they each have a slightly different impact.

I just love my big dinosaur!