Still sick in bed, quite sick actually (and no, I have no idea if it’s swine flu, all I know is theraflu, nyquil, dayquil, garlic, vitamin c, airborne, zinc, chicken soup and oj don’t seem to be helping much at all), and all I have is free time to work on images, hence these crazy beefy blog posts chock-a-block full of images!
Here is the Boston workshop wrap-up/overview/snapshot for those of you who care about where I’ve been lately. The rest of you can go read a book or something. Sorry, my illness is making me cranky. Anyone wanna bring me popsicles? And maybe some liquid demerol or something?
We held, or I should say ‘I held’ the workshop at the lovely Liberty Hotel, a former jail turned hotel, which was quite possibly one of the coolest places I have ever slept in, not including that garden in the south of France. I digress.
The physical location of the workshop was a Charles River Suite, with a BITCHIN (sorry parents) view of well, *everything*: downtown Boston, the esplanade, the ballfields, the river, Beacon Hill, etc. I was literally speechless when I walked into the suite for the first time. See for yourself:
The view from the bedroom. It was truly astonishing.
Anyone care for a complimentary glass of champagne upon check-in?
Coolest do-not-disturb sign ever. (they also have restaurants called Clink and Alibi).
It was really hard for me to get the color balance right on these shots. Why?
Oh, because of the GORGEOUS GOLDEN SUNSET OUTSIDE MY WINDOW. of course.
Check out the view out of the bathroom window. I never did figure out if the windows were tinted on the outside, making it impossible to see in at night.
I hate to say this, but out of every bed I’ve slept in thus far this year, my bed at home is by far the most comfortable. But it should be- it’s a $1600 Macy’s pillowtop (bought on craigslist practically brand new for way less than $1600).
This next shot is an interesting one. That’s me, and here you see me trying to photograph the pink sun reflected in the mirror. Not as easy as it looks folks.
easier without framing up through the viewfinder? not so much.
and the elusive pink sun! can someone tell me why it’s so frigging hard to capture the actual color of a pink sun or a purple sunset? why is this so hard? I know how to set a custom K color balance, and have tried everything. am I missing a filter or something? here I got it mostly right, and LR2 helped me with the rest.
Now onto our doggie models! I have a hard time taking any ‘behind-the-scenes’ pics at my workshops, and for those of you who have attended one or watched me, you understand why (can you say ‘busy’, or ‘multitasking’, or ‘talking a mile a minute’?). I’m trying to get better, and in Boston I actually captured at least one honest-to-goodness behind-the-scenes photograph! whoopee, progress!
Ginger the boxer had the cutest little family, and her little sisters were being so patient with the process. I fired off some shots of the family when they weren’t looking, and those shots are some of my favorites.
And this is Thatcher, the hammiest of ham dogs I have ever photographed at a workshop. Man did she eat it up!
A good butt scratch helped those adorable teeth come out. I showed the group the proper way to give a butt scratch. It’s more about ‘scrubbing’ with your nails and less about ‘scratching’. Whew, think this sicky fever is getting to me…
wait for it, drumroll please…. MY ONE BEHIND-THE-SCENES SHOT!! I told you I got one…
Usually you find out pretty quickly in a shoot if a dog is food-motivated. In this case it was a no-brainer. And yes, that is my fat swollen sausage hand with the blood flow cut off by Remington’s death grip. Owwww….
“Hi I’m Remington, who are you?”. “I’m buddy, what kind of animal are you?”. “I’m a puggle”. “A what?”. “A Beagle and a pug mixed together. What are you?”. “Dunno. But my mom thinks I might be part Eeyore”.
Gawd I love Buddy. Eeyore isn’t a fitting description because look how happy this boy is. (I just made up the Eeyore reference- his mom has nothing to do with that). These were all taken in front of the Liberty Hotel.
That’s the Liberty on the right below, behind Thatcher. Talk about a gorgeous backdrop. I seriously have been having dreams of the colors in this shot.
I demonstrated how to get ears flying shots at the park on the Esplanade where we did Sunday’s shoots. Remi was super happy to comply. I love that you can see everyone behind him.
Marley had her own ideas about what she wanted to do during this portion of our workshop. She cracked me up.
Annnd, there she goes! Reason # 1 why the dogs should always, always call the shots. They are animals, *not* models.
And here we see Buddy in the entrance to one of the many many (many) Ball Fields in Boston. (Note that I capitalized Ball Field). This is how nutty those people are about their baseball!!
I take shots out the window of every flight I’m on. This one on the way home from Boston to Seattle I just happened to snap with my little Panasonic Lumix P&S. Not too bad at capturing the colors. Wait, was this Boston to Seattle? I don’t remember, they are blending together now.
A huge thank you to the 15 wonderful women who came to Boston to learn from me! I have so many good memories and can’t wait to catch up with you all on the forum. Now, get your damn eval forms back to me already.
Ok, sorry, I promise Miss Crankypants will be gone soon. Just as soon as this ‘bust-a-lung’ cough goes away. Love you all dear blog readers! 