Photography archive at Little Wet Dog Photography

Archive for the 'Photography' Category

Nov

Arizona Sedona Best Trails Photography Hiking

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Categories: Personal, Photography and Vacation

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Hello!

Just wanted to send a quick update from Sedona! Attached is a small photo from my camera phone (this is “Devil’s Arch”).

Yesterday was day 1, mom drove us to the airport at 6am (with homemade breakfast in hand). We arrived in Phoenix around 11am, and drove straight up into Sedona with only a quick stop at Starbucks for our Venti Mocha Light Frappacino Double Blend fix (yea… i said all that!). We then drove up to Sedona and arrived yesterday around 4pm. In the evening we drove up to Schnebly Hill Road for the sunset. I was surprised to see a large band of my people — yes an entourage of photographers take pictures of the mountain. There was even “that guy” — you know him — he’s the guy with three bags of gear and a vest and gear pants full of stuff which 50% he probably doesn’t know how to use and the half is just overkill. We just laughed at him as we trotted by with our one backpack and one tripod and two camera phones. We also saw some real pros out there, so I listened into their conversation and watched and got some pointers. Forgot to mention the fab restaurant we ate at. In case you are ever in Sedona, make sure you visit the “Barking Frog”. We had the pecan bisque (soup), house salad, cactus fries, mango swordfish, shrimp tamale’s, Sedona sangria, cactus Mojito, and a shot of tequila. If that weren’t enough, we rounded it all out with a coffee crème brulee. And good night!

Today, day 2, we rose early and explored the “Airport Trail” where we met a really friendly half wolf half Malamute. We stopped and played and the owner was an elderly women who gave us some suggestions for trails to take. Always best to learn from the locals! We rushed back to a nice breakfast of fruits, potato hash browns with eggs, and strawberry French toast. Yum! Then we explored the northwest part of Sedona, and did some outback 4 wheel drive craziness. Bouncy bouncy went the SUV. We explored Sycamore mountain area, Casner Mountain, and then completed the Boyton pass loop. Then we ate the Javelina cafe… their vegetarian fajita’s are simply yummy! Did I mention yummy? Finally we hiked up Devil’s Bridge (1mile) to get to the “Devil’s Arch”. It was a long long arch way that one could walk across to get to the other side. The crossing was about 1 foot in width and depth. Good luck. (Gave me a flashback to my excursion to Huayna Picchu in Peru.) The drop down from the arch was about 400 feet, so one small wrong step and we’d be pealing Plum Jam off of the side of the mountain. Ha! Well luckily my slip was only a few feet so you’ll be seeing me again my friends! Then we came home, showered, and now write you our evening remarks. Funny thing is… the grey haired ladies next door were going out for a night on the town just as we rolled in exhausted and ready for bed. Wow. Maybe we are beyond retired!?!?!?!

Seeing as it is now 8:10pm, we old folks need to retreat for the night. Tomorrow we plan to rise at 4:30am to visit the “Soldiers Pass” (2.3 miles), get breakfast at the A Sunset Château, then hit the “Rim Shadows”, and finally take lunch (peanut butter sandwiches and trail mix) on the go (literally go go go) and hike up Bell Rock Pathway (3.5 miles) and Cathedral Rock (.6 miles). Lastly. Tomorrow night we’ll wind down the evening with a 2 mile hike up to “Dry Creek Mountain” (to watch the 6:30pm sunset).

Sorry I can’t send any better pics yet, they are all on my Canon DSLR and I won’t be accessing the memory cards until next week.

Good night!

Cheers,

Agnes & Ben from Sedona

Sep

Family portrait wisconsin petrified springs

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Categories: Family, Family Portrait, Photography, Portrait, Weather and Wisconsin

We met with Bruce and Corinne this evening at the Petrified Springs Forest Preserve in Kenosha Wisconsin. This is a favorite Wisconsin photography area of ours due to the vast amount of different settings and backdrops available. The wooded area offers beautiful stone bridges, lush trees, a hunter’s cottage, the heart shaped tree, and acres upon acres of natural area, perfect for both sunny and cloudy days.

Last time we were here, we were commissioned to Petrified Springs in Kenosha in January of 2008, by Hannah and Brett for their portraits. By the way, Hannah and Brett are not engaged and have asked us to be their photography for the 2009 wedding. Wonderful news! Congrats! In the winter of 2008 there was a crisp cold in the air, poor Brett had pink ears. This summer of 2008 was filled with a gentle breeze and a lovely setting sun. No mosquitoes in site, no stifling Midwest summer heat, just a gentle wind and the sound of the evening bird.

This was our first time meeting Corinne’s boys – Ayden and Decklan. What cute young gentlemen they were! Everyone showed up wearing a handsome white shirt and blue jeans. Very summery and light, and so representative of the natural flow and happiness of this young family. When asked their names Ayden proudly explained to me “I am Ayden and this is Decklan”. Again he repeated, this time pointing, “Ayden, Decklan”. I couldn’t help by smile. Such a bright young lad and already a good teacher.

During our walk into our designated area, Corinne announced her engagement to Bruce. How wonderful! It is always wonderful to hear such good news before a portrait session. Congratulations to Corinne and Bruce!

To begin the session, I wanted get the boys comfortable with me; I’m the lady with the giant lens pointed at them so I want to make sure they are relaxed. We started out with a simple pose on the heart shaped tree along the path. Ayden was happy to strike a pose and could have modeled all day. Decklan on the other hand was not so sure about me yet.

After few minutes at the tree portrait, we decided to move to a greener pasture just a bit down the road. I capture a few images of the family walking together. Such a cute photo of four pairs of hands all intertwined and supporting each other. We arrived into a nicely shaded area and began the second part of our session - usually the first part is a warm up for kids to get to know and trust me and the second is when the real action happens.

I posed the family in a contemporary side sit with Ayden in the front of the pack and Decklan leaning on mom. The younger was not too eager to move away from mom, so kept him in his comfort zone. The boys each got a chance to be silly and fiddle around with crooked smiles before the tickle monster came out to ensure happy and sincere smiles by all. Sometimes stinky feet and tickle monster help us get the portraits smiles we need!

Next I captured the engagement photos for Bruce and Corinne. Their couple only portrait was sincere and loving. A few minutes into the session I noticed two pairs of eyes peeping at me from under the portrait chair. Looks like Decklan and Ayden were not finished with their pictures yet. No worries. I captured the engagement picture of the happy young couple and using my 70-200mm Canon lens zoomed in the boys too when their didn’t think I was looking.

Finally, I asked Bruce to get the car (as I wasn’t sure the boys would be in a mood to walk a quarter mile back to the parking lot) and asked mom “not to pay attention” to us. Corinne pretended to not pay attention and I asked they boys if they wanted their own pictures — I received a resounding “yeah”. The next 20 minutes were filled with big smiles, fun giggles, boyish wrestling, pretending to sleep, brotherly leans, spinning and more spinning, and grass crawling. It always amazed me how kids open up when they “think” that mom isn’t looking. These two boys were an absolute treat to work with – full of energy, joy, and excitement. They loved showing me their big boy poses and happy smiles. It is always nice to end my evening and end my weekend with sharing a happy moment with such joyful children.

Thank you to Bruce, Corinne, and of course my buddies Ayden and Decklan! This family has many years filed with joy, laughter, and fun!

Aug

Mr Tomato Man

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Categories: Food, Gardening, Personal and Photography

So sometimes life just throws you the unexpected! True story below (or it could be)!

Just when you think you have met every weird person on the plant… a strange visitor comes to dinner. You never really know what Mother Nature will bring to your back door. She does have a sense of humor! Be ready for every visitor my friends!

The story begins in a small suburb north of Chicago, on a fine summer’s eve.

A few days ago, I went outside to pick a few tomatoes from the plant garden out back. Yes, this is the garden which originated the “Spring Gangster’s of 2008.” The evening was calm and warm, like any other summer night, maybe a little too warm. We were making some home made salsa, and nothing is better in homemade salsa than home grown tomato’s. Nothing out of the ordinary tonight, nothing that is, until I saw him…. Who you may ask? Tell us who?

Who? Well… Mr. Tomato-Man that’s who!

At first he just hung there on the vine, with his little orange skin and his little green nose. I barely paid attention to him and went about my business of picking tomatoes. One tomato. Two tomato. Three tomato. Yum! My only thought was of combining my newly acquired bounty with some fresh cilantro and onions.

Then all of the sudden I heard a sneeze. A what? A sneeze? I looked around wanting to give pleasantries to whomever the early flu was surrounding. I saw no one. “How odd”, I thought to myself, “no one is here”. Nonetheless I continued about my business again.

Suddenly, out of the right side of the garden I heard a cheery and enthusiastic “top of the mornin’ to ya lassy”, spoken in a fluent Irish accent. It was as if a Irishman had landed in my backyard. I stopped for a moment and contemplated. Then I thought and thought and thought some more.

And when I finished thinking, I scrunched my eyebrow and wrinkled my nose as hard as I could and I thought some more. I didn’t see anyone in the garden with me. “Hmmm” I mumbled to myself.

After a few minutes of thoughts, “Do tomato’s talk?” I exclaimed loudly to no one in particular. Gosh what the neighbors must have been thinking! Here I am talking to my tomato plants. “Hey, down here missy!” And to my surprise I saw a little orange and red face popping out from underneath the tomato vines. What a lovely surprise to have a visitor for dinner, especially a noble!

“Mind if you take me inside for the evening miss, it sure does get scary out here at night and it sure does look nice and cozy in there ma’am. I’m not sure how many more nights I can hide from those backyard critters scurrying around these parts.”

Well, as if the day couldn’t get any weirder, I responded in my most courteous voice “but of course fine sir, a gentleman should never be outside on such a stuffy evening, you’ll catch a tomato-cold”. He smiled, took one more sneeze, and hoped into my hand. “Thank you young lady” he said in between yawns, and closed his eyes for an evening nap.

We made salsa that evening as planned, but with one less tomato in the batch. It tasted just fine for us!

And that, my dear friends, is how I came to know Mr. Tomato-Man. Now, maybe he wasn’t really Irish and maybe he didn’t really speak out loud. But you just take a look at the photos attached and tell me I am wrong. Maybe it really did happen?

Happy summer everyone

P.S. These photos were taken (by me!) the next day, after his nap of course.

Jul

Abercrombie & Fitch Catalogue Fall 2008

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Categories: Photography and Products

Abercrombie & Fitch Catalogue Fall 2008 coming out during the summer of 2008.

Attached are images from a recent photo shoot - these shots were take for the Fall and Winter 2008 Abercrombie & Fitch catalog. You should be able to pick up a copy around mid summer at any retail store.

Steve posing in the “fun & fashion” theme… sporting the sunglasses with polarizing lenses. Our models below are not the typical sexy and hot young teenagers showing flesh and skin. They are mature adults displaying perfect poise and morale. Good hearty boys representing the good in all of us.

Andrew, posing with “outdoor” accessories… note the Batman Returns instrument of archery. Rugid and young. Attractive. Firm. Tough. Strong. Fabulous! Ready for promotion.