Before and After

Happy 2019!  It's another New Year. Before we know it, it will be summer.  I can't wait for that!

I have done a lot of preparatory work for another banner year of photography.  I took some classes between Christmas and New Years Day, ordered some new props and backdrops for the studio and built a platform for photographing larger dogs.

This year I have a number of goals on my agenda, which I will cover at some point during the blog cycles.  Suffice it to say, it's going to be a great year, if I can stick to my guns and get it all under my belt.

One of the reasons I love photography, is that if you study and practice your art form, you can tell a good story, and save an image that might not otherwise look saveable.  The post processing (edit) tricks used by individual photographers are often a matter of taste.

To illustrate, I've used a somewhat lack-luster image of our dog Lilah, intently watching birds and squirrels at our bird feeders after our one and only snow event so far this winter.

This unedited, raw image was taken with a quick grab of the camera (which for once was actually nearby) to capture the intensity of Lilah's gaze in her usual hang-over-the-couch position.  I didn't have time to fool with settings, and, luckily, they were close enough to what I needed so that the image was not in total darkness.  The problem with shooting a subject in front of a window is the light.  Window light will not do an adequate job of lighting the side of the dog that isn't in that light.  You can see here how Lilah's features are darkened on her right side.  Plus, there are too many "extras" in this photo's story.  It needs to be edited (cropped) down, to focus more on the subject.

The great thing about shooting in Raw is all of the valuable data that accompanies a photo is attached to that photo, and can be recovered.  Above is the final version of the image, which really does highlight the subject (Lilah) and her intense gaze on the world outside.  She loves snow, and birds, and squirrels.  All three together are like a "you've got to be kidding me!!!!" doggy smorgasbord.

I am so happy to have caught her in this very Lilah look, and in one of our everyday life happenings.

I enjoy taking my time with every client photo to seek out the real story, and make beautiful afters of all the befores!

For more BEFORE and AFTER, a blog circle of photographers is waiting for you to just click on the links at the bottom of each page and travel around to see their take on this week's theme.  We have some new additions this year and I am looking forward to reading their blogs and welcoming them to the circle.  To begin, start with Kim of  BARKography, photographing dogs in Charlotte NC and other cities across the US and Canada.

I hope AFTER your weekend is over, you will be able to say you accomplished everything you wanted to do BEFORE it began!