Petraits

Looking for something to shoot, and not having had an opportunity to shoot any animals lately, I decided to take advantage of our cats love of one particular piece of furniture. As she was relaxing on it a few days ago, I set my equipment up around her and started shooting. The results were some nice pet portraits or.....Petraits!

8Count Dance and Cheer

As part of a re-branding process, the dance studio that my wife works at asked me to do some new head shots for the new website. The following is a few of the teachers and teachers assistants from 8Count Dance and Cheer.

Tania - Director/Owner Senior Jazz/Ballet/Contemporary



Cindy - Senior Tap/Jazz/Triple Threat/Musical Theatre/Ballet/Cheer Coach



Sarah - Junior to Senior Jazz/Street Dance/Hip Hop/Burlesque/Contemporary/Cheer



Bindy - Junior to Intermediate Jazz/Hip Hop - reliever



Natalia - Junior to Intermediate Jazz/Tap/Hip Hop/Ballet - reliever (Student Teacher)



Hannah - Junior to Intermediate Jazz/Ballet - reliever


Karrina - Teachers assistant

Birthday Photo Shoot

Every year, we try to do a photo shoot with Karrina right around her birthday, a little tradition we have going. We've been doing this for several years now and it's getting so easy to do photos with her. All I really have to do is tell her where I want her to stand or sit, and she does the rest. There were so many good shots from the day, this is just a sample of what we finished with.

Purple

I've joined the local camera club and each month we get together and enter photos we've taken to be judged. Each month there is a set topic that the photos must relate to and last month the topic was the color purple. Since things have been a bit slow here lately, I thought I would share my "purple" images.

This first one was a bit of an accident at the time I captured it. I was adjusting some of the settings on my camera in order to capture a different image when I accidentally pushed the shutter release. The image was nice, but a little bland straight out of the camera. An adjustment to the white balance and a boost in the contrast is really all it needed to bring out the purple and blues and make it what it is.



In search of another purple image, I noticed that some of the ducks hanging around the local pond had a purple stripe on their wings. While a shot of the entire duck might have been nice, I was after something a bit different, a little more creative.

Karrina's Test Shoot

To kick off our new look, it is only appropriate to showcase the one behind the name...my beautiful daughter, Karrina. I picked up some new gear so that I can have a little more control over the light during sessions, and did a test shoot with it last night. I'll have a bit more freedom to move around now and am very happy with the results.

Glenbrook Vintage Railway

Not far from here is the rural community of Glenbrook, home to one of this areas big tourist attractions, the Glenbrook Vintage Railway. The railway runs from Glenbrook to Waiuku and is staffed and maintained by volunteers who dress in period clothing to continue the experience of stepping back in time. I was out and about with my camera a couple of days ago when the train was running and grabbed a few shots.

Red-billed Gull

I captured this one on our recent trip down to the beach. Some photographers say that capturing a bird in flight is one of the hardest shots to get because of the speed and unpredictability of an animal that can go pretty much anywhere. It is a bit of a challenge, but it's a challenge that I thoroughly enjoy.

Moonscape

We had a really nice full moon a couple of nights ago, so I had to get a shot of it. I love all the detail that you can see, kinda makes me want to buy a telescope and adapter to connect my camera to and see what else I can capture that's out there.