Chanel

[rpcrowe]

Chanel, foster Maltipoo (Maltese + Poodle) puppy...

[Marie Hass]

Very adorable. I love how you manipulate the lighting angles to keep the area around the eyes light enough to appreciate all of the detail. Gosh!!! I hope I made sense. No shadows with lost detail - only lovely contrast.

Marie

[rpcrowe]

Very adorable. I love how you manipulate the lighting angles to keep the area around the eyes light enough to appreciate all of the detail. Gosh!!! I hope I made sense. No shadows with lost detail - only lovely contrast.

Marie

Marie,

Most of my shots lately have been done with mixed lighting. A while ago I purchased a 4-compact fluorescent bulb softbox with daylight balanced bulbs. I was using this for my video work and one day I had it set up and used it (from high left close in to the dog) in conjunction with a hotshoe mounted 430EX flash bounced off the ceiling and modified with a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro.

It seemed to work pretty well so I left the softbox set up next to a Lazy Boy chair. I cover the chair with a colored fleece and we sit the dog in the chair. This is a quick and easy setup and since I probably shoot four or five digs a week, ease in shooting pays off. I have the camera set up with the flash and my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens, charged batteries and freshly formatted CF card ready for shooting.

I sit in a roll-around office chair which puts my camera at just about the dogs eye level. I can move around by taking advantage of the rollers on the chair to place myself in the right position.

My wife controls the dog with a thin show-lead which I clone out.

I sometimes use a WhiBal card to get the right color temperature but,probably just as often get my white balance off the white coat of the dog.

When I use a pink or red fleece, I will often desaturate the image a bit since the red or pink tends to reflect up into the dogs coat.

I always use the WhiBal card for dogs with other than white coats, like little Jacqueline who lost one eye and the sight of the other eye when attacked by a larger dog when she was a stray...



Dogs who have brown or tan coats are a lot easier to shoot...







However, since Maltese are white, I have learned to work with white dogs...

[dubaiphil]

You've captured her character beautifully, Richard

[Marie Hass]

Richard,

As noted, again I thank you for taking the time to explain what you have done. I have neither softbox nor Joe Demb diffuser, but am checking out the prices on line.

Regards,

Marie

[casper]

hi Richard,
Your dog photos are always first class, but I see more than good photographs here. These little guys must really appreciate their post rescue circumstances, and their contentment is apparent in your images. I think this is epitomised in "chanel no.2". Great photos.
- Noel

[rpcrowe]

Thank you...

We do our best to give the dogs a safe and comfortable interim home with as much love as possible. The dogs' stress levels are way up there. First being a stray or being given up by the owners. Then, their time in the shelters. Shelters run the gamut from good to bad but one thing that they have in common is that they stress out the residents. Finally, even after we bring them into our home, their stress level is quite often sky high.

It takes some dogs several weeks to "wind down" while others become relaxed and happy as soon as they get attention.

What we love to see is to meet dogs whom we have fostered after they have been with their "furever" families long enough to bloom.

We were at a rescue event yesterday and a furever mom brought one of our recent rescues to meet us and the little guy looked great.