This week I am running a Facebook campaign to update some studio samples and to refine my customer experience. I’m offering 5 lucky small dogs (and their humans) from the Greater Geelong region a free, yup, entirely free dog photography photo session. No booking fee! I’m also throwing in a free 5x7” matted fine art print as a thank you. Chosen customers will also have the chance to view some of my current product samples and put the cost of the print towards a bigger print. What do you need to do to participate? As long as you are from the Greater Geelong region, jump on to the Facebook Landing Page of my site and complete the questionnaire. I’ll use this information to whittle down to the 5 lucky pups. Offer runs until Wednesday the 14th of August 2019. Best of luck!
Sometimes, our pets become overly excited by the commotion of setting up the studio backdrop and lights. It can be hard for some of them to settle back down and for those we need to resort to having them on lead to establish better control. In those rare instances it just means some extra work in Photoshop. Here’s a quick video showing the process of removing a lead in Photoshop. This is a quick demo to show the process, the final retouching of this image isn’t included in the demo. This is where we would fine touch some of the details to remove any notice of a lead having ever been there. It takes some time and skill but it can be done. That’s why you should ensure that when you choose your pet photographer, they have the skills to be able to carry out these steps with finesse. Done incorrectly, it can cause disastrous results when it comes to a final printed product because it really does show every blemish in a professional print lab.
It’s that time of year again! My entries are nearly ready for the Pet and Animal category for the APPA Awards, but it hasn’t been easy. Stress, pressure, lack of sleep, indecision, edits, re-edits, final edits, prints, re-prints, panic about the matt selection, panic about the lack of time left for shipping! Argh!
I was well prepared for the Victorian VPPY awards this year. Images were selected well beforehand. The images were sent of to the regional print critique. Feedback was obtained in plenty of time and adjustments were made. I think I had my prints sent in with 2 weeks to spare. Fast forward to the APPA awards and it has been the opposite experience! I have only just sent the prints off to be mounted today at Torquay Print and Framing. They should be ready to send off on Friday, with the entry deadline the following Thursday. Hopefully that leaves Australia Post some time to deliver to Sydney.
It has been difficult finding a really good framer who treats the art work with real care in Geelong. The Cotton Rag paper choice makes for a beautiful image, but the print is delicate. A slight brush with a wayward finger can leave marks. I’ve had prints mounted at various places in Geelong and not always with success, however I think I may have found a winner with Brian Chappell at Torquay Print and Framing. The standard of his work is exceptional and he was fully aware of how delicate these prints are. Hopefully his fine work helps elevate some of my images to that next level. Time will tell…
Blown away to discover that I finished as one of three finalists for Emerging Photographer of the Year at the recent Epson Victorian VPPY Awards. I watched the live judging of my three images that were entered into the Pet and Animal Category and was blown away to receive three silver awards but to add to that I found my name listed as a finalist for Emerging Photographer of the year on the AIPP website!
You can view the judges comments to my three images here.
German Wirehaired Pointer: https://youtu.be/bwrQT_-rUJ0?t=17102
Big thank you to Matthew at Bells Fine Art Printing in Geelong. The print quality is sensational. If any fellow artists are looking for a best in the market fine art printer, check out https://bellsfineart.com.au/. If you want to see your four legged mate on an award winning print, check out the Experience page to see what it involves and drop me a message. I’d love to hear from you.
Photoshop is such a powerful tool. Anything you can imagine can come to life with some studio lights and some fine editing skills. I had an idea for a comedic self portrait based upon a famous Scottish Painting of the poet Robert Burns. Armed with a spare hour, I set to work. Orientating the lights to match the original painting. Getting the model to pose appropriately was a challenge. I cut the head/face region from my image and pasted into the oil painting, masked a few edges, matched the tones, added some paint texture to match the existing cracked oil paint and voila. A friend described it as the love child of Mr Bean and Blackadder. It got heaps of laughs so it served its purpose.
Fancy seeing something similar with your furry friend? Check out the Experience page and find out what is involved. It’s sure to be a lot of fun!
