Tips on photographing that black dog …
Our jet black cattle-dog mix, Charlotte, is known for her enthusiasm when it comes to playing ball.  Her all time favorite place to play catch is Ferry Beach in Scarborough, Maine.  Today, however, I thought it might be nice to take her somewhere new and also somewhere that might be better suited for photography under a mid-day sun.  Anytime you photograph a black dog (or a black cat, for that matter ) things will get hard for your camera to properly meter the scene and your results won’t be what you were hoping for.  There are ways around this using flash and reflectors (another topic) but I prefer to use filtered natural light (i.e. trees, etc.) to block the sun and to provid

*Buy Once ~ Give twice* – 2010 Animal Refuge League Calendars now available for purchase!
Please consider supporting Portland’s local shelter this holiday season. Buy Once ~ Give twice – for every calendar purchased the ARL also receives a few dollars (100% of the proceeds after the cost of making the calendar) and will support them and their efforts. Click here to purchase the cat calendar and here for the dog calendar.

Animal Refuge League of Portland 2010 Calendars!
I’m close to putting the finishing touches on a 2010 calendar to benefit the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland.  There will actually be two calendars available, one for dog folks and another for the cat people out there.  I came up with the idea after looking over all of the images I have amassed over the last 3 or 4 months photographing regularly for the Animal Refuge League.  It seemed like the timing was good and I thought it might be a good fundraiser for the shelter as well as a way for me to get some of my work out there in print.  A few years ago this may not have been such an easy or simple proposition, but given the rapid proliferation of web based applications

Kittens at the Animal Refuge League
While photographing a dog who lived outside of the general population at the shelter (and who made it’s home with the office staff ) I ran across some kittens whom I could not resist grabbing a few shots of.  Kittens typically don’t get photographed at the shelter, mainly because they get adopted so quickly anyways and are always in high demand.  At any rate, it was fun for me to have some new material to work with and I forgot how playful these little creatures can be.  This little guy was playing in a box on the office floor.

Fashion Show at the Colony Resort, Kennebunkport
I made a quick trip to the Colony Resort in Kennebunkport yesterday on behalf of the Animal Welfare Society to photograph the “Fashion Show” portion of the hotel’s “Annual Dog Lover’s Weekend” event.  The Colony is a huge, grand hotel right on the ocean and of course is dog-friendly.  I wish I had spent the entire day there and gotten to know the people and their dogs better but I was only there briefly.  The dog below is a therapy dog, extremely sweet (as they all were).  Check out the gallery on my website to see more.