Kayla's Boys

My friend Kayla, a groomer, has been wanting me to photograph her poodle DaVinci literally for years and we just never really got around to it.  Last year she got a second poodle, Roman, and this Saturday, I went over and we took pictures.  While Kayla was finishing getting ready, I wanted to photograph DaVinci - he's a really cool dog and loves me, so figured that he would listen to me enough to get a couple good shots before Kayla finished her makeup and trimming Roman.

What I instead learned was that DaVinci HATES getting his picture taken.  We're pretty sure the flash of my Alien Bees reminds him of lightning.  This is one of the only shots I managed to get of him before Kayla came downstairs - he was half hiding behind the wall.  I felt so bad, poor puppy!!

Roman, the more skittish dog who doesn't like being touched, was all for it.  He sat nicely and posed and moved his head different angles and basically completely shocked me and Kayla.  We had been expected the opposite of what the boys gave us.

Kayla was in some of the photos as well.  DaVinci hid underneath the stool she was sitting on, so she decided to sit on the floor with them.  Her puppies love her!!

I took this last shot afterwards using only the window light and imagine Roman to be saying "It's ok, it's all over now!"  From this shoot I learned that while I do love pet photography, you have to be prepared for the animals to behave out of character and that it might take more time and effort than expected.  I'm just glad DaVinci still loves me!!

Seniors 2011 - Kayla

On Saturday I had my first senior portrait session of the summer.  Kayla's actually graduating this year (2011) not next, but she needed senior portraits done, so I was glad to help!  She's a cool kid who likes zombies and is going to go to school to be a chef.  Because Kayla's so awesome and she and her mom were so prompt in coming to review the photos from our session, I let her pick which would go on the blog.  So here ya go, Kayla!  Facebook away!

Her cat, Tigger, is huge compared to my two little kitties.  I swear he was almost as big as Kayla and it was pretty adorable.  This shot is the only one like it and everyone (everyone being Kayla, her mom and myself) thinks it just awesome.

We also did some chef portraits in the studio.  Kayla and I were getting along pretty well because we seem to have a similar sense of humor and she ended up "executing" a stuffed cow she brought along to the shoot and then serving him up on a giant spatula.  So horrible, yet so very funny.

After all that ridiculousness, we went to the park for some outdoor shots.  What we didn't realize was that there was a Relay for Life benefit or some such thing going on, so decided against our original plan of bringing her fake gravestone and zombie head along with us.  It might have scared the hundreds of people who aren't normally there.  So instead we did some pretty normal shots, as well as a few variations on an idea she had gotten from a book cover.

I LOVE the tree/leaf idea; it turned out so well.  You did great, Kayla.