My Hallie just had a birthday and of course we had a big party that just keeps on going on. Here are a few of her with her new birthday cheetah rug (do parents of human kids spend this much on them?? LOL.) I love this little girl so much, life wouldn't be worth living without her.It's really scary to think she just turned 7 it happened WAY too fast.

Here she is in her birthday suit...she says you didn't think I'd be nekkid did you? *wink*

Those are very very cute. I love the winking shot!

Dee Dee,
you know, I couldn't tell you love this girl. She's very photogenic but you've taken some lovely shots of her. Tons of personality and it comes through in the images. Nice work, Dee.

For a Dachsie, 7 is still a puppy. Look in those eyes and you can see she's just warming up to life. Hug her for me.

The folks who live behind us have 5 mini-Dachs and they let them out just when I let out my guys so, of course, all heck breaks out. Yesterday, the main guy came over just as I let Rowdy out and they said "hi" through the fence. No barking. Just a kiss and a tail wag. Mutual respect in the canine realm is something the rest of us should emulate.

Thanks for the Hallie shots. They're great.

Jim

Hallie is such a charming girl. My special girl turns 7 on her next birthday and like you it has gone by way too quickly. I pitty the people who cannot share the love of these wonderful friends.

Great shots - I really like the one on the edge of the couch and of course upside down is a must.
Thanks for posting.
Happy Birthday Hallie! kisses from the girls....

I love Hallie's pictures, she is a great model. She reminds me of a dog we had many years ago. Her name was W.B.(whinnie butt) If you don't mind me asking, what was your lighting setup? My favorite is number 4.

Emmy

Thanks Julie, this is the second winking shot I've gotten of her (without knowing it) and I've never actually seen her do it IRL. (I had the vet check her eye out after the first shot I got LOL). I guess when you take thousands of photos of a dog you are bound to get a wink here and there.

"For a Dachsie, 7 is still a puppy. Look in those eyes and you can see she's just warming up to life."

That was the best thing you could have said Jim! Thanks for that. I don't know how I'd make it without her so we are having the most fun we can every minute possible...literally! But it's scary to think...
Boy, that Rowdy is really something. To just say hi thru a fence with a doxie that barks at him normally is huge. I don't know too many big dogs that would do that! Good guy.

Doesn't it just fly by PeggySue? Seems like we just get them and suddenly you are feeling faint at the sight of all the grays in their muzzle LOL. Yep pity the people who can't love like that. Even though we do pay a very high price for it in the end, there is nothing better while it's here.

LOL Emmy love the name, WB. I call Hallie, Hallie Berry Butt all the time. The lighting was two strobes with umbrellas, the first 2 had a backdrop, the rest I was experimenting to see how the strobes would work without backdrops. I was moving them around to test things so am not sure on these just where I had positioned the strobes. But usually I have them both at 45 degree angles although I have also been playing with having one straight in front and the other to the side. I just did a shoot with my niece (first human, although somehow Hallie got into many of the shots) and tried using a window for the main and filled with one strobe and they turned out pretty good. Fun to try stuff.

Hey Dee Dee,

These are quite precious - and very well done. The leisure suit just does it for me. Let me ask you a question - #3, which has a lot of fade away. How did you do that?

James

Thanks James, I can see that cheetah rug coming in handy for future shots lol.

For the fade I just took the olliptical marquee tool in Photoshop, set it to a pretty high feather (depending on the size of the image), then drug it so each side of the ellipse touches each side of the image. Then hit "select-inverse", then copy and pasted it.

Then I just lightened it with "image-adjustment-hue/saturation". I like to use that because I like control over the saturation as I lighten or darken.

I'm sure there are other ways to do it but that's the one I adopted! If any of the faded, white part covers and fogs part of the subject, I will also taket he same elliptical tool and circle the part I want restored and delete from the pasted, lighter layer.