Day 2, 3rd January 2012

Pin-Up Pooch

Today began with a bad start - running late - I despise running late and the stress it causes. So I ran out the door with my camera bag badly packed, and it wasn't until I was well and truly on the way to work that I realised I had not put any light stands in the car or manual strobes in my bag. Bugger. Oh well, I'll find something.

Upon getting to work I realised the day was quite busy up until lunch - no chances to day dream about today's pic.

It was then that one of my net nurses told me some good news - the wildlife rescue pink-tongue lizard had just had a mass of babies over the weekend! They are so cute! Being quite new to this reptile practice I had never seen them, and giggled like a little school girl... only marginally less than the nurses goo-goo ga ga-ed... So there was a project photo waiting to happen. In lulls between consults and surgeries I tried many different ways of catching a decent photo, but it just did not come together. I either could not get the perspective right, or the little things just moved too fast!

This is one photo I managed to get. It's a very nothing photo, and the rest were not any better - they just move so fast!

And this one, above. If I had managed to catch the end of the tail it may have been passible...

So I finished the day, still feeling pretty cr*p from the bugs I picked up from our o/s trip. I had one client so lovingly ask me if I had a big night. I had red eyes from conjunctivitis and was feeling very under the weather. But I mean, what ruddy hide these guys have thinking they can assume their vet turns up to work after being on the turps - and to have the audacity to say it? Of course, as with the rest of the stuff we just have to absorb, I smiled, politely answered, and laughed and let it go.

Coming home I was feeling somewhat dejected, wondering how I was going to scrape up the energy to take some more pics. Luckily Mr Lazy had left his softboxes up in the living room, with YN flashes and radiotriggers all set to go... I had dropped off at Bunnings on the way home and picked up some white laminated board, and figured, why not try it out?

Model?? I don't feel like a self portrait today, and the family is still in Chennai... Oh Scruffy hound, where are you? The photo is of Jilly. Jilly is a 4-5yo Terrier cross bred thing.. I am guessing fox terrier, jack russell or whatever. We adopted her as a stray about 3yrs ago. She's a very patient dog, but not a very good model. If I raise my voice or move a light stand, she is gone quicker than I can blink. Somehow I managed to get her to hold still for 30s and was able to pop off a few frames.

Photo Info: OCF - YN460II in 60x90cm Softbox camera left and above. YN460II in silver umbrella aimed at white backdrop, camera right. I was tired and sloppy, so I had to paint some white in the background of this photo - not happy. I was battling, trying to not clip the highlights in Jilly's coat yet make the background and laminate white. I gave up, and this was the  best pic I had.

Message to self: You want a white backdrop, do it properly so there's less to 'shop.I should have had two flashes set-ups on the backdrop, not one.

Lesson for the day - half arsed efforts => half arsed results.