Project 52: Antique or Vintage

These are the instructions for this week:
I am a collector of antique dog memorabilia and I especially love old dog themed cabinet cards and photos, so I thought it would be fun this week to do images with an antique or vintage feel...either try an overlay or texture, old props or backdrop, anything to create an old fashioned image! Have fun with it!

This is Bear, a 3 month old ferret. He is a darling wiggly little beast, and his colouring works very well with the antique tones.

Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Karen Ramos (Spotty Nose Pet Photography, Los Angeles, California), by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.

Project 52: Style

"This week's theme is style. Fun, fashion, or photog-style - you decide for this week's challenge! Here are some ideas . . .
a) What photography style are you?
b) Your dog's sense of style or fashion!
c) Any other style you can think of! Have fun!"

I have to say, the idea of dressing up the dogs appealed to me, but in the end I ran out of time. (Everyone heaves a sigh of relief...) This is my favourite style - simple portraits, preferably in black & white.

Here are two of Rivet, one serious, and one smiling:

And one of Caiman, getting older by the second:

And, finally, a silly kid shot just for fun:

Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Melbourne Pet Photographer, by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.

Project 52: Low Angle

" For this week's challenge the images you capture need to be taken from a low angle - ideally lower than eye level on the dog. Let's capture those scrunchy chins and droopy faces by getting as low as we can! Don't be afraid to get dirty!"

This fit in perfectly with a shot I've been thinking about for a while now. I've seen a number of whimsical fantasy photos that have inspired a number of ideas along these lines.

This was definitely a collaboration with my child. I needed her help in getting the right photo of the dog (Rivet was very enthusiastic, too enthusiastic, and I wasn't able to get her looking the way I wanted without her pretty much crawling into my lap) and she had her own ideas for how she should look in the photo. I had imagined her crouching, but she wanted to be standing, so we shot both and in the end we both liked this one best. We had fun!

And then, a day or so later, I decided that I needed to use another of the poses that she gave me. For this one I used an older photo of Caiman, and in some ways I think I like it better. Her body language is much more along the lines of my original idea, and the simpleness of the setting allows for an older feel to the processing.

Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Blue Amrich Studio in Boston, MA, by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.

Project 52: Over Post Processing

This week the theme is Over Post Processing:
"Many of us strive to make our photos look natural, but for this week, I'd like to you to do the opposite, and go crazy with the post processing. A photo that is pretty obviously edited. Think creative, stylistic or artistic."

This is a processing method I like to do sometimes, and when I do I often add elements into the background. In this case I liked the negative space so I have not done that. Obviously I did a fair amount of work on this but his eyes really are that colour. Striking, aren't they?!

Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Stacey Gammon Pet Photography, New Jersey, by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.

Project 52: Body Parts ~ Pet Photography

We had fairly basic instructions this week:
"This week theme will be Various Body Parts of your pets, for example, pricked ears, innocent or big round eyes, curly or flurry tails and etc. Have fun!"

"Have fun" she said, and fun we had.

And, just for (more) fun, here are some ferret toes. Ferret toes and little girl hands, which aren't really as dirty as they look.

Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Kelly Coyle (Sweet Silver Photography, Nashville, Tennessee), by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.

Project 52 - Negative Space

This week the theme for P52 is Negative Space. I use a lot of negative space in my photography, so this was a relatively easy week for me. Caiman and I went out into our back yard yesterday and just hung around for a while.



In this next photo Caiman proves that you are never too old to play with a stuffed hedgehog, especially if it has pink toes and squeaks loudly when stepped on. I was experimenting with the processing in this one and the colours ended up differently than my norm, but I think I like them like this.



And, finally, a shot taken yesterday that was not specifically for this post. It fits the theme though! These three were part of a much larger flock of geese, and I like the rhythm to the way they are turning their heads.


Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Melbourne Pet Photographer, by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.

P52 - Blur

This week the theme for P52 is Blur.
"As pet photographers, two of the most important things we strive for is sharp focus of our subjects and overall clarity of the image. Therefore we sometimes forget that blur can be beautiful. Blur adds expression and artistry to our images. So let's experiment with blur this week! Whether in the foreground, in the background or all throughout image, let's unfocus ourselves from sharpness."

It seemed to me to be a good time to experiment with the Brenizer Method, which uses multiple images stitched together in Photoshop to simulate a wider aperture than the camera lens actually has. In other words, it allows for more blur in the image than would usually occur. There was a learning curve for me - this was not my first attempt - but I ironed out the worst of the problems. This isn't something I expect to use often but I am glad that I tried it out.


Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers, starting with Barking Lab Studio, NJ dog photography, by following the links at the bottom of our posts.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.