Somewhere along my blog life, leading lines was the theme of one of the weeks.  I remember using Moe and our yard glider swing.  I thought I would use Moe again to keep things on an even sort of keel, but this time take him to a spot that I have been wanting to take one of our dogs to for quite a while.

Leading lines is just one of the ways photographers help to lead your eye to a subject.  Some others are: using a brightness gradient (our eye is naturally led to the bright spot of a photo); use a wide angle lens to exaggerate lines and lead the eye to the spot you want it to go; use blur (keeping the important items in focus); or use a combination of a few of these techniques together.

Before we get to the Moe image, let me share this image.

I happened to be at the barn on Thursday, with only my cell phone (no camera) and saw this little one snoozing in the late day sun coming in through her window.

This is by no means a technically correct photo, but I like it.  I could not pass up the shadows, the wall lines and her cuteness.  Here, by using leading lines and light, I am drawing you to her.  I probably would have never been lucky enough to see this had I had my camera and all the proper lighting with me.

On Wednesday I dragged my husband and Moe to the location where I knew I would be able to incorporate leading lines into a photo.  It's a foot bridge not to far from where we live.  It runs over a creek.

If you remember from past blogs, Moe is a generally easy going guy who pretty much sits where you put him and lifts his ears when he hears the word "treat."

It was around 7:00 p.m. and Moe was happy that this car ride did not take him to the vet (a place he has been ending up lately for various reasons).


Unfortunately, I was wrong about that cooperation streak.  On Wednesday, Moe only wanted to eat grass and definitely keep moving.  This was a new spot for him, and he wanted to explore.  So, we had to wait him out and let him decide on his own when he would cooperate.

Finally, I was able to capture a few shots that I really like.  I only edited one for this blog, but will get back to them as time permits.  You can see there are many lines leading you to Moe.  Normally, we might want the dog in the middle, but the big tree in the background would have been coming out of Moe's head, and that's a no-no for me, so I opted for him to stand to one side. 

Go out and look for the lines that naturally lead your eye to something.  These are the lines I see everyday, making note of where I need to return with a client or a dog.

It's time to lead you to the blog line to see what other photographers have done with this week's theme.  Start with Kim Hollis of BARKography based in Charlotte NC, then work your way around the circle.  Have a GREAT weekend and a wonderful/safe 4th of July!

We were left to interpret this week's theme in whatever way we wanted.  I decided to approach SOFT in three different ways.  Lilah was my helper.

First interpretation:  Soft Focus

Although this is not one of Lilah's stellar expressions, the photo came out exactly the way I pictured it in my head.  With the sky and light reflecting off the studio doors, I went back to using a prime lens (50mm f/1.4), completely opening the aperture, but being sure to capture the focus on her eyes and nose.  The photo has a dreamy quality about it, and a softness to the background. 

Second interpretation: Soft accent or prop.

Remember the old photos of female Hollywood stars in head scarves?  Katherine Hepburn came to mind when I pulled this soft scarf off a back shelf of my closet.  Lilah hates to have anything on her head, but she didn't seem to mind the light scarf.  I don't think Katherine Hepburn would have her tongue hanging out and halfway down her neck, but that's definitely Lilah.  I changed the background color of the steps here to keep everything in the same tonal family.  Same lens, but increased the aperture for a wider focus area, still wanting the background to not be clear.

Third interpretation:  Soft (and favorite) toy.

Lilah has had Mr.Hedgehog since she was a little puppy. We have kept him alive by frequent surgeries, limiting play to only Lilah, and sending him to the hospital when things start to turn ugly.  Right now you can see his little paw has some stuffing peeking out of it.  Lilah loves this toy, and takes it to her "safe spot" in the yard to just lay with it.  I knew I would be able to get a great Lilah expression with Mr. Hedgehog helping the cause.

And there you have it...soft, soft, and soft.  For more softness, the blog circle is waiting.  Start this week with Susannah Maynard of Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area.  Then float around the rest of the links to catch more interpretations of this week's theme.  Lilah says: Have a great weekend! (Okay, well she really said WOOF WOOF WOOF, but I am her official interpreter!)

I promise this will be short and sweet. 

There is a difference between backlighting and background lighting.  In the first, your subject is between your light source and the camera, so the light is typically behind them.  But it doesn't necessarily ONLY have to be behind them.  In the middle of day it can be above them, especially if it's the hot sun.

Background lighting, on the other hand, simply means you've lit your background, so the source is likely pointing at your background.  Background lighting is most often used in studio.  Photographers often use gels to add color to a background light.

This week I have a few photos with different takes on backlighting.

This is one of my most favorite ways to take advantage of nice backlight:  sun going down at the end of the day.  You will notice that Billie is not directly in front of that light,  If she were, her face would be even darker than it is.  She is difficult to photograph because of her facial features, with the dark and light areas.  By using an off camera flash, I could have illuminated her face even more, but I liked the subdued look of her face in this photo.  I like the quiet and calm that is depicted in this story.  Finally, the trees in the background are acting like a filter for the light.  If they weren't there, I might have a sunflare across my lens, since the light would be shining right into it.

As you will see, the photo below has a much different look.

My second photo is taken during the harsh light time frame of mid day.  Lilah is reacting to one of her playmates and is thinking about joining them.  The sun is above and behind her, creating the shadow you see and lighting up her wispy hairdo.  There is light spill over, which helps to illuminate a portion of her face on the dark side. I turned this photo black and white because in the color version the eye is drawn to all the green around her and you lose sight of the lighting, as well as Lilah. A very typical Lilah expression and reaction, I think the shadows on her face help to tell this story.

I am sure there will be quite a variety of backlighting techniques in the blog circle today, so take a run through and see how others approached this week's topic.  Start with BARKography by Kim Hollis in Charlotte NC, and follow the links at the end of each blog until you are back here where you started.  Happy Father's Day to all fur and skin kid Dads out there!  I hope you all have a nice and relaxing Sunday!

I did quite a bit of reading this week on movement, and I am not sure all of my questions were answered.  So let me start by giving us a baseline.

THIS IS NOT MOVEMENT.

I am pretty sure Moe was a sloth in another life.  Yes, it is ironic that his shirt says "Burning Up Tracks."

Now that we have our baseline, let's proceed.

If we are going to seek out movement in its purest form, doesn't that mean we cannot "stop" the motion?  Or is it the IDEA of movement that we are trying to convey when we take a photo of a subject in motion?  Should we be setting our camera shutter speed so low that it captures the 27 different gymnastics a dog will perform when leaping for a ball?  Or is it better to pick one of those 27 movements and capture it?  See what I mean about my questions?

I read and read and read and read. What I finally think I discovered is, it's really up to you how you want to convey movement.  If we want to touch the "idea" of movement, we can do that with a stationary subject if something around them is moving.  The easiest way to showcase this is with water.

This pup looks like he is standing still, but he is really swimming slowly and drinking water at the same time.  (I am pretty sure I could not do these two things at once.)  The ripples around him can create the "idea" of movement.  On the other hand, the photo below of the same pup on the same day, is pure movement.  Motion blur and all.

You can also convey the idea of movement by the activity being performed at the time of the picture being taken.  For instance, below our dog, Burton, is trotting across the yard with the ball in his mouth.  I have stopped the action, but the activity still suggests movement.

Whatever your take on "movement" have fun with it.  Don't be afraid of motion blur.  I just spent two days looking at wonderful photographs of moving subjects where only a few elements were in focus.  I think most of these photos were telling a true story.  Experiment with moving targets until you find the story you like.

For more interpretations of this week's theme, check out the blog circle, starting with Sandra McCarthy Photography of NH.  Enjoy your Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

Some days you get something in your head and think "WOW!  WHAT A GREAT IDEA!"  But sometimes that idea is not so easy to pull off.  So goes my journey this week.  I have only ONE photo, but it was a labor of love, sparked from that tiny flicker of an idea.  Here is my story.

Green.  That's what I see.  That's the color.  Day, night, up, down, right, left.  Green.  I could not bring myself to take another photo in a sea of green.  So I started thinking of places that might be colorful on rainy days, since it now always rains here.

I remembered a spot with plenty of graffiti, but with the rain and undergrowth we are experiencing, you have to walk in from a road, and I didn't want to subject both myself and Billie (the chosen dog for this week's colorful event) to tick infestations. 

Then I remembered the colorful and beautiful murals of Pittston, Pennsylvania.  I knew there was a new mural that had been dedicated in 2015, and believe it or not, even though I live within 40 minutes of Pittston, I had never seen the mural, but I read about it.  (You can too, if you click here.)

The mural was painted by artist Michael Pilato, and honors local heroes and town folk who helped make Pittston what it is today.

I packed Billie in the car and we hit a part of a day that gave us a small window between the raindrops.  We found the New Rose building, the site of the mural, fairly easily.  The mural faced a parking lot, and, unfortunately, there were some cars parked up against some of the areas.  I settled on an area of the mural that I thought Billie would fit right in and began to take some test shots.

It is quite a colorful mural.  I only wish the parking was not so close to it, as it mars the chances for photographers to capture the mural in all its glory.  Billie was very cooperative and stayed right where I put her.  She is such a colorful character, it's one of the other reasons I chose her this week, plus I needed a dog that would stand out against a mural background.  The final image is below.

The hardest task of my photo this week, was working Billie into it so that she looks like a part of the mural instead of just a dog sitting in front of a mural.  What do you think?  Did I accomplish that?

I think I need to contact Mr. Pilato and tell him this mural does need a scruffy dog in it and I've found the perfect spot and the best model. 

For more colorful images, the blog circle is waiting.  Start with Susannah Maynard of Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area. I hope you have a fun weekend with some colorful characters of your own!