Saturday, September 13 – a day I looked forward to all year – the best dog ogling in Western Washington! Harbor Hounds is put on by the Gig Harbor Mid-Day Rotary and raises money to benefit the many charities supported by … Continue reading
Sunday, September 7th was a gorgeous, sunny, end-of-summer kind of day. I was lucky enough to spend it with the kind people of PAWS of Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap, celebrating all things canine. WAGFEST is an annual fund raising walk/run and vendor fair, held in Bainbridge Island’s Battle Point Park. There were contests, educational talks, bands, food and lots of fun! I am including waaaay too many images, but some of the little dog races are just so much fun…Check out Pickles photobombing the next heat in the race!
Click on the images to enlarge. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support PAWS of Bainbridge’s excellent work. I look forward to next year!
Four Foot Photography, Kitsap County Pet Photographer, Bainbridge Island event, PAWS Wagfest 2014, PAWS of Bainbridge Island, Charity, North Kitsap County, Dog Photos
I had the excellent good fortune to be contacted by Samson’s momma in June to do an on location pet photography session. Although Theresa is affected by RA, she was up for capturing Samson’s doxie good looks in the beautiful, … Continue reading
“And they danced…” Let me just say that from the first email, I knew Jodi was going to be great to work with, and was this ever a fun wedding! What I really love about modern brides (at least the … Continue reading
I had a great morning at Kitsap Humane Society yesterday and met so many cuties! It was Feline Friday, so mainly cats, but some great dogs as well. Just walking through the kennels I saw some spectacular, sweet doggehs and hope to get back soon to photograph them. Here are some favorite shots.
Four Foot Photography, Kitsap County Pet Photographer, Mary Eklund, Kitsap Humane Society, Adoptable Animals, Pet Portraits, Port Orchard Photographer, Kitsap County Photographer
I was thrilled to be asked to photograph the PAWS of Bainbridge Spotlight on Community Hero Pets annual fundraising dinner and auction. This year the Hero Pet honors went to Fenway Bark, who works as a therapy dog at Ronald McDonald House; Miss Bean, a PAWS adoptee who alerted the family when her person slipped into a coma; Chevy, a St Bernard who died in a house fire, attempting to get a houseguest to safety. Heroes for Pets awards went to Robert Pregulman, founder of Seattle DogSpot, whose consistent and persistent reporting on the neglect at the Olympic Animal Sanctuary in Forks finally shut it down. At the time of this blog post, I believe there are just 11 dogs from the sanctuary still looking for their forever homes. Also honored as Heroes for Pets were EMTs Caitlyn Burbank and Casey Jo Clifton, who rescued 10 poodles from a house fire in Raymond, WA. They came dressed for the awards (great shoes, ladies!), but gamely donned their gear for a picture – such fun! Don’t miss the Queen of Kibble or the King of Kitty Litter!
Thanks so much to everyone who planned and executed the event so well; those who donated the fantastic auction items; the fun-loving, generous attendees; volunteers; caterers; musician; servers; auctioneer Cole Medina; tech crew; bid recorders; my assistant who was paid with pizza and wine afterwards at The Tree House (which was superb and I highly recommend!); and Manor House on Bainbridge. If you would like to purchase prints from the event, please contact me at info@FourFootPhotography.com or through my website, www.FourFootPhotography.com – proceeds benefit PAWS of Bainbridge Island.
Four Foot Photography, Kitsap County Photographer, Volunteer Work, Bainbridge Island, Manor House Venue, Events Photography, 2014, PAWS of Bainbridge Community Hero Pets, Fundraiser, Pet Photographer, Mary Eklund, Bainbridge Island Photographer, Port Orchard Photographer, Wedding Photographer, Kingston, Poulsbo, Indianola, Silverdale, Bremerton, Gig Harbor, Giving Back
This week’s challenge was to use an umbrella to diffuse artificial light – as with each previous task, I found trying something different to be *illuminating* {sorry, bad photographer pun}. It was also the perfect opportunity to introduce a juicy new (to me) macro lens, perfect for ring shots, should you be thinking about getting your wedding on! My models tonight came out of my china hutch – the tea set was one of about 5 things my Grandma Jacobson kept for my sister and I to play with when we visited, and I have always loved stacking dolls, maybe I have two sets… I had a little depth of field fun with the dolls as well.
There are only a few weeks left in the lighting challenge, and I will miss participating! It has been such a fun way to add techniques, I do love to learn just because, but many of these skills will be great additions to my image making.
Four Foot Photography, Kitsap County Photographer, Mary Eklund, Port Orchard, Personal Project, 2014, Winter Lighting Challenge, Shoot Through Umbrella, Week 21
This week’s lighting challenge was to use a video light – my models grow weary of my lens, and were not buying into my concept of the shoot, but the video light looks a LOT like a light saber, so I had plenty of volunteers to assist, even if they were not terribly cooperative!
The last image, “A “Boy” and His “Dog”” is done in natural light, so you can see the difference.
Port Orchard Photographer, Kids and Families, Natural Light Portraiture, Video Light, Lifestyle Photography, Four Foot Photography
I super love love any time I get to spend photographing adoptable animals at Kitsap Humane Society, and this past Tuesday (April 1) was no exception. It was a beautiful day and I met so many delightful dogs, cats, bunnies and guinea pigs (and one little piggie who took one look at me and went into his plastic hut – not that there’s anything wrong with that!). I am in awe of the great work that is being done caring for, working with, and rehoming these beautiful little souls.
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This week I was delighted to be asked by a middle school student if she could job shadow me. The specific day was Friday, my plan was to edit and work on taxes – a realistic view of my workday, but not something I thought would be too exciting for a 13 year old! The weather did not allow for outdoor shooting, but Miss S’s mom happens to own Cindy’s Grooming Styles, which has a large area for doggie daycare (and some beautiful wall art by Four Foot Photography)! We have talked about doing some limited edition sessions in the shop for Cindy’s clientele, so this was a great opportunity to do a dry run. Without much time to put out a model call, I decided to work with my own four foots – unfortunately, my wingnut Bichon was still several weeks from his next grooming appointment, and I really haven’t worked with our rescue pug that much. To that end, Cindy agreed to work Fabio in to get him camera ready, and I thought I would set up my mobile backdrop and bring Gladys along for a realistic study on how it can be to work with an animal who doesn’t have much experience at posing or isn’t particularly trained (Gladys is quite deaf). We had a lovely day – Ms. S is a bright, eager learner, Cindy did a beautiful job on Fabio, and Gladys was a pleasant surprise. Over the past several years I have been looking for the words to explain how the process of having your pet (or family) photographed can be very validating to the strong connection people have with their pets (and each other) – and also it is so FUN! The shared experience brings an emotional element to the images that is reinforced every time you look at those photographs. This was first called to my attention by the fabulous Stephanie Wright, whose rats I photographed my first year in business (Click here to see the images). She told me later that the evening after the photoshoot she just couldn’t put her girls down, seeing them through the camera’s eye she fell completely in love and just sat and cuddled them. This was the best compliment, and after photographing Gladys Friday, I got a taste of my own medicine. We loved her right away, stinkiness and quirks and all, but I am now SO IN LOVE with her adorable little head tilt! Here are my babies!
I genuinely prefer to shoot in more of a lifestyle format and natural light, but this really got my studio juices flowing! Miss S had an opportunity to photograph as well, I will add some of her shots in the next few days (I REALLY have to get my taxes done!).
Four Foot Photography, Mary Eklund, Pet Photographer, Kitsap County Pet Photographer, Dog Photos, Cindy’s Grooming Styles, Port Orchard Photographer, Pets and People, Portrait Studio, Bichon, Pug
Four Foot Photography 