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I am happy to announce that I will be embarking on a new 52 Weeks Project with a group of extremely talented pet photographers from around the world.  Every Friday, each photographer in the group will post their interpretation of the week’s selected theme and then link to another group member’s blog to create a blogring of awesome pet photography.  I’ll be linking to a different photographer each week and you can keep clicking through the blogs until you return here.

The purpose of this project is to challenge ourselves and to encourage us to take out our cameras just for fun more often.  I’ll admit that my camera gets neglected amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life, so this will force me to give it some more love.  I’m looking forward to pushing myself creatively and figuring out new ways to approach a subject.  I have done similar projects in the past and my favorite part was always brainstorming different ways to approach the theme and then seeing how those ideas evolve once I get behind the camera.

Our first theme is something I’ve always been drawn to in my photography: SHADOWS.  In order to create art from shadows, a photographer must first understand light.  I learned how to “see light” in a studio photography class and I’ve looked at everything differently since then.  That class helped me recognize not only the presence of light, but also its absence.  Focusing on shadows rather than light is a great challenge for our first week of the project.

As I brainstormed for the theme, my ideas got more and more abstract.  Shadows from a pet, shadows on a pet, Lola is my shadow, maybe there is a dog in the neighborhood named Shadow?  But ultimately, I decided to just play with light and create shadows.  Houdini kindly allowed me to shine a flashlight on him and posed just long enough for me to highlight his adorable bat ears.  Those ears are possibly my favorite part of little Houdi; they’re so expressive and so so soft.

 

The pouring rain made the outdoor shoot I had envisioned impossible, but I didn’t let that stop me.  I also didn’t let my lack of studio lighting get in the way of this project.  All I needed was a small plastic flashlight and a solid wall.  I wish someone had taken a photo of me doing this makeshift “studio” shoot–I achieved this photo by squatting on the floor, holding the flashlight at an angle between my knees, directing Houdi on my bed with a treat in my left hand, and taking the photo with my right hand!  Houdi soon became bored with me and started dozing off even though the light was shining directly on him.

Now that you’ve seen my interpretation of the Shadows theme, check out how Cynthia Wood of Georgian Bay Pet Photography in Collingwood, Ontario, used shadows for her first 52 Weeks Project photo. I met Cynthia at the New York Passport Pet Photography Workshop in August and we have been helping and supporting each other through an online network for professional pet photographers ever since.

Now it’s time to start brainstorming for the Week 2 theme!  Check back here every Friday for a new 52 Weeks Project photo and don’t forget to click through the blogring to support the other photographers!

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