Dee Dee,
Thanks for the compliments. I read them to Rowdy and he blushed.

His head is pretty but not magnificent. His body is lovely and he is absolutely correct front and rear with a gorgeous topline. And when he moves in the ring, you just nod your head and say "yup, that's how they're supposed to move". He'll be 8 years old next week and he can still out-move any of the top Rotties in the country. And I'm just a little proud of him

For this photo, taken in what is essentially a 12' by 12' room with a vaulted ceiling, I used two Alien Bees 400 monolights mounted at 45 degree angle to the subject bounced into silver umbrellas. I trigger them with a Morris radio transmitter to cut down on the number of wires to trip over. My backdrops are muslin in various colors both solid and mottled and I have a 12' backdrop stand. Exposure is manual at F8 and 1/200. Original RAW file processed in PhotoShop CS2.

There are a lot of pieces of software out there and most photographers have their favorites. Linda and I started using PhotoShop when it was still version 3.0 for the Mac and we've been using it ever since. After working with a piece of software for over 10 years, you get comfortable with it's capabilities and I think that Adobe has done a pretty good job of keeping it current.

The lighting setup is the same one I use for show formals or people/dog portraits. It's light-weight, portable and predictable. And the Alien Bees even have a battery pack option for use outdoors at Trials which is pretty cool.

Jim