Both of my girls are back to school and that means I’m back at the easel! I’ve kicked off my week with Moggie’s portrait, working in the background and the under painting of the blue suitcase that Moggie is lying on in this portrait. This is an 8×10 oil painting on a linen panel, in case you’re wondering! I’ll be finishing this painting by the end of the week, so stay tuned for those updates.

I’ll also be working on another cat portrait, that one is a graphite drawing – as well as a few site designs and updates for clients, so I’m diving right in!

Summer is coming to an end and the kids are getting ready to go back to school. I’ve cleaned and organized the studio so that I can paint/draw and photograph more efficiently, and now it’s time for me to get back to work!

It’s always tough to work on projects through the summer months with the girls home – I would much rather soak up all that time with them – before I know it they’ll be gone all summer and I’ll have studio time year-round!

The kitty above is Moggie, I’ve drawn her portrait several times already but this one will be a full color oil painting. The sketch is done and I’m ready to work on the background color, which will be a nice creamy golden mustard to match her tabbiness (sitting in a blue suitcase, holding a blue NY Giants drink cozy). It’s going to be a really sweet portrait and I’m excited to get back to the easel!

Hope you’ve enjoyed your summer!

I’m participating in a new Photography meme again this week! You can find the Pro Photo Business Forum Weekly Challenge by clicking right here. I won last weeks fill light challenge so WAHOO! I’ll try again – especially since there’s a cool prize this week!

On to the challenge:

This week, your assignment is “Shallow Depth Of Field”. Tell a story, and make the subject of your story more clear through the use of a shallow depth of field.

I love this challenge. I am still learning the ropes with my D90 (Nikon) and I have one lens in particular, the 50mm, that always gives a fantastic depth of field, even on auto. I was tempted to use it, but I really need to stretch a bit with my technical skill so I used my default lens, the 18-105mm. I changed my settings to manual (uh-oh, here I go, off into uncharted territory – sortof kidding), including manual focus. Then I flipped my focus to single point and voila – I learned something new!

Here’s my submission, which is actually two photos, because there are two totally different feelings from each of these images.

This is our chiapoo, Copper. You can see from the first photo that he’s sitting. It’s a good looking treat and you can tell that he’d like to get his paws on it. The second shot, however, he’s begging. You can see it in his eyes. He wants that treat – pretty, pretty please?

(And I want that prize. Pretty, pretty please?)

I would like to mention that these are, indeed, two completely separate shots, I am holding the treat in my left hand, and my camera in my right. He’s a good boy, and held very, very still while I refocused! I was impressed.

Won’t you play along? Grab your camera and head on over to the Pro Photo Business Forum. :)

This week, I’m participating in a new Photography meme, a Weekly Photo Challenge hosted by my good friend and client, Aric Hoek, who runs the Pro Photo Business Forum. He’s an amazing photographer and a generous spirit. His site aims to help amateur photographers learn, improve, and effectively turn their talent into a successful business.

This first challenge is using Fill Flash. You can see the challenge here and participate if you want – there’s still time this week!

You can really increase the quality of your photography with the right amount of fill flash. Fill flash will help to resolve this problem for you. This weeks assignment; use flash to illuminate your backlit subject.

Here’s my submission for this challenge:

I had her back to the sun and, as you can tell from the blown areas of the photo, the sun was high in the sky so her face was in full shadow. I used my SB-900 flash on a tripod slightly to the right (behind me) with the diffuser and filled those shadows, giving a natural light source feeling instead of a hard flash result. I am not a fan of on camera flash and have very little experience using my SB-900 so this is really good practice for me! I’m glad Aric chose this as the first assignment and can’t wait to find out how I can improve my technical skill.

Special thanks to my awesome model (and daughter) for getting all dolled up to help me with this assignment! You rock, pretty girl!

Yes — I am still around! Has it really been more than a month since I’ve updated? Really? Oh my. I certainly need to be better about keeping you in the loop.

I’ve been immersed in a million little things, which all add up to (shamefully) neglecting my site and blog. It is a time consuming commitment, and as I delve more into photography and trying to learn more; figure out what I want to do and how I want to do it, I’ve put my site on the back burner.

Since my last update, I’ve traveled to California to shoot a wedding and visit with a lifelong friend (whom I miss terribly), and returned home to work diligently on photo selection and editing for the wedding. I have come to realize that weddings are beautiful, wonderful events that are very – very hard work for a photographer to do single-handedly. I applaud all of you wedding and event photographers out there who do it – you are amazing. Truly — I applaud you, and also – envy you. Muchly.

Of course it is also summer vacation – and working from home means I can only work so many hours a day before I must stop to spend some quality time with my girls. I’ve hosted a few family backyard BBQ’s, road-tripped to visit family, watched my niece graduate high school, photographed her graduation party, ran hither, thither and yon for appointments, waterparks and other random summer activities, and photographed a 60th wedding anniversary party. It’s been busy.

I should also mention that I did update my shop last week with some brand new nature photography that I’m making available to you in print. Please check out my new work here in my Nature Prints shop, and order up a few prints to enjoy in person!

Over the last few days, as I sit out back on the patio enjoying (yes, enjoying) the suns rays as they heat my neck and shoulders, I hear the mid-summer buzz of cicadas on the trees and realize that the summer is almost over.

Summer. Almost over.

I woke up this morning, opened the curtain and the sun was not as high as it should be. As I expect it to be. As I wish it were all year. So, here it comes – I can feel it, I can smell it – fall is on the way.

Back to school. Back to the routine.

I still have a few projects lined up – of course a website design, a custom portrait of a cat in oils, and another cat portrait in graphite. I also have myself on my schedule, and will launch an all-new site that will feature the finest of fine art and portrait photography. Stay tuned for that.

I’ll be back, soon. I will be participating in a new Photography meme, a Weekly Photo Challenge hosted by my good friend and client, Aric Hoek, who runs the Pro Photo Business Forum. He’s an amazing photographer and a generous spirit. His site aims to help amateur photographers learn, improve, and effectively turn their talent into a successful business.

I hope that these glorious summer days have kept you just as busy! Pop in and say hey; keep me from hearing crickets along with the cicadas!

Well here it is – the update you’ve been waiting for! Joey’s portrait is complete. I could not be more pleased with this piece, and I am so proud to be able to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it, as well!

This is an oil painting, completed on a 12×16 linen panel. My client will be framing the piece and gifting it, so I am excited to hear how both he and his recipient enjoy it in person. It’s traveling all the way over to the UK over the next week, God willing it will arrive with time to spare.

Enjoy.

Here’s the 6th day progress shot on Joey’s portrait – I’ve made it down to his eye, detailing his mane over his forehead, and I’m in the beginning stages of detailing the muscle and veins throughout his face. Many, many fine brushstrokes make up his coat, so it is taking a bit longer than anticipated but it is still coming along on schedule.

I’ll be painting into the night tonight, so I’ll have still another update (or two) on his portrait for you over the next few days!

Thanks for checking in!

Another progress shot for you on Joey’s portrait. I’m working from the top down, now. Yesterday I completed his neck, ears and the top half of his white patch, so now today I can go back and paint the remainder of his mane over the top on his forehead.

I’ll keep working down his face today and if all goes well, get a nice long session in so that I can finish up this portrait in time for it to dry, varnish, scan and ship by Friday.

I’ll post another progress shot tomorrow so be sure to check back!