I have been going through my archives again this weekend and came across these images of a repeat client's kitties: Sugar Ray, Ali and Floyd. (yes, they are all named after boxers)












We are overdue for the boys' annual photo shoot, and have been playing email tag since December, so I am posting these images here to put out some good 'call me' energy to their mom. I'm ready Ronnie! Call me! :-)

I haven't photographed these gorgeous guys since I got my Canon. They have a really incredible house, with steel walls and lots of black and white. The most unusual architecture I have ever seen in a house. To say I can't wait to get back in there with my Canon would be an understatement. We can *finally* capture those action shots in the bedroom their mom has so long desired. Whoopee!

So Ronnie if you are reading this (I know she's not, she is verrry busy- busier than me even!), call me and let's get you scheduled! I can't wait to see the boys.

Also, you probably noted that these images look pretty different from what I normally do.

That's because I finally decided to see what all of the fuss was about Photoshop action-wise. In late December I paid for some pro actions, and piddled around with them the last few months. It wasn't until this weekend that I finally got around to really trying them.

The actions I bought are from Michelle Black and Nichole Van.

I bought 'Perfect Enhance' from Michelle Black and 'Complete Workflow' from Nichole Van.

I tried out every action from both gals' sets on just about every different type of photo I could think of (all dogs and cats of course, cause well, that's pretty much all I have).

I played around with layer opacities, and deleted layers, and layered new layers on top of old layers. I did all kinds of stuff as I normally do when trying something new. I combined the actions with my already pretty good pre-existing knowledge of Photoshop.

My conclusion?

Although the actions themselves are very cool, and very impressive, and clearly took a vast knowledge of photoshop to create, they don't really work for my purposes or give me the look that I am going for, which is in a word: realistic (the action fans would probably say 'boring').

I'm still a big fan of getting the shot right in-camera, and although it's not always easy with pet photography, the challenge is part of the fun.

I do, however, like the 'evenout' action in Michelle Black's set, and overall like hers the most, but all I really want to do with my images is tweak the contrast a little, and lighten them when they are too dark.

Having said that, I discovered that these black cats look truly amazing with Michelle Black's 'dramatic' action. It produces really cool, slightly desaturated moody images. And I also think some of the actions might be fun to play with for my Decopaw art process. Oooh, I could waste a lot of time there, oh no. Maybe next year.

These shots are all from my prosumer Fuji camera, and I just applied the action to the unedited files, then flattened layers and saved as-is. No messing around with layer opacities or anything fancy. Just click play, flatten, resize, save.

I totally dig the way Sugar Ray, Ali and Floyd look with the 'dramatic' action (I tried them on other cats and wasn't nearly as pleased; I think it's because these boys are black), so I'll keep them for my own personal file.

Whether or not the boys' mom Ronnie likes them remains to be seen. Maybe if she sees this post she can tell me. Ronnie, where art thou?! :-)

Labels: ali, cat photos, floyd, moody cats, seattle cat photography, seattle kitty photography, sugar ray

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I received an email last week from my online gallery host touting a new slideshow feature and didn't think much of it, considering there always had been a slideshow feature.

I finally had the chance to check it out today and this new one is different, better, and oh so cool.

All clients need to do when they get into their private gallery is click on the little 'slideshow' box in the upper right side of the screen, at which point they will be instantly transported to a beautiful full-screen flash slideshow of their images.

Go check it out with Astro's gallery.

P.S. Give it a minute to load. You can change the speed in the lower left corner, or you can click on the arrows on the sides of the screen to manually go through the slideshow if you are impatient like me.

Enjoy!

Labels: client perks, private galleries, slideshow

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Boy, the weather during this shoot was quite a bit different than it was today. Snowing in Seattle at the moment! Isn't this supposed to be spring? Luckily we are back to warmer sunny weather by Monday. Darn, this means I'll need to reschedule my shoot for tomorrow. Hmpf...

Fergie at upper Kinnear Park, her new favorite playground. This session was an experiment. I played around with the settings on my camera: saturation, contrast, color balance, metering modes, etc. Not super crazy about the colors but some of the shots are kind of interesting. A different look for me for sure. Don't think I'll continue it...

But she sure is cute, isn't she?







My favorite of the bunch.




"Hey! How'd those daisies get on my ball?!"


This one was massively photoshopped. In a client's case it would have been a delete but since it's my own daughter-dog I had to keep it. She makes me laugh.










Once again my apologies for the sparse posts. I promise I will provide some updates on what has been keeping me so busy soon!

Labels: fergie, kinnear park, queen anne dog photography

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Dozer's mom Angie emailed me after they brought their art piece home from the CityDog Magazine art show thanking me for the art and letting me know that they were waiting to finish remodeling before they could hang it.

Well yesterday she sent me an email saying that the triptych is up and in it's permanent home, yay! She sent this awesome photo below of Dozer with his new art.

How cute is Dozer sleeping in front of his colorful likeness? Don't you just want to curl up next to him and cuddle?























Darling Dozer dozing on the davenport.

If you are a client that has commissioned art or photography from me, snap a photo of your art or photography hanging on your wall(s) (doesn't have to be a great pic!) and I'll post it on my blog. I love receiving photos and emails from past clients; especially from their furkids.

Here is an email I received from my buddy Cooper back in 2005:

Dear Jamie.

Sorry it has taken me so long to write you. What with my cousin's HS
graduation, 4 days of daycare last week and just plain ol' stuff, I've been
busy and or tired!

Wanted to let you know Mom & Dad put my pictures up on the wall and boy do I
look great!!!!! If I may say so myself. They must think so too since they
took down a Homer Winslow print for my pictures.

Thank you again for all your work and talents. Hope your gallery showing
well. And hope you got lots more customers at Lucky Dog today. It sure was a
nice day. But I wouldn't know since I slept most of the day.

WWFN! (woof woof for now)

The Coop-man

Labels: client photos, dog art, dozer decopaw art, seattle dogs

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Here are a few pics from my first shoot of the spring, done today on Queen Anne. A sneak-peek for Ella's mom.

So happy spring is here!!

Ella mystery mutt. A dream to photograph.



I know everyone is probably sick of my blue sky shots but I just can't get enough of them, especially with light-colored dogs. How cute is she?


LOVE her pink nose.


And yes, she really is as soft as she looks.


Tonight is the birthday dinner with the family. It will be nice to have a relaxing night out. I have been working almost 80 hour weeks! And still behind on like, everything... :-P

That will change very soon! More on that next week. :-)

Labels: ella, sky shots, spring shoots

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Here is a sneak-peek at last Sunday's Beautiful Beasties event images.

Bully the pug. Check out his little tongue bubble.


Bully was so fun. I love happy dogs.


Zap. A little live-wire.


L-R: Dutch, Bully & Zap. Bully got squished out of the middle just after this shot.




Dutch has the most handsome coloring.


Bully, lightened to show off the teeth. Ah, the teeth! hee hee hee




Like I said before, I could just build an outdoor bedroom and live there next to that purple wall it is so gorgeous. How awesome do Dutch and Zap look in front of it?




I just want to squish Bully he is so cute.


A first for me in 8 years of shooting dogs: one shot; two tongues; over the nose.




This is the front (street) side of EMP. The bronze is also very pretty, and looks great with warm-toned dogs. I also like it with Zap here.


This one is dedicated to Emmitt of Pug Notes fame!


These keesies had the most amazing fur. Their mom actually knits with the 'leftovers'. I believe it.






Hey- who put that alpaca in there?!


Wait, that's not an alpaca! It's Dutch!! (In Bully's stroller, hee hee whoo hoo). Poor guy was a very good sport for us stupid humans who were laughing hysterically at him. He got lots of looks at the Seattle Center during those 2 minutes of fame.


My apologies for the sparse posts lately! I have more balls in the air than a circus clown at the moment. I have been so busy that I have even missed my very favorite show, Lost, for the past 3 WEEKS!! I don't think I've missed an episode in two seasons. I will just have to watch them online at some point. Don't tell me what happens- my mom says "it's getting reeeely good Jamie!".

Tonight I am going to lay on the couch and relax and eat a super yummy chocolate-covered caramel apple that the delightful Bev Sparks gave me. Yum, yum.

Labels: beautiful beasties event, bully, dutch, goofy running pug dog, keeshonds, laughing dog photos, seattle center dog photography, tongue shots, winter dog shoots, zap

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While I have been busy with other things, I have also been designing art for several clients that are nearing completion.

Puccini's mom ordered the first, red, black and white proof of Puccini. I have the canvas and just need to stretch it.

Dozer's triptych is done, and went on display at the art show in Pioneer Square, then went home with his mom, Astro's proofs are done and his mom just picked her favorite, Lulu's proofs are done and we'll be finalizing her art this weekend, and Lucy's proofs I just finished a couple of days ago.

Enjoy!

Puccini's mom's final pick. See the original proofs here.


Dozer's final triptych, printed on a huge 20"x52" canvas- that's over 4 feet wide.


My favorite proof of Dozer.


One of Lulu's simple design proofs.


One of Lucy's complex design proofs. I love her coloring.


Astro's mom final pick. The bright colors go with his bright, sunny personality, as seen here.


One of my favorite proofs. It's really different, but I kind of like it.


My favorite of Astro.

Labels: 2008 modern dog art wall calendar, astro, decopaw design, dozer decopaw art, Lulu, puccini, seattle dog artist

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A fake interview between me and, well, a fake person:

FP: "So it's your birthday today, eh? March 13th?"

Me: "Yep"

FP: "What year were you born?"

Me: "1972"

FP: "So that makes you like- 36?"

Me: "I think so, I'm not very good at math. The last few years it's been getting harder to remember how old I am. The last time someone asked I had to check my driver's license".

FP: "Do you feel 36?"

Me: "I'm not really sure what 36 is supposed to feel like but most days I feel like I'm going on 14. Or 22. I think I'm like one of these dogs who has a long extended adolescent period. Like a labrador maybe."

FP: "So what are you doing on your birthday?"

Me: "Working a little, playing a little, doing laundry (so sad). Will be joining friends later for dinner"

FP: "Where are you going to dinner?"

Me: "Do I have to tell you?"

FP: "yes"

Me: "Ok, this is kind of embarrasing, but I chose for us to go to Red Robin on the Seattle Waterfront. Normally every year I go to my very favorite restaurant (Bizarro) for my birthday but this year I am having a rare craving for a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake. I also wanted to go to a place that had a full bar, and Red Robin is the only place in Seattle that fit the bill. I wish there was a cool place in Seattle that was like a 50's-style diner that served all of the old fountain drinks, but with yummy alcohol mixed in, and possibly live music. Like a nice diner for adults. That would be so cool. But for now Red Robin will have to do. It's a testament to my friends that I talked them out of Tamarind Tree and into Red Robin. Now that's a true friend, lol"

FP: "Are you bringing pepto to dinner?"

Me: "No, but I have some at home for tomorrow".

FP: "What do you really want for your birthday? What is on your list?"

Me: "You know, my family asked for a list and it took me a good 3 hours to come up with anything. I thought about it and realized that I already have everything I need. I'm pretty happy actually. I don't have a fancy house, or a fancy car, or fancy clothes, but those things don't bring me happiness. My true happiness comes in experiences. Experiences with people #1, experiences with animals #2, learning experiences, new experiences, good experiences, bad experiences..... ok, maybe not so much the latter. When I die I won't remember how great my cars were that I owned, or how much I loved that Pottery Barn sofa, I will remember my friendships and the time I took that unplanned roadtrip to Eugene and the time I took my first hike with my dog. Ya know?"

FP: "So you don't want anything?"

Me: "Actually, I'd like a goat: worldvision. "

Me: "Oh geez, now you are going to make me cry. I can't go to the Worldvision website without tearing up."

FP: "Would a couple of chickens do?"

Me: "Absolutely!"

FP: "If you had one birthday wish, and money were no object, what would you wish for?"

Me: "A complete and final end to animal cruelty in the entire world. Starting now. Oh yeah, and for everyone to adopt their pets."

Me: "Oh man, now you made me cry again. I can't go to Petfinder without crying"

FP: "So how do you feel about dogs in birthday hats?"

Me: "ummm....."

FP: "Do you think dogs should have a license to get married?"

Me: .....silence....

FP: "What about dying your dogs hair?"

Me: ".........where do you get these questions....?"

FP: "What about buying fancy diamond necklaces for your dog?"

Me: ".... you're weird."

FP: "You're weird too."

Me: "I know (said matter of factly)....... I mean, how many people would answer questions posed by a fake person?"

FP: "Good point."

Me: "Gotta go- phone is ringing!"

FP: "Thanks for the interview! Happy Birthday!"

Me: "Thanks! You too!"

And yes folks, I AM weird. Weird and proud. :-)

Labels: fake person, happy birthday, weird and proud

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I was going through my archives earlier for a client whose dog I photographed in 2005, and stumbled on these shots of Sydney and Peanut. I have so many shots on my hard drive and on disks and often times after the first time I look at them after a shoot I never look at them again. These made me laugh out loud so I wanted to share them with my lovely blog audience, hoping they will make YOU laugh too.

FYI: these girls are owned by Jennifer Blankers, owner of the fabulous Lucky Dog Outfitters store in Tacoma (3411 6th Ave # B). If you are ever in Tacoma you have to stop by- they have the Northwest's best selection of, well, everything.

And are Jen's girls cute or what?

Labels: lucky dog outfitters, peanut, sydney, tacoma pet photography

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Speaking of the Seattle Center....

I have been so busy that the next Beautiful Beasties dog photography event just crept up on me.

It's THIS Sunday, March 16th, at the Seattle Center, starts at 1pm.

I still have space open for 4 dogs, so if you (or a friend/colleague/lover) are interested, check out the events page on the Beautiful Beasties website here.

Then contact me asap to register!

Labels: beautiful beasties event, cowbelly events, emp photography, seattle center dog photography

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These shots were for a recent magazine shoot to be announced later this month. It was a last-minute decision to head over to the Seattle Center and take some snaps and boy were we glad we did. It was sooo pretty that day. As you can see, Fergie did great as my model, and we had some really cool backdrops to work with. The purple EMP shots are some of my new favorites. If Fergie's personality were a color it would be purple.



















Pet photography in Seattle can be just as good in March as in July. :-)

Labels: elliot bay sunset, fergie, seattle center dog photography, seattle dog photographer, seattle pet photography, winter dog shoots

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I have been wanting to post these shots for weeks, but alas, I've been busy.

These 4 kitties and 1 pup were photographed by yours-truly in their home in Redmond on one wet day in February. As I know I have mentioned before on this blog, I truly love shooting cats.

Being surrounded by feline energy is so calming, and within about 10 minutes of being in the house, I was laying on my belly on the living room floor, snapping away with my Canon, my blood pressure down about 10 points. And just like every other kitty shoot, I wanted to stay there all day with them and nap on the floor in front of the fire.

And then there was Mannfred the pooch. Well, just look at his face. Do I really need to say anything about him? If you know anything about me you know I fell in love with the darling boy. Mannfred is super-duper uber sweet. Gentle, shy, loving boy. He's rad.

Hazel, all about play- just like Fergie. They'd get along great.


mmm, catnip.


Sapphire. She has amazing eyes.




Hazel & Mannfred, both getting in on the action.


Sasquatch. Her feet are like furry slippers.


Hazel (front), Sasquatch (back). This shot was processed like crazy because it was so dark, but I wanted to post it because it cracks me up. Check out Hazel's 'pillow belly'.


Do you see Sasquatch's furry slipper feet?






I pulled out my catnip bubbles from my bag of tricks but mostly the kitties just stared at them, then jumped away in disgust when one would land on their nose.


Mannfred (left), P-Nut (right). The two boys of the house.




Is P-Nut handsome or what? His parents told me that if he were a movie star, living or dead, he'd be Marlon Brando.


Poor Mannfred was very afraid of the camera (seems to be going around lately) and this was the first point in the shoot where he started to trust me. I must have made some noise to get the head tilt. Gawd he's cute.


One of P-Nut's favorite things to do is drink water out of the sink. I wasn't convinced I'd get this shot, but my Canon did great handheld in the bathroom without a flash. I had to do some color balancing but I'm happy with it. Yipee!


Ah, I love this shot of P-Nut. Not only is he a handsome boy, but his personality is as cool as his looks. Like a 1920's movie star. Love P-Nut.


Hazel, more playtime.


Poor P-Nut. It sucks to be embarrassed like that. But the humans thought it was hilarious. I still laugh when I see it.


Mannfred's corgi impression.


Mannfred's little kid impression.


I dig this shot with the fence and gate. Plus you can see his little swirly-butt, which is a fave among dog owners.


More shots in the woods. The green moss looked fantastic with Mannfred's brindle fur.






Mannfred completely figured out what was expected of him during the photo shoot. Not only did he get over his fear of the camera, but he started busting out moves like this Burt Reynolds pose. A total pro.






Hope you enjoyed the pics of Mannfred, Hazel, P-Nut, Sasquatch and Sapphire!

More images to come soon.

Labels: bubbles, hazel, mannfred, moss, p-nut, redmond dog photography, sapphire, sasquatch, seattle cat photography

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It would be totally fair to say that the CityDog Magazine art show this Thursday, titled 'Gone to the Dogs' was a rousing success on every level.

The space was filled with beautiful photography, incredible art and more than 350 people and their four-legged companions. Everywhere you turned you saw smiles, both human and canine alike.

At one point I walked outside to take some pictures and I overheard a gal say to her friends (all of whom were canine-less) "Wow, there are A LOT of dogs in there", to which I waited for something bad to follow, and then she said "That's SO cool!".

Here are some of the pics I snapped.

The space late the night before the show.


The famous Bev Sparks work.


The talented Emily Reiman.


My Decopaw art, minus my artists bio which went up in the blank space on the wall right before the show. The canvas on the table was a backup for a big triptych that was going home with a client.


Jennifer Sellers, of "Barnyard Animals and Other Men I Know" infamy.


Shai Steiner of 'Animals in Primary' on the left; Nichole Smith of Dane & Dane on the right.


More of Shai Steiner's bright and whimsical paintings. Shai was the first artist I ever did a joint show with in May of 2004.


Amy Soper of Dane & Dane photography photographing my little buddy Dozer. Dozer has now done one Feature shoot with me, a 14x16 Decopaw art piece, and as of this week, a huge 20x52 triptych canvas- the biggest I've ever stretched. His super sweet and wonderful mom Angie is one of my best clients. I can't wait to see Amy's shots of Darling Dozer. She is a super talented dog photographer.


Jenn Flynn's darling black and white dog photos. She gifted the CityDog Magazine editor Brandie Ahlgren with the cutie-patootie Boston Terrier print at the end of the night as a thank you. Needless to say Brandie was thrilled.


More of Jenn Flynn's beautiful work.


Bev Sparks in front of her display talking to a woman in the night's most fabulous coat. Not including Nicole Ryan's (owner of Mes Amis) standout grass green peacoat.


Doggies making introductions.


More doggies making introductions.


This event was THE place to see and be seen if you were a dog.


Humans and canines having a great time.


The view down from the mezzanine level. That's my table there in the lower right. The people at the table are looking through a new studio sample custom photobook I recently added to my product line. The book is nothing short of stunning and was a huge hit at the event. I will post more photos of it here soon.


The view from the outside. The place was lit up with white Christmas lights, and Kathleen Eads of CityDog Magazine found these beautiful white silk flowers to place around the lights. It was so pretty in there.


For more images of the event see my online gallery here.

At the end of the night after all of the humans and their furry roommates left, we locked the doors and popped the champagne and all of the artists and photographers sat around eating cake and talking about how much fun it was. Actually, we only spent a few minutes talking about the night's event, as we had already moved on to planning for future CityDog Social Club events. There were some amazing ideas passed around and given the connections that this group of people has, CityDog Magazine can do anything it sets it's mind to! The rumor has it that the next one will be this summer.

I want to extend a sincere thanks to Brandie Ahlgren for giving me the opportunity to participate in the show, to Kathleen Eads for her unrelenting hard work, suggestions, brainstorming, communication and support to everyone (and for having the idea in the first place!!!), to Bev for loving Fergie so much during setup and bringing that tasty cake, to Nichole for listening to my Oscar week story, and also for not punching me in the face for asking her for her quote asap, (and to Brandie for the same), to Emily for sharing the hilarious youtube clip with me, and wearing such a knockout dress, to Angie for bringing and introducing me to Fatsa (the offer still stands to babysit!), to Shai for being the super sweet person you are and helping keep lookout for our surprise for Brandie, to Jenn for her super generous gift for Brandie and for waiting for her to finish her agonizingly long conversation, to my dad for his sincere compliments on my book and for letting me borrow his Lumix point-and-shoot, to Alan at Glazer's who showed up to support me, to all of my clients who came out for the event and gave me the opportunity to see your pups again, to Noreen Lara who passed on the message to say hi, to the security guys for staying half the night to get the door situation worked out, to the guy who drove over from Issaquah at 1am with the key, and to my precious pup for being so patient with me in getting home. Whew!

Now I'm exhausted but I can't wait for the next event! :-)

Labels: citydog art show in pioneer square, citydog magazine gallery show, seattle's best pet photographers and dog artists

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If you live in Western Washington, be sure to tune in to Evening Magazine tonight (Wednesday) on KING5 at 7pm!

They will be doing a sneak-peek of the CityDog Magazine Art Show tomorrow night.

You might even see yours-truly AND Fergie in the spot, as we were filmed being 'art show attendees' and pretended we were admiring the art displays, which, ahem, wasn't very hard to do- there is some amazing work in there!

So set your alarm, make sure your dinner is ready, and don't blink or get up to use the bathroom because it will be a super short (30-second?) spot and easy to miss. It will probably come on before a commercial break so be forewarned!

Yippee- Evening Magazine. :-)

Labels: citydog art show in pioneer square, citydog magazine gallery show, evening magazine, fergie, press

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Do you feel sorry for me? No? Well, I do. Why? Because I had to go and vote for myself on the 2008 Blogger's Choice Awards website. 1 vote, from me, for best photography blog. Pretty pathetic, eh?

Not that I'm the only blog who has a mere uno vote; in fact there seem to be hundreds of pages of photography blogs with 1 or zero votes. (So sad!)

I'd love to see that little number under 'total votes' change to something like, say, 6 or 7, or 23, or even 49.

Now, I know that I stand about a .00000002139 % chance of coming anywhere near the Pioneer Woman's rank, but at least I can try to go from page 27 to page 12. or 7.

Do you love this blog? Can't live without it? No? Uhhh, do you have time on your hands you need to waste? Feel sorry for me? Don't have anything better to do? Yes? No? Well which one is it darnit? Oh just go vote!

Go vote for the Cowbelly Dog Blog here:

http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/36345



THANK YOU!

Labels: best photography blog, blogger's choice awards, cowbelly dog blog

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