Happy Thanksgiving!  This week finds me elbow deep in holiday prep. Thursday, coincidentally, was also our dog, Lilah's birthday.  She turned five.  As part of her small celebration, I took her to the studio and we did a few photos.  Along with some cute images that very much reminded me of her puppyhood, I grabbed this bird's eye view of her cake.

For this photo, I simply stood on a little stool so that I was placed above the cake on the small table.  This angle is used for many birthday cake images, because it allows you to read and see the design on the cake.  A side angle, would only allow you to see the layers, as in the photo below, which is taken at an angle level with Lilah, who was unsure of the cake from the get go.  When she is unsure, she either gives you a "setter lip" or she lays down.

Eventually she figured out it was edible, and we shared it with all of her doggy family.

I decided to review some of my past photographs to see how often I used bird's eye view.  Not too often.  I did, however, find one of my favorite photos using this technique.  The puppy in the leaves is one of my most favorite images.

In this case, the eyes reflect what is directly above the subject, which is the sky.

Visit this week's blog circle to see more examples of bird's eye view.  Start with SamAdele Pet & Equine Photography covering the Lancaster and Morecambe areas, UK. It seems appropriate to be talking about birds on Thanksgiving Day.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend.

I had to really beat the bushes in my archives to find some photos with water to fulfill this week's theme.  That alone tells me I do not take enough images in, around, or near water.  And I like water, so there is no excuse, except that I don't usually find myself in watery places with clients.

I love the ocean and I love to swim, but we never take our dogs with us on vacation when we go to the beach.  Maybe I should start looking for a spot that is dog friendly?

Although we are not on the coast, we have plenty of lakes in our area, and parks with bodies of water, so I really need to step up my water game.  Right now, in the middle of typical November weather, water is the furthest thing from my mind.  Frozen water will be coming into play soon, so maybe an iced-over pond is in my future.

In the meantime, I found the photo below, which I took during an event I attended that had an exhibition of retrievers in training.

Speaking of vacations, I miss mine.  I want to go back.  Today.

I stayed on a nice lake in the Rehoboth Beach area, and my back patio overlooked a canal.  There were many types of water fowl, huge carp which you could see swimming like the Loch Ness monster in the evening, and even a fox.  It was quiet and restful.

Every evening a duck family would feed on the bank of the canal, just off my patio.  Momma duck was always vigilant, and her ducklings would romp all over eating bugs and grass.

I captured these few photos of them over the course of two late days.  Momma duck kept her eye on me.  She wasn't too sure about the safety of her kiddos in my presence.

I hadn't even edited these photos, but I'm thankful I found them for this week.  The canal was a bit murky, but none of the inhabitants seemed to mind.  Duckling fuzziness is adorable, and they never stop moving.

There is always life to be found around the water's edge. 

To find more good things in and around water, check out the blog circle, starting here with Susannah Maynard of Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area.  Have a great weekend!

Northeastern Pennsylvania is noted for the vivid leaf colors that prevail in the Fall, with the peak color change usually occurring somewhere in the first two weeks of October.  This year was the most inconsistent Fall color palette I can remember seeing.  Depending on where you are located, you either have vibrant color, or you don't.  I am in the don't category.

It's not too far fetched to think that once you hear "bold color" you might think "primary colors."  (You know, red, green, yellow, blue, etc.)  But I realized that saturation has quite a bit to do with what we see as bold, and that you don't need a plethora of different colors to make a statement.

So I decided to take a somewhat different perspective this week, and use a photo of a pup from an event I attended that held a Halloween contest (after all, Halloween was just this past Tuesday), and a Lisa Blevins background to illustrate that boldness can happen even if the palette is similar.

I set to work on placing the pup on the background, bringing up midtones, increasing saturation levels on various colors, and hand painting/brightening selected areas.  The result is below.

What do you think?  I love this pup's facial expression.

You should also know that there are in camera settings that will allow you to take more vivid photos.  I am a Nikon user, so to access these settings I have to go to my camera MENU, then scroll to the camera icon, click over to Set Picture Control, and choose VI for vivid colors.  I looked up the comparable Canon basics and for those of you who are Canon users, you would press MENU, then scroll through to Picture Style.  You will have 6 default picture styles, and 3 User Defined.  Select a style, then press the INFO button.  You can up the saturation level from that point.

I'm sure you will find more bold color in the blog circle this week.  Start with SamAdele Pet & Equine Photography covering the Lancaster and Morecambe areas, United Kingdom.  Be sure to notice and enjoy all the bold color in your life this weekend!