A few things I hope to do this year are:

• Spend more time with other photographers
• blog every week. (Multiple times if possible but at least once a week)
• start interviewing people for my book project.
• Get professional help for the business where it's needed.
• help others as much as I can.

If all these things come together, I know I can start working on better projects and create some even greater work.

Alex playing with matchbox cars

This last year has been a huge year of growth for me.  Just looking at the total number of photos I’ve taken this year is twice what I took last year.  In that process I’ve worked on doing less point and spray, hoping the right picture comes out. Instead, I’ve been shooting like each frame has value.

I’ve seen some really inspirational photos, talked to some amazing people, and got my butt kicked like I was back in school.  I wanted to point out a few of these inspirations to let you know what I’m thinking.

The first was being involved in a Flickr group where I’ve got to take a great photo of my dog Toby every week.  52 weeks of dogs has helped me stay creative and find new, fun ways of photographing my favorite model.  It is also great to be connected to so many other professional pet photographers. There are some really great, hard working photographers focusing on pets.  It’s good company to keep.

Two other photographers who have really impressed me this year are Timothy Archibald and Carli Davidson.  Timothy has an amazing book that has gotten a lot of traction this past year about his boy who has autism spectrum disorder. As a father who’s son has had issues with commutation and social issues, his work hit really close to home and I love the simple beauty in the photos.  Carli’s photos of dogs shaking their heads went viral across the internet and had gotten tons of views for her unique work.  The quality of her work in that series as well as all her other work is something I aspire to.

The most memorable ad I’ve seen this past year is the Invisible Dogs campaign by the Best Friends Animal Society. It’s a really smart campaign of photos and videos that work really well.  This is a kind of campaign I’d love to be apart of.

ASMP has been a huge support this year and am really glad to be apart of them.  Their Strictly Business conference was the spark I needed to really get my ass in motion. Meeting people like Colleen Wainwright and Shannon Fagan kept me walking on air weeks after I got home.  Soon after that, I combined forces with Agency Access to start a process of getting my portfolio together, my media updated and work on promotions for this upcoming year.

2012 is going to be great. My hope is to keep involved with all people and places that have helped me this year and to create new and exciting personal projects.  I’m looking for new ways to promote my work and get more dogs in front of my camera.  Next week, I’ll talk about projects I’m hoping to complete for next year.

I wanted to write and thank everyone for such great support this year.  I've been slowly making progress on getting my name out there, meeting great people and photographing some great clients.  I've been working so hard to get my business off the ground and it's been such a great learning experience.  It all started this year with my ASMP Strictly Business 3 event.  I was so inspired by all the great ideas and people that I met that once I got back to Boston, I was started working on stepping up the quality of my work and reading everything I could about the business of being a photographer.  In May, I started working with Agency Access to jump start the process and to get my work out to the commercial world.  From then, I spend all summer, creating new work and pushing myself to get top quality work to show.

My hope for next year is to do even more projects, photographing more amazing work.  I've already doing more events with Pet Source, will do another fundraiser for Smile for a Cure, and will be creating great deals for clients. Keep in touch and let me know what you'd like to see in the future.

Check out their website and call the store if you want to reserve you spots.  I've already gotten some reservations started.  Looks like it's going to be a busy day.

Last weekend was a beautiful sunny day in Boston.  A bit cool but normal for this time of year.  I got to photograph the Crow family wondering around the Boston waterfront.  We had a great time.  Their son Garrison is a beautiful little boy who was as happy as could be the whole time. Well most of the time.  By the end, he was ready to stop but for shooting for 2 hours, he did really great.

When we discussed what they wanted from the shoot, the urban city background was really important to them.  I wanted to make sure we could get great city backgrounds without it being a postcard picture.  We met up at the Children's Museum which itself is a great place.  Being on the water, we could see lots of buildings skyline.  One of my favorite photos is of them on the bench with the blue grid of the building behind them. We didn't have to go far to find other fun places. Down a ways is the court house that has a really nice, industrial footbridge.  From there, we walked to the green-way.  The sun was just starting to hide behind the buildings but we had some light left.  As it got a colder, Garrison was not having it so we called it a day and walked back to the Children's Museum.

What I think will be really great for the Crow family is they have both their holiday photo as well as gifts for all the family that everyone will love.

1- get on their level:   We are often looking down on our pets just because they have the advantage of moving on 4 legs.  Bringing the camera down to be head level or a little below will give you a better point of view and lets the pet keep their head pointing forward.  They are going to look at you and may even walk to you when you get on their level though so having some extra help, throwing a ball, calling, getting them to sit and stay may be needed.

2- shoot fast:   If you take photos outside at the park or with other dogs, they are going to run all over the place.  To get a good photo of them running, jumping and playing, you’ll need a fast shutter speed.  That means that the time the camera is open to make the exposure is very shoot.  Depending on your camera, you will have some or all the control over that.  Shooting in Shutter Priority mode will allow you to set the speed of the shutter and faster is better.  Something around 1/1000 shutter speed (may appear on the camera as just “1000”) will do a really good job of stopping motion.  To take advantage of that, you need to have a lot of light so choose a sunny day (earlier or later in the day has the best light). Also try to have the sun at your back. You’ll find the lighting much nicer that way.

3- follow to focus:   Some nicer cameras have some complex focusing systems.  Most though give you at least a basic auto focus by holding the button half way down to focus and then the rest of the way down to make the exposure.  If you’re dog is moving, track them with the camera, hold half way down while tracking and then press all the way when they are moving.  This works best when they are running by you or farther away. If they are running at you, you might need a servo focusing system that can track and focus at the same time.  That would be a fancier camera though.  Most point and shoots can’t but newer cameras are getting better all the time.

If you’re just trying to get a good photo of your dog sitting still, make sure to focus on the eye’s first.  The camera will try to focus on the closest thing which is fine for a pug but not so good for a German Shepard.

4- avoid distracting backgrounds:   This goes back to my first tip.  If you’re down on their level, you’ll get more background info and that can be distracting.  Take into account that the camera doesn’t care what is in front of it and will see everything.  If there are trees, bushes or other people in the frame that could distract from your beautiful pet, try changing your position a bit to get those out.  Framing is important and it’s a lot of work to remove things you don’t want after you take the photo like a tree growing our of your pets head or that stranger sun bathing in the background you didn’t notice.

5- Relax and have fun:   If you get worked up trying to get a perfect photo, your pet will sense the tension you feel and may react to that.  If you’re having fun, your pet will be having fun and that will show up in the photos.  Shoot a lot and remember, it’s just pixels ; you can shoot 100’s of photos that only cost you time.

Keep practicing and keep your camera close by.  If you’ve got to search for it, to take a photo, the moment will be gone before you turn it on.

I'm going through that process right now. For a while, my work was at a plateau and didn't change much. What's more, I stopped shooting and was just thinking about shooting for a while.  Now that I'm shooting again, and shooting a lot. I'm really excited about my work again.

Now I'm going though the hard part of editing.  This is the hardest part for most photographers.  No matter how good a photographer gets, editing their own work is always the hardest part of the process. Great photos are mixed in with really great photos and emotions can run high when deciding which is really the best.

Great photographers don't ever work alone though.  They have other photographers, producers, editors, critical friends, or whole companies that help them out to show only the best work.  They separate them out to categories and move out the old for the new. It's a difficult process and a process that needs to be constantly updated.  When a photographer decides the work they are going to show, it needs to really show their vision, which won't be everything they shoot.  Some projects are done for reasons that don't fit the vision so even if their photos are great for that project, they don’t fit into the final edit of the portfolio.  That is where the photographer has to decide, am I showing the work for me or for someone else.  Great photographers show what they love most to attract like minded people who are interested in the work. Otherwise, they’ll get stuck shooting work that other people like and loose interest.

Smile for a cure was a great success.  Everything came together really well.  I didn't fill all the spots but it worked out anyway. My lighting assistant backed out at the last minute but so did one of the clients so I ended up breaking even on the process. Regardless, I was still able to raise $250 with the clients I did shoot and the events. A big thank you to those who signed up.

I want to give a big shout out to Jay at EP Levine who donated the space for the shoot. For you photographers out there, it's an amazing space to shoot in.  Thanks also to Cody who took care of all my needs at Levine's. A big thanks goes out to Nunthany Johnson, who put Smile for a Cure together. My assistant, Allison who came in on only a few hours of sleep also gets a nod of approval. Everyone involved was really great and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

The day went off without a hitch. I got all my lighting to work, the dogs were perfect and everyone involved were really great. I put up a white seemless backdrop and it ended up being messy and full of paw prints by the end.  The first shoot was of 2 grayhounds. They were nervous at first but we were able to coax them into position for a few moments at a time to get them to pose.  I have lots of beautiful shots of them.  Then the next 4 dogs showed up. One young Golden and 3 yellow labs.  They were so nice but all over the place.  Getting them to stay in in one place at a time was a lot of work but the owners were prepared with hot dogs and squeakers.  A little bit of chaos but lots of fun and laughs.  Then the basset, mixes family showed up. They were great. I started shooting their son who needed head shots for his modeling career because he's so cute.  Then we folded the dogs and the rest of the family into the photos.  It was a lot of different poses at once but we pulled it off and everyone seems really happy.

You can take a look at my smugmug page.  At the end of the day, I was wiped out but was super excited to see the photos.  I shot a lot but I ended up with a  lot too. I had a hard time editing them down because there were so many that came out.  If you've got a favorite, let me know. I know I had a great time and everyone has been really happy with their photos. It makes me look forward to my next shoot.