Monday, September 27, 2010

Behind the scenes

I love dogs and I love to photograph dogs!

This last week I had a photo shoot with an adorable Labrador Retriever litter of 10 puppies. So instead of just posting the resulting images, I thought I give you a peek "behind the scenes".

You always thought it is easy, puppies are so cute, nothing can possibly go wrong? All you need is a camera and some puppies?

Well....there are some rules:

Rule # 1: Don't fall in love with your models, there are only so many dogs your spouse will tolerate, now that is really the hardest part for me, but I manage.

Rule # 2: You need a lot of helpers




Rule # 3: That doesn't always help




Rule # 4: Make sure your model doesn't look away from the camera




Rule # 5: Try to keep your models within the frame




Rule # 6: It doesn't speak for you, if your model falls asleep




Rule # 7: Props are nice, so make sure they don't get eaten




Rule # 8: There are many more "rules", but I really don't want to bore you.

In addition to that you of course need the perfect light and a LOTS of patience.

But the results are worth it:
















Now then, Happy Fall!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

September Conservation Tip

It's back to school time, and for the parents among us the exasperating daily question of what to feed our kids for lunch, too. I'm sure all of us are making healthy and nutritious choices, so I don't want to focus on the WHAT but on the HOW.

Every day millions of students get their lunch in brown bags, ziploc bags or even worse in the form of "lunchables" or the like, together with cans, cartons or plastic bottles containing the drinks. After the lunch is consumed these "one way" container land, best case scenario, in the garbage bins, or they litter the schoolyards and the neighborhood around. Not even to think of how many resources, trees and all, got wasted to produce the packing.

For an environmental science project, I packed two kids a "lunchable" and a drink carton with juice for one week with the request to bring home every bit of garbage. In one week these two kids filled a 13 gallon garbage bag just with their lunch packing!!

The following week they went to school with their lunch packed in a reusable plastic container and water in a metal bottle = zero waste!

Now isn't that easy, just pack the lunch in a reusable container instead of a brown bag or ziploc bag and save the environment every day!

And just for fun: Want to see what celebrated British chef, Jamie Oliver has to say about lunchables:
Jamie Oliver Attacks Kraft’s Lunchables — A First for Network TV

Although he is definetivly more concerned about the what...