Well I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised but the last couple of weeks have been very busy for us with lots of holiday sessions, review meetings with clients and then of course lots of printing and framing.  The majority of folks have been wanting holiday gifts for various friends and family so there is obviously a need to wrap everything up over the next week!

This shot was taken of the lovely Andrea who came in a couple of weeks ago with her dogs.   I really like this as it captures a very thoughtful moment as she relaxes on the sofa.  I just printed up a large photograph for her of this and then we will frame it in the next couple of days ready for the holiday.  

Ok, back to work for me!

A couple of months ago I was working covering a Microsoft event, tasked with photographing the various speakers and attendees.   The conference was Microsoft’s Women’s Conference which is typically held about every 18 months or so and brings together women from around the world that work for the large Seattle based company.  This year there was approximately 4000 attendee’s at the Seattle event with another event happen in San Jose at about the same time.  Its a large investment that runs over multiple days with heaps of speakers and impressively put together by the amazing folks that run it. 

This year one of the speakers was Dr Carol Scott.  Trained as an emergency physician Carol is also a very talented speaker on the subject of stress management in today’s corporate business world.  She works with multiple large companies and their staff advising them on ways to deal with the stress and pressure in today’s busy world, especially focused on women in the workplace.  I got to photograph Carol multiple times during the conference and although I didn’t get to hear her speak in full from the reactions from the audience during her talks and afterwards I would say that she clearly knows her stuff.  These three photographs were taken during her various sessions and then when we went outside to grab some shots. 

Yesterday one of our studio sessions had the lovely Andrea coming in.  This was the first time that she had any professional photographs made of herself and was looking to see what the experience was like.  Although a little nervous at first she soon relaxed and we had some fun working together and I think she discovered it wasn’t that scary.  One of the shots that she really wanted was one in her favorite coat that apparently she and her mother both just love. I think that it looks great on her and really suits her skin coloring.   

I was just backing up some recent photography and this shot of Lisa and Jake made me smile.   This hound is the terror of his neighborhood who will chase every cat and most dogs, he will pull Lisa’s father over when he is being walked, and as I discovered last year he also kills raccoons.  All in all he has quite the history of being a big bad boy.  

So when he came around recently I was ready for that big hound personality but I was a little surprised at first.  Lisa and I had discussed trying to do some more arty photographs and I had a simple lighting setup to see what we could get with him.  Well, as soon as the flash went off Jake darted behind his mother and basically hid his face.  We laughed it off at first, but then after the second and third flash it became obvious that he wasn’t happy at all.  Turns out he just doesn’t like flash lights.  So we removed all the backdrops and lights and used the natural light coming through the window and then went out on the terrace.  

Working with him always brings the unexpected for sure!  

the fine art photography studio blog : pets welcome