I think we may have walked this texture path before, but the topic is always a good one, and I thought I would approach it a little differently than I did the last time we crossed paths.

I am mostly concerned with the various textures that make up a dog or cat.  While texture places emphasis on detail and light in a composition, beauty is still in the eye of the beholder.  That means that the role of texture in the photograph will be a matter of taste.

Texture can be present in the coat of a dog, the environment around the dog, or can be a texture overlay on a digital photo.

I had a great time photographing dogs and their people at the annual DeCoverly Kennels English Setter picnic last weekend, so I thought I would use a few photos from the day to illustrate.  I am still working on the photo album to share with attendees.

In the photo above, the backdrop is an entire field of goldenrod.  In this case, I wanted to focus on the textures found in the main subject, this lovely Setter.  By opening up my aperture, I blurred the goldenrod, which would be texture overload, and pull the eye away from my subject.  Now you can better see the textures in the face, ear, chest and coat of the Setter. 

The backdrop looks almost like a texture overlay, but it isn't.  It was a very hot, sunny day, so the light leak you see is due to the trees we all tried to gravitate to in order to stay cool.  I love the expression on this dog's face, and the little spindle of drool, so common in Setters.

In the next photo you can really see that the textures in the face of this tri-colored Setter are well defined.  Once again, I have blurred the background by using a more open aperture to concentrate more on the facial expression and texture of the dog's coat.

And finally, I used a smaller aperture, and a better ambient light situation, to bring out the texture detail in the entire body of the Setter below.  Once again the background is somewhat blurred, but not as extensively as in the photos above.

Sometimes it's a difficult call, between the surrounding environment and the texture of a dog subject, to decide how much detail (and resulting texture) you will show.  This is where I think personal taste comes into play.  Some scenes lend themselves to full texture detail, but I have to admit, I rarely use that practice.  Normally, I tend to blur the background (whether a lot of blur, or only a little) to allow the viewer to focus in on the textures of a subject's coat and expression.

To see more interpretations of the texture theme, start here with Sam Adele Pet & Equine Photography covering the Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham areas.  Then travel around the blog circle until you find yourself right back here where you started. 

We are heading into Fall.  I am looking forward to a cooler weekend and soon-to-be colorful leaves.  Have a great one!

The hardest part of this week's task was choosing which of our most expressive animals I would use to showcase the theme.  Even looking at the blog banner on this web page, you can see Moe (on the left) and Danny (on the right) have eyes that tell a tale (no pun intended).

But, I still think Lilah, our English Setter, has the best eye lingo.

Lilah has very feminine eyes.  They are lined with eye liner.  As a puppy, those eyes could melt steel.  They still can, but we have learned to avert our gaze so as not to give in as readily. 

I can tell when our dogs are happy, or fearful, or unsure, or excited, just by looking at their eyes.  In the photo above, Lilah is fairly relaxed, but thinking about the treat I have in my hand.  I am sure she is wondering when she will get it. Below, she is worried she might not get it.  I know this because of her "setter lip" which means "I am worried," and by the expression in her eyes.

This past week I spent some time marveling at the difference between dog and cat eye expressions.  When cats aren't actually SLEEPING and you can see their eyes, they always look a little cynical.  Sort of like "I bet there really isn't any food in my bowl," or "you said you would buy canned cat food, but that crunchy stuff is still there." 

It's that half-lid thing that really kills me.  Our cat Harry is an expert at cynicism and half-lidded eyes, but he was unavailable (I am sure he had a date with a chipmunk),  So I took Barney into the studio for the first time to see what he might share in cat eye wisdom.

Cats immediately focus in on their target.  This is why not much gets past them.

As you can see, Barney is the first to the food bowl and the last to leave.  But, if he still had to catch his own food (he came to us as a stray, so I'm sure at one point he was out there hunting regularly) he would have no problem at all.  Just look at that concentration.

The eyes of our pets have a lot to say.

And Barney is saying:  "Are we done here?"

Well, no, not quite.  This is a blog circle and there are plenty more "eyes" to see.  So start here with Linda of VP Shoots Photography serving the Tampa Bay, Florida area.  Then look for the next link at the end of Linda's blog to move forward.  I hope your weekend is full of fun!

I have to admit, up until about a day and a half ago, I had no idea how I was going to approach this week's theme.  I thought about actually going out and shooting at night, but we live in the land of rain, which seems to come at night, so that idea was crossed out.  I thought about setting up a very dark shoot in the studio, but didn't feel that was what I wanted either.  I was about to hit my "be in a funk" button, when I attended a lecture on fantasy imagery at my local photo club meeting. Sometimes you need inspiration, and I remembered I had some stock images, plus some past shots of my own that remained unedited, and suddenly the creative juices started flowing again. (Thank goodness!)

So here is how I interpreted this week's theme, and put the wheels in motion for a night time fantasy photo.

A number of blogs back, I had taken Billie to a local park that has a beautiful boardwalk-like pathway.  If you remember that raise your hand. (If not, just look to the right.)

While I was there I took some extra photos that were both under and overexposed.  Some were test photos, and others were on purpose.

I found about three unedited photos where Billie was looking for chipmunks while sitting on this path, and had just the expression I was looking for in the picture in my head.  I pulled my choice into Photoshop Elements to work some digital magic and turn it into night.

I needed a moon, so searching stock photos I have been saving up, I found the one below. It had to be a moon that was small and peeking through trees.  Who knows what I was thinking when I originally saved this stock photo, but apparently it was a wise choice.  Both of the photos (above and below) are much larger, but I've resized them here.

I searched the web and found some firefly overlays.  I looked for a free one, but ended up purchasing a little group of them, at relatively low cost, on Etsy.  I thought they might be nice to have around as well. 

Overlays are pretty easy to use and you can get many different effects by changing the blending mode in Photoshop until you find the right "feel" for the image.

There were a number of other things I did as well.  I used this step-by-step approach in creating the image.

(1) Edit the over all image of Billie on the path by using levels, hue, saturation and brightness on the environment around her to darken the areas that were too bright. (I masked her off in some of this editing work.)
(2) Burn additional images areas that needed selective darkening.
(3) Add the moon as a layer, revealing the original trees and blending the addition into the image.
(4) Use a Moonbeam action to simulate moonlight.
(5) Add the firefly overlay.
(6) Cue the fog.

And Voila!

So, what do you think? 

I think Billie is the perfect color for night time photos, real or imagined.

Have a great end of the week and enjoy your weekend. For more Night interpretations, the blog circle is waiting.  Start with Darlene Dykas Woodward of Pant the Town Pet Photography serving Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Sometimes very detailed scenes can be overwhelming.  It can get confusing on exactly what to photograph, and what story to tell.  What should you concentrate on in a specific scene?  Have you included enough detail to tell a story about where you are and what is happening?

A shallow depth of field can be one answer to help separate the key point of your photo.  It will separate the subject from the background.  Here is a photo taken at a pet event to illustrate.

This was a bright, sunny (and very hot) day.  I wanted to show that it was an event, the chocolate lab was with its owner, and enjoying what was happening around him.  By using a shallow depth of field I was able to bring focus to the dog/owner relationship, yet leave in the details necessary for the story.

Lifestyle photography often makes us decide how best to showcase subjects and what they are doing.  We want to be sure that some of the details we allow into the scene, pinpoint the real time activities.  Here is an example of two happy dogs enjoying an evening by the water with their owner.  I don't believe the owner even knew I snapped this photo.

Along the lines of a shallow depth of field, another option might be to get in close enough to capture the finer details of the story. Some people use macro photography to do just that, getting in really close to the subject, which is in striking detail, but muting out or blurring the background. 

I am not going to show you a macro photography example this week.  I will, however, show you the facial expression of one small dog, named Luke, hoping someone will play with him and his favorite ball.  I got in a little closer to Luke in this image and used that shallow depth of field to focus only on his expression and the coveted yellow Kong ball.

And that is my interpretation of the theme this week.  I can't wait to see what others in the blog circle did in terms of details.  So I'm starting here with Kim Hollis of  BARKography in Charlotte NC.  Follow me.  I promise I won't lose you!

P.S.  Have a great weekend free of rain, and say a little prayer for all those either trying to have a normal life again after a devastating hurricane, or those about to be hit by one.  My heart goes out to everyone affected.

 I'm baaackkk.....and posting in real time this week.  It's really hard to end a vacation, but I am back into the swing of things here and looking to do some finishing touches to the Studio to get it ready for Christmas and holiday card season!

In the meantime, this week's theme is STREET.  I had hoped to have some time to wander and approach random people with dogs on real streets in the small towns surrounding our area.  Instead, with no time to spare, I drafted my husband and the very good dog, Billie, to help me out.

There is a lovely little burg named Dalton which is only a stone's throw from where we live.  There are some older buildings there, but I was interested in the iron fencing along the path over the creek.  I had spotted it the other day when I was trying to think up "the new plan" for STREET this week.  It was the first place we stopped.

We were and were not expecting showers, if you catch my drift.  The weather folks weren't sure and neither was the sky.  There is a golden glow in this photo which is very much the lighting of the moment.  Hazy sun on one side at 6:00 p.m. and clouds on the other.  Billie was happy to look through the rails into the water.  I'm not sure what she saw down there, but it caught her attention for some time.  She rarely gets a photo with "Dad" and she still hasn't, in this case, as only his feet and legs are in this photo.

But wait a minute...

There's Dad!  In a classic black and white street photo, this view shows a little more of Dalton.  The bench is right in front of the post office.  Billie is thinking she'd rather be at the park.

I did some research on street photography a while back and found that many many photos are in black and white.  My theory is there can be quite a few distractions in this type of work, and with all the colors that came through in this particular photo, it screamed to be converted to black and white to bring your eye more to the subjects in the forefront.  So this is a classic conversion, where I only changed the contrast and brightness a little bit.

For our final STREET photo, Billie and Dad look like two hitch hikers, waiting for a ride, or the bus.  They are standing in front of what used to be a bank, but is now more a gathering spot, and Billie is doing a very good heel and sit.  Thank you Billie for your cooperation this week.  Thank you weather folks, for being wrong about that rain.  And, thank you Dad for being a good sport.  Moe was very unhappy not to be selected for this trip, so my Friday night is going to include him in a nice car ride and walk.  I hope your Friday night is fantastic!  Happy Labor Day weekend!

For more things that go bump in the STREET (or is that the night?)...start the blog circle with Susannah Maynard of Pet Love Photography, author of "Rescue Dogs: Portraits and Stories," serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area.  Then watch for other links to continue reading through the entire circle until you find yourself back here again.  Enjoy!