Saturday, June 27, 2009

Sofia - sneak peek

I really *should* be packing right now, since this week is moving week and I haven't packed at all as much as I should have, but I had to take a break to share one photo from my session with Sofia this morning. She just turned a year old, and this is the third time we've had a photo session. She's a pro!

If you're having a bad day...set this as your desktop picture. I dare you not to smile.

Sofia

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sam-e

When the day of the Lowell Unleashed fundraiser arrived, I had filled 5 of the 6 slots. I knew there was the possibility of someone joining us for the shoot once it was in progress, and I really hoped that was the case. Halfway through, this handsome boy and his mom showed up.

same04_1

Oh, be still my heart. Sam-e is the doppelgänger of the yellow lab that I had growing up...a yellow lab named Sam.

Like most labs, Sam-e is a happy camper. Life is good, and he's just along for the ride.

same02_1 copy

I love love love this picture. THIS is what bliss looks like.
same01_1

When it was time for Sam-e's photo shoot, the dog park was a very busy place. Sam-e wasn't super interested in me or in the camera; he was much more intrigued by all the other dogs. See, he made a friend:

same03_1 copy

Unfortunately, he was a little too, ahem, "friendly" with some of the other dogs. He got a stern talking to from his mom and he clearly felt very badly about the whole affair.

same2

But since a lab's memory is roughly equivalent to that of a goldfish, he didn't feel guilty for very long. Refreshments make everyone feel better!

same02

I think the snot really makes the picture on the right, don't you?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Good little blogger

Yes, I'm a little behind. I promised posts for every dog that participated in the Lowell Unleashed shoot, and I am getting to that, hand to god!

I've really been thinking lately about what's been holding me back from blogging. I have a lot going on, it's true, but being busy is not the culprit. Let's think about this for a minute. What do you need in order to blog regularly? Well, material is a good place to start. Do I have interesting things to write about? Well, I think so. It's a little hard for you to judge at this point since I have a whopping 15 posts thus far, but lack of blog fodder is not the problem.

Ok, I have stuff to write about. So what goes in the post? We need a title...check...body of the post...check...pictures...well, I have lots of those...but...

DING DING DING. We have a winner! Dealing with the images is by far the most tedious aspect of blogging for me. I love taking pictures, I love editing them to make them as gorgeous as they can possibly be, yet the act of resizing, watermarking, exporting, and then uploading them makes me want to go shove a fork in an electrical socket.

I had attempted to write a couple different actions that would automate the process of getting the edited images blog ready, but, I'm going to be totally honest here, action-making is not my forte. Every time I tried to make it work, I ended up with something that was really, really not right. My logo was in the wrong place, the image was squished, the canvas size was all wrong, and it was awful. I spent so much time fighting with the pictures that it just wasn't fun anymore.

I got some really great suggestions from my friend Chris for how to improve the action, and, miracle of miracles, it works now!

I have one for horizonal images:
Sofia
This is Sofia, possibly the cutest baby in existence. Yes, she is kissing the dog. She's a baby. Babies also eat dirt. I really don't think puppy kisses are that bad.

And one for verticals:
Sofia

Nothing too fancy, but that's ok. They're the right size and they have my logo, and that is just fine with me. I'm SO excited to have that sorted out! It's so easy now - I just use Photoshop's handy-dandy image processor, and it does all the work for me. Any day that I don't have to fight with technology is definitely a good day.

Now that it's easy for me to post images, that means I have absolutely NO excuse for not blogging. I have tons of great stuff to show you (babies and puppies and headshots, oh my!), so stay tuned! Promise I won't leave you hanging for...uh...a month again.