Foto February : The Dog Blog

Welcome to the last of the Foto February posts! Sad? I am. This was a fun project. And even though I didn't get to shoot everything I wanted to in February due to time constraints, I still feel like I got a really cool variety. The best part, creative batteries charged!

This last post is one I saved because I knew a bunch of you would love it. Plus, it took the longest to work on! After the initial Foto February post, one of our awesome brides from 2010, Kristal, messaged me asking if we could take photos of her dog. I've toyed around with the idea of doing some studio pet photography, so why not? And then I got another doggie email. And another. So I decided to make an afternoon of it. Best of all, I hired Maddie, our oldest daughter, who loooooves dogs, to be my assistant (she got an ice cream cone as payment).

We start off with Seumas, a Scottish Deerhound, owned by our friend and tattoo artist, Sarah. Poor Seumas had some stage fright. He couldn't get used to the floor and the big white backdrop.

So the first lesson in pet photography: improvise. We took Seumas outside and he was much happier.

I don't know much about Scottish Deerhounds, but they're pretty cool looking.

And I suspect they are born to run.

Next up that day was Chance, Kristal's boxer mix. He was all happy and hyper.

We bribe kids with Smarties and dogs with Snausages.



Puppy kisses.

I was trying to get a good photo of Chance looking up and he wasn't cooperating. All of the sudden, Maddie squeaked a toy I forgot we brought and Chance perked up. After I was congratulating Maddie on being super smart and thinking to squeak the toy. At first, she took my congrats, but later she admitted that she was repositioning herself and accidentally leaned on the toy. :)

Next we met Holly, a Scottish Terrier.

One of our brides from this year asked us to get some nice photos of Holly for her mom. Holly is apparently the apple of her eye.

And she rocked the pink bandana.

In between sessions we asked Mr. Lequire, a gentleman that works in our building, if he wanted a few photos of his beautiful and well behaved Flat-Coated Retriever, Montana.

She was so laid back we bored her. ;)

Next up is a scrappy little punk we've known for a while. Guiseppe belongs to our dear friend Traci. He's a long hair daschund mix and is pretty stinking cute, especially if when he goes from frizzy to Alfalfa.

We bored him too.

I love this one. His body language and the faux-hawk just scream "what did I do to deserve this?"

If I had a monkey bed I'd be happy too.

Traci and her pooch.

Lastly, meet our pal Griffin, a yellow Lab/Golden Retriever mix. We got Griffin last year and he is an amazing dog. 75 pounds of pure puppy. Danielle helped me with his session the next day. Here she's trying to get him to drop his beloved bone. It ain't happening.

But we did manage to get him to ignore it for a few seconds and pose.

But that was it. ;)

Griffin is a dang good looking dog.

We tried getting a few shots of him airborne because he has a vertical leap comparable to NFL wide receivers, but he kept slipping on the floor. But this gives you an idea about how huge he is.

Wow! Dogs! Did you like them? Should I do more? Maybe there's some pet photography in our future? I might just do some all day sessions like this again, so if you're interested, shoot us an email or message on Facebook. Thanks to all the dog owners that brought your critters to the studio!!

Foto February : Some Beautiful Yoga

Welcome back to us! We had a wonderful spring break trip with the girls and now it's back to work. Today's Foto February post was a bit of a surprise. Well, a surprise for me. I never thought I would get excited about yoga. And to be honest, when Danielle, one of my Danielle's college classmates, contacted us wanting some scenic photos of her doing yoga, I was a bit skeptical about what I would get. But as I began scouting locations, I started getting more and more excited. We had a few weather delays, but when we finally got together it was a beautiful day and we captured some amazing photos.

I'm not even going to pretend to know the names of the different poses.

These first few are from the Foothills Parkway.





I *love* this one.

I could tell you where this cool bamboo is, but then I'd have to kill you. Wait, that probably goes against some of the peaceful ideals behind yoga. Sorry.



This field is near our house. I've wanted to shoot something here for a while.





And then there's an abandoned subdivision near us as well.

Aren't these trees cool? I also played around with my lighting some. This is available.

This with with off camera flash.

And this is with a wee bit of sunset.



Who knew I could have this much fun shooting yoga?!? Thank you so much, Danielle!!

Foto February : Three Completely Different Assignments

Back again with another multi-post from the Foto February project. I know we're into March now, but being busy is a good thing. And we've been slammed with meetings, a bridal show at Whitestone Inn, some freelance assignments, and getting ready for a last minute spring break trip. So while I'm done shooting the Foto February projects, I still have a couple more posts to do after today's.

One of the coolest things about this project has been the variety that has come my way. And these three exemplify that.

First up is a little bit of reality. A friend of mine, Jacene, from back in my Einstein Simplified days emailed asking for some photos of her mother, who is in a nursing home in Lenoir City with late stage Alzheimer's. She asked me to try and get a decent portrait of her mother and I asked if I could also capture their interaction together as well. It was a touching and heartfelt assignment; one that hits home as Danielle's grandmother is also in a nursing home.

Jacene helps her mother, Pat, reposition in a wheeled chair.

Jacene's son, John, brushes his grandmother's hair back.

A daughter's touch.



Going for a walk.

Pat's portrait.

Thank you, Jacene, for letting me be witness to a small part of your story. :)

Moving on to some farm life. Emily and her daughter Rachel both emailed (not knowing the other did so) about coming out and photographing their family's farm. So since they both were adamant about it, I thought it must be worth it. ;) We actually know Emily through Maddie's school… she's one of the kindergarten teaching assistants. She's a nut. And I think that's why we get along so well.

The farm is the passion of Emily's husband, Robby (who just had surgery on his elbow), and their son, Lucas.

Mom's going to be so mad when she finds out you got your nose pierced!

The cattle they farm are a breed known as Gelbvieh. Don't worry, I had never heard of them either. To us non-farmers, a cow is a cow. But to the Waters', it's a specialized breed, with a defined progeny. They love these cows and know more about each one than I probably know about my own kids.



Lucas with his prize bull, Dozer.

A quickie family photo.

Setting out hay, an all-you-can-eat buffet for the cows.

What are you looking at, punk?



More hay at a different spot.

Get off my lawn!

Emily made a joke about me being able to make a cow pretty. Well, I think this is a beautiful cow. Thanks Waters family for letting me play farmer for an afternoon!


And now for something completely different. Brooke, who was a bride of a wedding I helped our friend, Tara Kneiser of Dixie Pixel, shoot a few years ago, emailed me asking me if I wanted to photograph her in a trapeze class. Wait, what? Trapeze? In Knoxville? I was intrigued!

It turns out she and her sister bought Groupons for "Try Me" classes at Dragonfly Aerial Arts. Dragonfly is a nonprofit studio teaching trapeze and aerial skills put together by a group of aerial performers in the area. Right now, they're in a temporary location in a warehouse in south Knoxville, but that doesn't stop them from teaching some head over heals action.

Instructor Lissa McLeod starts off showing how to hang from the bar.

Brooke's sister, Katie, gets the hang of it.

Now she's just showing off.

Brooke watches so she can give it a go. I was amazed at how she and her sister, the first time either of them had ever done anything like this, would watch Lissa do it once, and then they both took off and did it like pros.

Ta-daa!



They asked me to give it a try, but I didn't want to show them up.

They moved from the trapeze bars over to fabric.

Lissa took to new heights to show them some advanced maneuvers.

A special thanks to everyone who opened their doors and let me in for these assignments! I have two more to post; some cool yoga photos and I'm saving what will probably be everyone's favorite for last… a bunch of cool pooches!!