What can I say? This shoot has a special place in my heart! 

There's quite a lot of rule breaking happening here. I spent endless hours being taught to systematically remove colour casts, and here I am throwing them in. Well, that's the thing about rules--you know them, you acknowledge them, you give them a nod and then you do what you want. 

I am particularly fond of this one. Marita reminds me of Kirsten Dunst and it seems like the kind of pose Kirsten Dunst would do. It makes me think of that Liebovitz shoot (wait...I swear there were horses in that shoot...where are the horses?) or Melancholia (but much less serious and on a much lower budget). So if I think Marita looks like Kirsten and I always thought I resembled Marita, does that make me look like Kirsten too? No, I guess it doesn't quite work that way. 

I love the vintage look of these.
Something tells me Oma would really like them. 

There is always a lot of prep to do before shoot--technical prep like charging batteries and cleaning lenses, getting everything together. Then there is the prep that the model has to do. But then there was this whole extra step of prepping Khomille, Marita's horse. Brushing her down, trimming her whiskers (or not), cleaning off her feet, toweling her off, putting her "pretty" harness on.

Animals are always a fun challenge to shoot. They're never too sure why we are making them do things, and more often than not, have plans of their own. The best thing though, is when they do something that makes their own personality assert itself--like when a horse sticks its tongue out at you, or gives its owner a little headbutt.

It's the eyes, right M?

Congrats on graduating Marita! I'm very proud of you little cuz!

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4:24 PM

Having lots of fun in the studio lately! I shot Tamera and her 3 1/2-month-old puppy before my vacation. While he is a "puppy," Bane is a great dane/shepherd mix, which means he is already much bigger than a lot of dogs!

I'd like to redo this shot when Bane is fully grown :)

Bane's coat is stunning!

Tamera and Adam are Jays fans so they wanted a shot with some sports paraphernalia. It was tough getting him to pose with this hat because he was more interested in playing with it, but we finally managed to pull off the shot. Needless to say, I had to Photoshop all the slobber off of it!

If you thought shooting newborns was a challenge, try puppies...that are trained...sort of! Despite being a challenge, this shoot was so much FUN! I mean...who doesn't love puppies?

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2:06 PM