Welcome, Lucy!

I had not set up my home studio in quite a while, but in February I was suddenly had a very good reason to do so: we got a new puppy! Her name is Lucy, she's an English Springer Spaniel, and we got her at 8 weeks old. I took these photos the following weekend, when she was 9 weeks old.

I wasn't sure how well she would do, but I think I caught her at a good time - she was pretty chill for most of the photo shoot, and fairly pliable with being posed. She even gave me an excuse to use a fun springtime backdrop that I have.

Deer at Sunset | Nature Photographer

A couple of weeks ago, I had a client not show for a shoot. It was such a beautiful night and location that I was briefly disappointed that I wouldn't have anyone to photograph...until these beauties showed up! I didn't even edit them, as I didn't think it was necessary.

Lincoln Park Zoo | Animal Photographer

In November 2015, I took a trip through the midwest for work, finishing in Chicago. I had the chance to spend a couple of hours walking around the Lincoln Park Zoo, which I had heard wonderful things about. While it wasn't the top zoo I have ever been to, it was definitely a good one! I think part of it was the weather - it was such a beautiful cold, clear day.

St. Louis Zoo | Animal Photographer

I absolutely adore taking photos of animals. So when I spent two days at the St. Louis Zoo for work, I could not pass up the opportunity to explore the zoo and capture the animals there. It was difficult to weed out my favorite animal photos here, and not post too many of the elephants, sea lions, and penguins (all of which I took many photos of!), but I did my best.

 I was so excited to find out that they have a red panda, as those are my absolute favorite zoo animals!

Sheep | Animal Photographer

There's a spot on Route 15 north of Leesburg that I drive past fairly often. There's a beautiful farm, and hillside that is always covered in sheep and goats. I kept telling myself that I would stop and take photos there at some point, but over the past few years I keep failing to do so. Well, a couple of weeks ago I finally did, and despite the less than perfect lighting, and cloudy skies, I am happy with how these came out (including a little pop with editing in Lightroom)

Even with shooting from at least 20 yards away (using my 85mm lens), I still attracted a little bit of attention. I was hoping a couple would come closer to me, but unfortunately none did. It was still fun to observe and capture them from a distance!

Boston Museum of Science: Butterflies | Nature Photographer

Over the weekend I visited the Boston Museum of Science with my family. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip there, and I took quite a few photos and videos. One of the highlights for me was our visit to the indoor butterfly garden. My daughter and I had a wonderful time there, watching the butterflies all around us!

Getting "The Shot"

Sometimes, the shot that  you set out to get isn't the shot that you end up with...but the one you get ends up being so much better than anything you ever could have planned!

Tonight I headed out to our pond to take some photos of the geese for a 30 day photo challenge (the theme today was "Animals"). The light was fading quickly, and unfortunately the location of the geese just wasn't thrilling me. The photos I shot were ok

Disney's Animal Kingdom | Nature Photographer

We began our day in Disney's Animal Kingdom by going on the Kilmanjaro Safari. Disney is home to a 110 acre wildlife preserve, where the animals are completely self-sustaining (they are not fed each day by the employees, unlike at a zoo). There are over 34 species of animals that live there, and according to our guide we were able to see just about all of them! We were very fortunate that the animals were all up and about so early in the morning. Here are my favorite shots of the morning.

State Arboretum of Virginia | Nature Photography

On Saturday I did a photo shoot at a new location: the State Arboretum of Virginia. The shoot went really well, partially because of the amazing location. The setting was stunning, and on my way out I encountered these beauties who were good enough to pose for me!

Puppy love

During a newborn photo shoot at a good friend's house last weekend, I captured these photos of my daughter with their dog. The light coming through this window was stunning, and the two of them together were just so sweet.

 

So many photo opportunities!

As I do only rarely on here, tonight I'm blogging about photography, but not showing any new photos (well, maybe one. We will see how the post goes as I write it!). After a bit of a slump through the winter, where I was really only photographing the things that I wanted to (and trying to find some topics to get through the cold days), things have really picked up!

Over the past month I've done a family shoot for my neighbors down the street; here are my favorites from the shoot, on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.726735814016459.1073741849.509299119093464&type=3

Shot some professional headshots in my home studio for a friend from college. This shoot also included photos of his adorable 2 month old daughter, which was new for me but I'm very happy with how they came out! I'm almost done with them (I just shot them on Sunday), so will have them to share here soon.

And then just this week I took a few hundred additional photographs for different reasons; none of these were paid, but were things that I'm not used to shooting very often so it was nice to stretch my creative juices. This includes:
- shooting an approximately 4' tall Lego castle made by my boss's daughter (I'll explain that in more detail when I show the photos)
- more professional headshots of all of my coworkers, as we need to update them in our system

Today I wrapped up my week of shooting with a special outing with the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) Photoclub. I joined the club a couple of months ago, but had yet to be able to attend any events. Two days ago I received an email about a special opportunity just for Photoclub members: a sneak peek at the lion cubs, before they are revealed to the public tomorrow! I had thought about taking the day off of work anyway, as I had some other personal things to do today, so this was the perfect reason to actually take the day. I am so glad I did - it was amazing to get to photograph these adorable cubs with only about 20 other people. It did make me realize the sheer amount of gear that true wildlife photographers had - my 75-300mm camera, with basic tripod, was vastly insufficient compared to theirs! Despite that, I am happy with my pics and can't wait to share them. I would post one now, but we're actually not allowed to put them up publicly before their reveal tomorrow. Next week, I promise! Instead, I leave you with daddy, who was in the enclosure with them (but was brought out prior to them, so he could get used to it first). He's gorgeous!

Foxfield Races 2014

Last weekend we attended the annual Foxfield Races in Charlottesville, VA. In addition to the many photos of my friends and the kids who attended, I did get a few shots of the beautiful horses as they ran.

North Carolina Aquarium

Last month we went to the NC Aquarium in Manteo, NC. We've been there previously, but I didn't have a camera at the time that could capture good interior photos in this environment. Now that I do, capturing these animals was a lot of fun!

San Diego Zoo

In November 2013 I went to San Diego for a conference. I took one additional day there, after the conference was over, to spend at the San Diego Zoo, as I had repeatedly heard it is one of the top zoos in the world. My friends were not wrong: it was amazing, and I would go back again in a heartbeat. I took well over 200 photos there, so it was hard to select just a few favorites to post here, but I did my best!

Many of the photos I took were of the beautiful flamingos. They, along with many of the other animals I saw, were practically posing for me! 

 

Summer zinnias

This weekend we had a glimpse of the upcoming spring, and then sadly it's being taken from us this week with more cold and possible snow! But maybe these lovely summer flowers will remind us of what's to come... 

These photos were taken in August 2013. My family and I spent the afternoon at a farm in Maryland, where there was a "pick your own zinnia" field. In these long, cold, snowy days of February, it's nice to remember that everything will be sprouting and blooming again soon!

Sun + snow + dog = adorable

Yesterday I took my dog for a walk in the snow, which she absolutely loves. It's so much fun to watch her run around in it, and even better she is a good enough dog to pose for me (without a treat in my hand, even!) in the sun. Love this dog.

National Zoo: Animal Portraits

 I posted on my family blog about our most recent trip to the National Zoo with our friends. In addition to the great posts of the kids that I got, I of course took some animal portraits as well.

We were fortunate on this trip to see the orangutan's cross on the O-line, and I captured this shot of them kissing as we walked away.

Dogs deserve portraits too

My dog is incredibly difficult to photograph - not because she won't hold still (she's actually quite good at posing), but because of her color. So much shiny black fur is very hard to capture well! She's very patient when I take the camera out in front of her, and I'm very happy with some earlier shots that I took of her lying in the sun. Once a month we get her groomed, and last month she came home looking absolutely adorable. I already had my light kit out for another job, so I was able to convince her to pose for me on our couch while I practiced taking her photo. The black on brown was maybe not ideal, but I think I managed to get a decent separation of her from the background. 

Geese Part 2: Portraits

 About six weeks ago, our resident flock of geese were having a late dinner just outside of our backyard. This seems to be their preferred place to eat at night, and every on this evening the light was great for some portraits. Even better, none of the babies were around, so the adults weren't as shy (ok, mean) and let me get pretty close to them. With the use of my 70-300mm telephoto lens, I got some pretty great close-ups!

Dolphin boat tour

Just before we went to the Outer Banks at the beginning of July, I purchased a neutral density filter and dug out the polarizing filter that I bought and promptly forgot about. On one afternoon, we purchased tickets to go on a dolphin boat tour and I knew this would be the perfect place to try out the ND filter to cut the bright summer afternoon light.