Rusty's Photo Session

Rusty is a handsome little dachshund who was used for breeding.  He's now been neutered and currently in a foster home hoping to find his forever home soon.

Kitty in the Marigolds

While walking past my garden I spotted one of my cats nestled among the marigolds. What a photos op! I sneaked past her & hurried into my house to grab my camera hoping she would still be there when I returned and she was!  She was such a great little model posing so nice for me. She's obviously got something in her sights. To see the before image and a short explanation of my editing process click on "Read more" below.

Camera Shy Doggies

When it comes to getting photographed dogs behave much the same as humans.  Some really "ham it up" and, well, others don't.   In fact they will do everything possible to make things difficult.  My last photo session at the Habersham Animal Shelter was particularly challenging.  I think these three got together and planned their "back to the photographer" strategy! 

Adoptable pets at the Habersham Animal Shelter in Clarkesville, GA

                                                       Beyonce

What is Custom Pet Photography?

I wanted to write a post on "What is Custom Photography?" but found this article which does a great job explaining it. Even though it's written for Professional child photographers ...it applies to pretty much all areas of professional custom portrait photography.

Custom Photography explained

HomeTown Neighbors Magazine

Just had one of my photos published on the cover of our local "Hometown Neighbors" Magazine.  I took this shot last year at the Chattahoochee Mountain Fair in Clarkesville, GA.  Just love capturing motion blur!  

Sticky Albums

What a wonderful thing to offer clients...their own personal app with photos from their photoshoot!

What are Sticky albums?? 

"It is a custom mobile website that you can create for each of your clients.

They even save offline to your clients mobile device, so they can share them with no internet connection. You use stickyalbums.com on your computer to upload your custom branding elements, your contact information and the pictures you want to include in each album. When you are done – you get a custom link that you can simply email to your clients – and they can just as easily share with their friends and family"

You can visit them here:  http://www.stickyalbums.com

Nikon Coolpix AW100

July 31, 2012  UPDATE:  Took the plunge and used this in the rain and also while snorkeling.   Worked great! Be sure to use the underwater setting when in the water.  Below is a sample image I took in Tahiti.

Suggestion...be sure to have a fully charged battery in the camera and also plenty of room on your memory card before going into the water.  You don't want to chance getting water inside the camera by having to change the battery or card while in the water.  After cleaning & drying the camera I opened the camera and there were just a couple of  itsy bitsy tiny drops of water on the ledge inside which I immediately used a cloth to soak up.  Other than that it was completely dry.

Used the video function quite a bit which worked great.  I think the "movie light" default is on.  I turned it off since it was eating up the battery.  Speaking of which...BUY SEVERAL EXTRA BATTERIES.  

Overall I'm very pleased with this little camera.  Takes nice family pics and videos, pretty easy to use and I can use it in all weather conditions.  I recommend it.

JANUARY 22, 2012

A few days ago I purchased the Nikon Coolpix AW100. I'm a Canon dslr person but I decided on this little camera because I wanted something that I could hand to a friend & say "pictures of me & my hubby" please. I'm rarely in our travel photos which is a bummer.  I also wanted a waterproof camera so I could get photos of our waverunner experience on our upcoming trip.  Anyway, the Nikon AW100 just had the features I was looking for so I strayed from my beloved Canon brand.

Features of the Nikon AW100:

    16 MP CMOS Sensor
    5x Zoom Lens - 28-140mm 35mm Equivalent
    3.0" LCD Display
    Waterproof to 33' Deep
    Shockproof for Drops Up to 5'
    Full HD 1080p Video with Stereo Sound
    GPS Data Logging and E-Compass Function
    Built-In Map Displayed on LCD
    20 Scene Modes Inc. Underwater Scene
    Action Control - Shake to Set a Function

Here's my experience/thoughts so far of this camera:1.  The lens is located top left side which I'm use to it being in the center of the camera so watch where you put your fingers.  Either there's a clear cover over the lens or it's part of the lens, I don't know.  Anyway, there's no "lens cover" in the traditional sense which I don't like. I keep the camera in a protective case to protect the lens.  Wish I could just stick it in my purse without the case.  I emailed Nikon about this & am awaiting a response.

2.  The camera feels well built.  I'm a little nervous about actually putting it in water...there's little holes here & there.  But I'll probably take the plunge.

3.  Read the manual & need to read it again.  The full manual was not provided in written form, there's a cd with it on it.  I just downloaded the manual onto my ipad. 

4.  This little bugger is almost as complicated as my dslr with all it's possible settings.  But after I worked with it for a little while it's starting to come together.  If you don't want to bother with all the settings you can just put it on easy auto mode & shoot away and get pretty good results.  Being a control freak, and being use to my dslr's I have a problem with not being able to adjust certain settings...like the flash. There's a button to change flash settings but it only works if you're in a certain shooting mode.  Unless I'm mistaken..it appears that the mode determines what the flash does.  I need to play around with this more.

5.  The gps is pretty neat.  It imprinted my location...correctly on my picture preview.  Gonna love this.

That's it for now.  I'll post more after I get some good experience with it but I think this little guy is going to do a good job.