Ryleigh and Me

I got up earlier than usual for me this morning and decided to attempt to take some pictures of our puppy. He is 5 1/2 months old and is a black lab mix. He weighs over 34 pounds now from the 4.7 pound little guy he was when we got him. He's certifiably NUTS! He's got more energy than I ever thought a puppy could have but then again, I've not had a dog from newborn puppy age before. He acts a lot like that dog Marley on the movie Marley and me and though sometimes he drives us a little nuts, he is a super fun family pet. I'm so glad we got him.

Now since you know that he's NUTS & energetic you can probably guess that it's quite a challenge to take photos of him. The only way I was able to do it was to give him a toy that he could chew on. He's still teething so he loves to chew on toys. I just pulled up a chair and started snapping shots.

This one I snapped just before I realized he wasn't just chewing on it but he was pulling the stuffing out! When I got up to get it from him, he thought I wanted to play his favorite game which is Keep Away....from the humans! He runs in circles around the dining, kitchen and living area divider wall while we chase him and try to sneak up on him. After a couple of rounds, I was able to sneak up on him in the opposite direction and get it back from him.

 

He is also a complete goof ball because he throws himself on the floor as if the toy is taking him down...even if it's small enough to fit in his mouth!  :-)

 

I was so happy when I saw this one because for 5 1/2 months I have been trying to get a picture that showed his face and eyes really good.  He has beautiful "Lab" eyes and this one is definitely going to get printed and framed.  I think he is an especially photogenic dog.

 

 

This is another one that I'm super pleased with too.  This totally captures his sweet, playful and loving nature.

 

 

Here are a couple of him just playing while I snap away.  :o)

 

 

 

He also loves tug of war.  And for a dog that has the most gentle bite I have ever seen in a dog when he is taking treats and such from us, he sure can grip onto to things when playing this game.  This is my favorite shot out of the entire set.  Man is he a beautiful boy!?!?  Of course I'm partial to him over any other person's dog too.  :-)

 

 

This one was just a fun Photoshopped one.  Since he's so energetic and fast when he runs, I thought that it might be neat to use the zoom motion blur filter around him so it would look like he was pulling whoever was holding the toy out to him across the room.  Though I don't like to do too much faking up of pictures in Photoshop, I thought this was turned out cute and is quite a fun shot.

 

 

So even though it took me five months to get some good pictures of our sweet boy, it was sure worth the wait in these.  I love them.  As always, your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

I had the wonderful opportunity for a family session a couple of weeks ago and so far have over 35 photos to offer. This is a co-worker who is a single mom of three wild and rambunctious boys (as if there are any other kind). She's a GREAT mom and her boys are such awesome kids! They were willing to do anything and everything....and even offered their own ideas and suggestions.  It took us nearly five hours to finish but I felt great when I left. I'm so glad she asked me to take these photos. It had been a while since I did a family session anyway so it was about time.

This pose I have done in the past but did with seven kids.  Needless to say, it was easier to do with three more self controlled young men and their mom then seven young squirmy children. 



This was one of the ideas I had when I was going through my closet looking for props the night before. I had a bunch of frames that weren't being used so I removed the glass and backings and took them with me.



Since she is a single mom and I had "been there and done that", I suggested a couple of fun ones of the boys goofing off and the mom about down to her last nerve. These are the two I got from this idea.







I believe she really liked the following picture. I had two fusses with it and that would be the shoulders being blown out and the tennis shoes. I wish I had asked them to take them off before but we were just starting so I consider this warming up. We did ultimately have them all take them off after this one.



I asked the mom to have her boys each bring one or two "props" or things that they enjoy to use in some of the pictures. I assumed by the props that the oldest loves to read, the middle loves to play drums and the youngest loves a particular bear that he's had for a long time and is part of the family. I would have loved to have had more time to photograph each one of them in various ways individually with their props but we ran out of time....after five hours.



The following is one example of their willingness to do whatever I asked of them. What a AWESOME family! I thoroughly enjoyed myself.



This is the "YMCA" pose...this was one of the boys ideas. When I was talking to the mom at work the other day she said, "we should have spelled out HALL"...DUH! That's their last name. I said the A and the L would have been easy enough but how in the world would you have done the H? She was like "I don't know...." and we both just laughed!



The whole point of this session was to get some "family" shots for her to give as Christmas gifts.

These are two of my favorites even though I was a little leary of them having their shirts off at first with all the rules and laws about minors in photos. One of the boys had suggested it and the mom didn't seem to be fazed one bit so I went with it and am pleased with the result too. I mean...we WERE at the beach right? I know the water is way blown out but this was taken in the middle of the day so I wasn't going to have correctly exposed water and people. I chose to keep my "people" correctly exposed.





I think we got plenty for her to chose from and additionally a lot of fun ones of the boys individually and together (maybe I'll post those later) for her to have for fun memories.

Thanks for looking. As always C&C is welcome.