Environmental Portraits

I took may different versions of this photo. There are 2 sets of stairs  with an expanse of deck between them that I cropped out of the picture. I wanted to highlight the different textures and lines they included, but ultimately I was looking for the vertical element of the door and this crop gave the photo the most impact. I also took many versions from different distances. This is the farthest distance and once I framed it through the camera I knew this would be the best because of the texture and interest from the tree branch. I chose to take this in the afternoon because it is the only time we get good sunlight. I also took this photo from a shaded spot to avoid glare on the camera lens and Romeo (my mini Dachshund) is in the shade.  I chose black and white for this photo because color detracted from the simplicity and lines. Romeo gets impatient about being outside in the winter and will stand with his feet on the door looking through the window for someone to let him in and that is the pose I was hoping to capture with him, but here he looks to me as if he is at attention guarding the house and I like that he is looking off in another direction rather than at me. 

I chose color for this photo because Marcus's (our other dog)  nose got lost in the background when I tried B&W.  I was taking pictures of my husband shoveling our sidewalk from our driveway. That position gives interesting angles because I am looking up toward my husband and it includes the stairs and the long walkway.I had him call Marcus over for a few photos hoping to capture the devotion they have for each other. I chose this photo ( even though I'm not real thrilled with the focus, I wish it was much better) with him petting Marcus  because the way they are looking at each other captured it. Ultimately I cropped out the stairs and sidewalk because they detracted from the mood and my husband still holding the shovel and the little bit of sidewalk I included makes it clear what he is doing. I also had to be careful with the crop so that the photo stayed balanced and struggled with including the tree or not. In the end I included it because I like the texture.

I took hundreds of photos the afternoon I took this. The late afternoon sun casts beautiful light and shadows into the room and I was photographing my dogs and just happened to glance toward the mirror and see perfect shots and since we were encouraged to be creative I thought I would take a few shots of the mirrors reflection. Poor Marcus is never allowed on the furniture, but this is the shot I wanted. I had a hard time getting him to stay put and he kept acting like he was being punished by being made to sit there and at one point ran downstairs to hide in his kennel. This photo is also cropped. The original has family photos on each side of the mirror. I could have straightened the crop so the mirror's frame wasn't off kilter and framed the entire photo, but I think it is more obvious this way that this is photo of Marcus's reflection in a mirror. It also gives it a funky feel. Because through the mirror Marcus is pretty far off I sharpened him up a lot in LightRoom to help him stand out. I also had to lower the highlights considerably to get the what is outside the window to be easier to see.

I chose color for this photo because of the warmth  the photo has in color.  The photo was taken with the light of  a  lamp to the side of her because I like the soft light it gives the photo. I ended up cropping out the lamp in the end because I felt it detracted from the image. I had Rachel (my daughter) hold a book for the photos I was taking and this is the only one of the photos I took where you can see she what book she is reading. I chose this photo because of  Rachel's expression and the soft look of the image. I had to do some sharpening and just a little healing of  some hard shadows caused by the lamp on her forehead. I also highlighted around her eyes and sharpened her eyelashes to make her eyes pop. I used LightRoom for all the photo processing.