I have been toiling away lately. Nearly every day for the last two weeks I have either had a photo shoot, studio consult with a client, phone meeting or other appointment. Christina has been doing an AWESOME job keeping me on track. I think I have something like 42 clients on my boards right now. (Crazy I know). How do I do it? My aforementioned assistant. Let me tell you there is NO WAY I could do all of this without regular help. Christina only works about 15 hours per week but she rocks so hard that every day I grow closer to only doing what I love- taking pictures, working in photoshop and lightroom and designing art. Awesome. Thank you Christina for everything you do for me!

Anyway, I am working my way through my pile of client orders (*finally* made order forms, whoopee!!), and thought I would share with you guys some of the things I worked on today, in case you maybe thought I fell off the planet. 

Yorkies photobooks. Tiggz below. 

Back cover (L). Front cover (R). The front cover was his mom’s idea. Brilliant eh? If you are in a service-based business, I recommend always being open to your client’s suggestions. Often they can be smarter and more creative than you. 

Photobook pages. 

I love the end page. Makes me laugh out loud. 

More yorkies photobooks. Brodie & Taz. Oh, and Roscoe the kitty! Roscoe is the coolest, most laid back, friendliest, most affectionate cat EVER. I love him so much and want to steal him and have him live with me. 

I believe below it’s supposed to say Charles something-or-other. (Brilliant observation Jamie). Sorry, it’s late….

The shot below looks like a poster or something. No, it’s a real photograph and I actually took it. Amazing outfit, eh? Remember the shoes? 

Ok, so that’s one, actually, two orders. The next order is Loodie and Max. They are both getting prints and canvases. The canvases are my favorites. I feel so incredibly honored that they are being hung in their soon-to-be new baby twins nursery. Huge congrats Peter and Hope!!

Then there’s Junepug and Shelby. Just in case anyone is confused, Junepug’s name is actually June, but I have given her the moniker ‘Junepug’ because it seems to fit her so. And Shelby, what can I say about Shelby. She touched my heart from the second I met her, and is the first dog to ever be in the company of a pug that I paid more attention to than said pug. *Especially* a baby pug. I just don’t have words to express my experience with Shelby. I think I am going to stop trying, because I’m not sure that anyone would understand. 

June’s canvas. Her first experience with water. Check out her first time with feet in water. Hee hee. 

Shelby’s prints. I think the shot on the right is my favorite of her. 

June’s print. Weird, what’s up with all of the stripey lines? I swear things look perfect in LR and bridge, and when I upload them they get all wacked out. I need to check my ’save for web’ settings; I have been noticing too many problems lately. Don’t even get me started on the whole sharpening thing. Ugh, technology.

And the last thing I worked on today was a CD for Kaiya. She is another dog I fell in love with. Ok, truth be told, I fall in love with them all! I wish you guys could have seen the fawn doberman I shot today. A christmas gift so it will have to wait. 

I have lots more new dog photos to share, but first need to meet my photobook printer’s deadline which is this Friday! (One more photobook to go!) Thanks everyone for being so patient with me. You guys, my lovely blog readers, rock!!

But the good news is she died of old age- living to be 15 years old, after having a very rough start early on in life. She was such a special soul and will be dearly missed by her parents. And I know I will never forget her. 

I want to take this opportunity to encourage everyone who has an elderly dog to get some good pictures taken of them. It doesn’t have to be with a professional- grab your camera, or a friend’s camera, or even commission a photography student, and some yummy treats, and head outside in natural light, and spend an hour with your sweet pooch snapping lots of pictures of them. With dogs there are no second chances, and I can’t tell you how meaningful those images become once your best friend is gone. I promise this is something you will never regret.

I got the Canon 70-200mm L-series IS 4.0 lens. NOT the 2.8.

Here is why.

First, money was not the issue. I had $1800 cash to spend on a lens, but wanted to be absolutely sure that the lens I bought was the one I really wanted, regardless of cost.

It came down to weight vs. sharpness vs. speed. I had to ask myself, how much is speed really a consideration? I decided that speed wasn’t the primary consideration, and that sharpness and weight were the top two issues. BUT, having said that, the 4.0 buys you two whole stops with the image stabilization enabled. (On still shots anyway). This narrowed the competition a bit on speed. 

The 4.0 is also *considerably* lighter than the 2.8, which is important when one is traveling and covering lots of ground with their gear, like I did for my Sonoma/Napa shoots. Trust me, the lighter your camera bag when trying to stuff it in a tiny overhead compartment on a tiny plane, the happier you will be. 

Back when I was asking for advice I recalled people saying “you get what you pay for” and “the 2.8 is a much better lens”.

Which leads me to sharpness. For those who say “the 2.8 is a much better lens” the 4.0 is actually much sharper. If you equate sharpness with quality then which lens do you think is better?

The 4.0 is so sharp that the images that come from the lens *need no sharpening* post-process. Simon touched on the fact that some of my images from my Sonoma shoots are overly sharp- this is totally right as I am discovering that the images coming from the lens, again, need no extra sharpening in PS.

Need proof? This is what was the deciding factor for me. Scroll your mouse over the little arrow above the middle of the image to compare lenses:

the digital picture 100% crop comparison between the 4.0 IS L and the 2.8 IS L

The 4.0 may not be the best lens for everyone, but I can tell you it’s perfect for my needs. Also, after doing my research online, I learned there is small but significant movement of people who are selling their 2.8 lenses for the 4.0. Interesting. 

Now, having said that, I somewhat regret buying the lens in the first place. Why? Because it’s on the opposite end of the spectrum from where I am happiest shooting- the wide end. There is something about a wide dog photograph that I find immensely appealing, and the lens that I have been really wanting- my dream lens if you will, is the 16-35mm 2.8 L-series. I have a feeling that if I had bought that instead it would be on my camera at least 50% of the time. I love, love, love my 20mm prime lens, and only wish it were an L-series as it’s pretty soft. But, I have been using it more and more recently, and am reminded every time I look at the images why I love it so much. 

BUT, I needed a telephoto at least 10% of the time, so I am glad I got it. But I can promise you, the next lens I buy will be the 16-35. I just need to come up with $1500 first, lol.

Thank you to all of those who helped me with this, especially Craig, for generously sharing image samples and unbiased advice. And to Mia, for agreeing with light weight vs. fast speed.

Lens stuff can be so complicated, but when you get ones you really love it just makes shooting that much more fun.

Super sharp at 200mm (no sharpening was applied to this image)

Impressive 100% crop 

Nice, soft buttery bokeh

Great images in low-light wide open. (These were taken after the sun went down behind the hills at around 5:30

Leave your guess as a comment below! Tomorrow I’ll post the answer. 

My final California pooches I want to share with y’all are the sleek and gorgeous supermodel Ruby and her adorable ‘little’ brother Buster Brown. I photographed them at boutique winery David Fulton in St. Helena and we had a fantastic time. 

Ruby greyhound- retired racer.

Ruby and her little brother Buster the basset in front of the David Fulton Winery. Their parents drove them all the way up to Napa Valley from Orange County for our shoot. I felt so deeply honored!

It’s hard to believe but Buster was in a shelter near his southern California home for 4 MONTHS before he was adopted by his parents. He is a lucky boy now as they love him dearly. He is a daddy’s boy and 100% lovebug.

For those who don’t know, retired racing greyhounds make the very best pets. Believe it or not, most greyhounds are total couch potatoes, preferring to laze their days away in various reclined positions. They are the sweetest companions out there, and Ruby is no exception to this. 

We held a couple of races in the vineyards. Who do you think won? hee hee 

I love these shots of Buster (and the one above). He makes me so happy. 

Winery kitty (name unknown). Winery dog- Tucker. Tucker is awesome. 

Hope you enjoyed Ruby and Buster’s images as much as I enjoyed taking them!

I have lots more new dogs to share with you guys. Hopefully sometime this week I can get those new images online. Happy Thursday!

We did Max’s shoot on this cool road path thing through the vineyards and countryside in Santa Rosa. Thanks Daniella for helping with the location! 

Tell me Max doesn’t look like a big bear in this next shot. It’s blurry but I still love it. 

Close (L). Closer (R).

Puppy teeth!! I LOVE his teeth and little lip in this shot. 

I have one more California client to share- Ruby the sleek supermodel greyhound and her brother Buster Brown the basset hound. I will post them tomorrow (sorry, running behind already!). Also, all of the Sonoma/Napa galleries will be going online tomorrow for my CA clients, whoopee!

The water really was that dark navy blue color, reflecting the color of the sky. It was stunning. 

I have had a lot of clients request shots of them and their dogs together lately. I am happy to oblige as long as they aren’t the cheesy ‘pose and smile’ shots (blech). This one definitely qualifies as a sweet, candid moment between mom and furry daughter. I don’t know if you can tell but Sarah is kissing Sanger on her head in this shot, and Sanger is loving every minute of it, just curled into her. Awww…

There was this incredible dock at Spring Lake. I of course had to get a shot of them on it. 

I’m not really sure why, but I love this next pair of shots.

How cute is Sanger? 

Tomorrow’s posts will be Max the Bernese Mountain Dog in Sonoma and Ruby and Buster Brown in Napa Valley.

With that said, I am thrilled to *finally* share with you guys some of the images I took in California of Sonoma dogs. You have asked, you have begged, you have pleaded, and they are finally here. I am going to do two sneak-peeks per day for the next two days, which will cover my 4 clients in Sonoma and Napa Valleys.

This is Heaven. She lives on her very own vineyard. Heaven is a wolf-lab mix and her world revolves around food. 

Heaven gets in trouble because she eats the grapes right off the vine.

I tried to capture the olive tree behind her on the right. They were everywhere in Sonoma Valley.

Heaven is crazy for carrots.

There is this cool old red barn on Heaven’s property that her mom suggested we get shots of. I was so glad she did- they ended up being some of my favorites from our session.

This next shot was taken with my new 70-200mm telephoto zoom lens. Anyone care to guess which one I bought?

Here is the same shot at 100% crop.

The ‘waiting for food’ face.

Such a sweet moment between the two of them. 

A huge thanks to my Sonoma and Napa Valley clients for having me down! I had a blast and hope you love the images!

Here she is with her new toys from the wine country- a squeaky wine bottle that says ‘Kennel-Relaxin Chardonnay’ and a cackly witch.  She loved both. Ah, that’s my girl- the boozehound.

BTW- Christina and my mom took turns staying with Fergie at my place while I was gone. The Fergs had an *awesome* time with two of her favorite people. Christina even took her swimming, whoopee! 

First things first, I wanted to announce the winners of the Evening Magazine ‘Best Of’ contest. The first place position of ‘best pet photography’ in Western Washington goes to Kirkland Washington’s own talented dog photographer Erin Vey, who has been doing great work over on the Eastside for the past couple of years. Erin has become well-known on social networking websites like flickr and facebook for her high-end fine art baby, child, and human portraits and most recently dog portraits. 

Then second place goes to yours-truly, of Seattle (Queen Anne Yo!). For those who are new you can read more about me and Cowbelly on my newly updated ‘about‘ page of this blog (BTW for those who DO know me, you may still want to check out the new page- I included some things I think nobody knows). Back to the contest, I don’t have words to express the feelings I get when reading the detailed and heartfelt comments left by my clients. I sometimes feel like I fall short of my goals when it comes to making people happy, and to have those testimonials from people I have worked with is the most affirming gift I could receive. Thank you to everyone who voted, and most especially- left those sweet sweet comments. I am truly humbled.

Third place goes to my dear friend and colleague Nichole Smith of Dane + Dane Studios over in West Seattle. For those who don’t live in this area, West Seattle IS a part of Seattle, for those who DO live here, yes I too believe that West Seattle IS Seattle. Go West Seattle!! Anyhoo, Nichole has been doing really beautiful work with pets and people since 2005- both in her studio and outdoors on locations from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. She also shoots pet-friendly weddings and provides graphic design work to pet-related businesses. This woman is a one-woman army! Actually, Nichole has an army of people working for her- including the talented dog and wedding photographer Amy Soper. 

Speaking of talented pet/dog photographers, I *finally* want to share with you guys some blog-links to a few of the really great photographers who attended my workshops this year. Go check out their blogs, comment, get to know them, and take a gander at their beautiful work. In no particular order we have:

Pam Biasotti- Pam Biasotti Photography- East Bay San Francisco, CA

http://pambiasotti.com/blog/

Tracy Auckerman- Furrie Fotography - Jacksonville, FLA

http://furriefotographie.blogspot.com/

Jaime Rowe- Green Paws Photography-Morrison CO

http://greenpawsphotography.blogspot.com/

Angie Wojciechowska- Off Leash Photography- Vancouver BC

http://off-leash.ca/blog/

Jill Beninato- Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography- Virginia Beach, VA

http://www.sitstaysmile.com/blog/

Bev Hollis- Bev Hollis Photography- Leesburg, VA

http://www.bevhollisphoto.com/blog/

Beth Andrews- Hound and Hoof Pet Photography- Louisville KY

http://houndandhoofblog.com/

Stephanie Smith- Pawsitively Pictures- Tampa, FLA

http://pawsitivelypictures.blogspot.com/

Maria Carey- Charlotte Carey Pet Photography- Nantucket, MA

http://charlottecareypets.blogspot.com/

Debbie Dunne- Debbie Z. Dunne Photography- North Plains OR

http://debbiezdunne.com/blog/

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all of the attendees, and for the gals not on this list, please email me and let me know if/when you are ready for me to show you to the world! Also, I will be adding the photographers from the workshops to my blogroll once I am caught up on some client work. 

Hope everyone is having a terrific weekend and had a safe and happy Halloween!